Galveston Island State Park Campground

What a hidden gem! We stayed in the beach side. Our site was #11 and it was about 100’ from the beach path. We could feel the breeze. Unfortunately the beach side is shutting down on Sept 3, 2019 per their website for renovations. The lake side is still open though. Beautiful area. In the morning took my coffee down the beach path with my chair and watched the sun come up. Great place.

We camped here in March, 2015 in a 35 foot fifth wheel. The rate shown does not reflect the $5 per day per person state park entry fee. We purchased a $70 annual park pass which will give us free entrance to state parks for a year. With the park pass we also received 4 coupons to receive a half price discount on our second night stay in campgrounds.

Our campsite was in the beach campground at Galveston Island State Park. Our site was a paved back-in with a covered shelter, picnic table, fire ring, and water and electric hookups. The campground is behind the dunes but the beach was just a short walk from our campsite. There is WiFi at the park but it did not reach our site.

There are three sections of the beach campground. The first and third have bath houses, the one in the middle does not. We were in the third section. There is also a more wooded campground in the park, nature trails, and a kayak launching area.

The park is about 12 miles south of the main attractions on Galveston Island.

Galveston Island State Park has two separate camping areas; one by the beach and one by the bay. There are 36 camping sites by the beach. The sites are paved asphalt, narrow and relatively level. Each site has a covered picnic table and a fire ring. There is very little space between the sites. Every 12 sites has a restroom with showers. Bay side camping has two circular camping areas. One for tents with 10 sites and one for trailers with 20 sites. The trailer sites are paved with asphalt, narrow and appear relatively level. Each site has an uncovered picnic table. The sites are very close together. The trailer camping area did not appear to have any restrooms. The beach is the main activity for the beach side campers. For the bay side campers; hiking, bird watching and kayaking are the main activities. The campground also has a nature center that is open on the weekends. The staff at the park headquarters are very friendly. Overall, park is not as well maintained as other state parks.

This park is wonderful. It's peaceful, even with a road running in between the beach side and the bay side. Mosquitos can be bad, but I recommend the cooler months. Beach walks are a must. You can kayak or canoe on the bay side. Fish on either side. There are two new bath houses to use. Picnic shelters and grills for your needs. And access to historic Galveston.

This is the 6th Texas state park we've stayed in this year, and it's our least favorite.

We stayed in a beachside site. There isn't a water view from the beachside sites, they just have good access to the beach. They're also very close together and offer no privacy. We actually kept our blinds closed most of the time we were here.

On the upside, the showers in our section were pretty decent. They're individual private rooms with temperature control knobs, though not as hot as I would like.

The beach has hard-packed sand, which is great for walking while watching the birds fly up and down the coast.

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Having lived in Texas my entire life, this was my first adventure towards Galveston. I was a bit apprehensive given my travels to Port Aransas and South Padre Island. I was pleasantly surprised with the overall quality of the facility. We were fortunate to have stayed during wonderful weather. The temperatures were in the middle 70's during the day and low sixties during the night. I would like to give you some of the reasons why we enjoyed our stay.

The State Park is off the beaten path, located just outside of Jamaica Beach west of the city of Galveston. They offer both beach and bayside sites that offer up to 50amp service. We stayed at one of the beach side sites. There are three groups of sites, with only the first and third groups having restroom facilities so if your in the middle section, you'll have to drive because it would be a long walk to the bathroom. Our campsite was located in the first group of sites. The park recently completed a new restroom facility with modern ascetics and handicap accessible. There was plenty of hot water for showers and was very clean.

Each of the beach side sites are within close walking distance to the beach. They are so close that only a dune separates them from the water. At night the waves can be heard without interruption. The sites are equipped with a level paved drive for RVs and include a covered picnic table (see picture below). As standard with Texas state parks, they also include a fire pit and grill. The days preceding our stay included approximately 4 inches of rain so the ants were a bit of a problem in certain parts, but was to be expected.

The staff at the facility was top notch and friendly. They were very helpful with our questions and were polite to offer us a site close to the restroom facility when asking about our children. As been our experience at state parks, the staff was friendly and were seen strolling the beach when not in uniform. Lastly, the beach was perfect. It was maintained well and wasn't littered with seaweed like other sites along that coast I've visited. The park claims a lot of real estate along the waterfront which enables a secluded getaway. There were plenty of shells to be found and the family enjoyed the stay.

I highly recommend this place for your next vacation. We purchased a parks pass ($70.00) which offers discounted rates on multiple nights and free park entrance to guests. The park generally charges $5 per person for entry. If you plan to stay at other state parks during a calendar year, the parks pass is well worth the investment. Texas offers a number of options across the state so it made sense for us.

We arrived late in the day, missing the check-in time. Our site was identified on the bulletin board and we went in search of it. Perfect location near the third bath house, which was next to the beach access. It was high tide so we didn't get to walk the beach the first night but hey, it was getting late and we needed to set up and get cooking. There's a covered area for each campsite with a picnic table and plenty of room to set up a couple chairs and our little red campfire. Each site also has a fire pit and wood is sold at the entrance.

This review is for the marsh-side sites. There are sites on the beach, but they are difficult to reserve unless pretty far in advance. There are two "circles," one with hookups for RVs, and one for tents.

Sites are level and angled so that they're easy to back in. Big grassy area in the center of the ring to throw balls/frisbees for the dog. Lots of trails nearby (but watch out for alligators). Sites are very close together and there is absolutely no privacy, but the views over the marshes make up for it. There is no restroom in the RV circle, but there is a big one in the tent circle, and it's well-kept. Hookups are water and electricity only.

There is no WiFi, but both Verizon and AT&T signals are very strong for using hotspots. Good location for getting into town; lots of bars, restaurants, and things to do and see (highly recommend the Bryan Museum and the docent-led tour).

We met some fabulous people there, so this review is a little prejudiced towards it being great.

We had really looked forward to our visit to Galveston Island and the State Park, boy were we disappointed! We chose to stay on the bay side rather than the beach as I am not a fan of wind blown sand.

The sites are very tight! laid out in a circle the pads or about 10 feet apart. there is a large grassy area with a pavilion in the middle for cooking out and eating but it is just not very convenient. There is only one shower facility on this side of the park and it is on the other loop for tent camping. We will not return any time soon!

Galveston Island State Park has two separate campgrounds, one on the Gulf Coast beach side of the island and the other, about 1.5 miles away, on the bay side of the island. We stayed on the beach side for a week and then booked an additional week on the bay side. The beach side costs $25 per night, while the bay side costs $20 per night.

The beach side felt much more spacious than the bay side. On the beach side, sites are lined up next to one another, facing the beach, with a covered picnic table between each site. There is no natural vegetation, but there is a good amount of separation between the sites and the camp fire ring is placed at the back of the sites, so if you're sitting out at night, you don't feel like you're looking in your neighbor's windows.

On the bay side, sites are arranged in a ring and they are offset from one another. While this meant we had a nice view of the bay from the driver's side of our rig, it also meant we were very close to our neighbors on both sides. When our neighbors were sitting outside talking, we could hear every word, and we noticed that there were no fire pits at any of the campsites. There were some in the circle in the middle of the campground, but none at the individual sites - likely because the sites are so close to one another, the smoke would bother folks. There was very little sense of privacy on the bay side, at least in our site. If they removed 3 or 4 sites, they could make the existing ones more spacious and it would make a huge difference.

The sites here could use some TLC, but it's mostly because they are prone to flooding. When we arrived, many of the beach side sites were basically ponds because of the rain. The park employees came out during the day to pump some of the water out, but the end result of constant flooding is sites that look pretty beat up. They were reasonably level though, and the hookups (just water and electric) worked fine. We thought the price was fair given the quality of the sites.

As far as proximity to the beach and bay, you can't get any better. There is direct access from the campgrounds to the water on both sides of the island (there is a dune separating the beach from the campsites). The park is also about a 10 or 15 minute drive from downtown Galveston Island, and an hour from downtown Houston, so it's a really great location to set up shop for a couple weeks and explore a pretty interesting coastal area.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay here but we much preferred the sites on the beach side to those on the bay side.