Historic rest stop! Turns out, this rest stop had a famous…read morevisitor, when General Zachary Taylor camped out here under the oak trees. Now, it's a rest stop for weary travelers along I-77, down to the RGV. It's been decorated with beautiful, colorful mosaics that depict colorful scenes on the ranches out in South Texas. The restroom is clean, well lit, and offers a few vending machines inside. There's some TxDOT propaganda posters reminding drivers not to text or drink and drive. Good advice. The area around the restrooms is well lit and well-landscaped. There's all kinds of trees and places you could walk a dog in the shade around here. Just watch for snakes.

Nice stop. This Zachary Taylor was all over the place. Those guys were true soldiers to trek thru…read morethis area. He went all the way to the Rio grand and built a bridge. The marker is across the street from Space X.

We stopped by the Texas Travel Information Center to look around and find some ideas for things to…read moredo in the area. Overall, the staff was very nice, friendly, and helpful with providing information. It's a great place to stop, rest, and cool off--especially on a hot Texas day. The bathrooms were clean, which was a big plus. We also enjoyed walking through the outside garden and checking out the relaxing water feature. Definitely worth a quick visit!

Welcome to Texas, y'all! This Travel Information Center is…read moreso great! It's conveniently located right off the major highway through town, just as soon as you cross over to Texas from Mexico in Harlingen. The best thing about this center is that everything is free! There's no expectation for you to spend any money at all. Just come in, soak up that free air conditioning, use their luxuriously cool restrooms, watch a brief movie about Texas, or just pick up free literature about things to do across the Lone Star State! They have the info organized by region of Texas. Going to a certain area? Peruse the reading material and take as much as you can carry! They'll even give you a bag to stuff full of literature. My favorite is that this is always a great place to get some "Don't Mess with Texas" bumper stickers for free! The architecture of this building is super cool- it's got a wonderful garden out front that attracts butterflies, and it looks like a Spanish hacienda meets a traffic rest stop, or a modern art museum. It's hard to tell what's going on here, but it's a great place to stop and take a break.

As our country becomes evermore developed and congested,places like Padre Island National Seashore…read moreare more important than ever. Created in 1962 this 60+ mile strip of virgin barrier island is one of the last places you can " be alone" in short order. Easy to get to but,you have to be aware, this is wild. The waters and sand moving just as they have for centuries. You will see a few people out for the day up until the 5 mile marker warns you to use only a 4 wheel drive vehicle to procede. As I passed the warning sign I immediately began to strategically drive the sand. It could be easy for the uninitiated or less cautious to get stuck. As I drove further,10,15,20 miles the occasional long term primitive camper and/or fisherman gave way to the pristine unaffected coastal area. Magic! Go....if you can

National seashore that stretches for a distance. Fishing available both sides of the island and…read moredecent to hang out with the family.

Pros: Location is in walking distance to North Beach, USS Lexington Museum, Blackbeards, Yo Philly…read moreSandwiches. Comfortable bed, fridge, microwave. Laminate floors. Cons: Needs badly needed maintenance, paint. It is a 1 star motel, as there is no pool, free breakfast. Towels could have been newer. The front desk worker, I think owner was so super nice. I accidentally booked a smoking room online. He changed it for us. He gave recommendations on things to do, etc. The original fridge didn't work and he replaced it. With more maintenance, this place could be a hidden gem. Replace the nasty carpet on hallway that's outside and put laundry and ice somewhere else. There is underneath parking. We stayed 2 nights. I was able to get gorgeous sunrise photos the day we left. Review 40 in 2023.

Came here for the first time with my kids. This is probably the worst room that I've ever had and…read moreI've been to a lot. My room on the 3rd flr, smelled like a mixture of mildew and Marijuana when we first entered. There were stains throughout the whole room. The tub was heavily stained to the point that we decided not to even shower and we've been walking all day and needed a shower badly lol. Some of the light switches and wall outlets didn't even work. We didn't use the microwave and fridge because we didn't need to so I'm not sure how they are. There were no iron and ironing board, but had a rack lol. There's a working TV. The A/C filter was super disgusting and smelt like old water. The hand soap packet was sealed, but broken into pieces. The only smoke detector in the room, had it's battery sticking out so I'm guessing that doesn't work either. Our queen beds looked nice, but because everything is so gross and trash, we felt mentally uncomfortable overall. Our bathroom came with only 1 towel and washcloth. The floors and stairs outside look so run down looking. On a positive note, it is super close to the beach and walking distance to the USS Lexington and Texas State Aquarium. Overall, if this place deserved a one star rating, it's solely because of the location and that staff were friendly. I think this place needs to be renovated. For another $25, you can literally get a nicer room across the street at the DoubleTree by Hilton and it's closer to the beach. This motel should cost only $20 for the type of room we got. Trash.... The staff is friendly. The parking is super tight so if you have a truck, gooood luck lol.

It's not the Ritz but we were there 1 night. Not many options in the area. Front desk people were…read morenice. I think we were the only people staying there at the time.

AC stunk like an old dirty rag. Toilet seat broken and weird rust in toilet. Fridge barely worked…read more Shower was crappy leaky. Not even any of the free soap to use. Roaches in the room showing up. Pool is half full of green scum water. Scumbag people hanging around. So glad to get out of there. Disgusting and Disappointing to sum it up. One star is too much.

I visited on November 3rd, a Saturday. It was not as I remembered it from 1974. It was a smaller…read morepavilion. It had a nice gift shop. They had books and postcards, toys, cookie cutters in ocean motifs, magnets, t-shirts, hats, jewelry, etc. So my friend and I looked around and one of the volunteers educated us about the Ridley sea turtles and their hatch/release program. There were walls filled with pictures of beach animals and birds, some good art too. Then we walked on the pristine beach up to the end of the beach road where cars can drive, picking up shells. We found these shells: Baby's Ear, Lightning Welks, barnacles, Shark's Eye, Angel Wings and a Sea Bean. The water was choppy and murky but still the tourists braved the chilly temperatures. Now, 100 miles south of Malaquite, the drive takes you to Little Shell Beach then to Big Shell Beach where there's no sand but instead a beach made up entirely of broken shells. The sand bar is just 12 feet out, so the swell and wave curl breaks very close to shore. Looks most desirable to surfers but it's a shark hangout mostly. So people fish for shark, and camp out with a four-wheel drive vehicle. It's idyllic camping but watch out for coyotes. We got a year pass for $40 at the entrance gate. Lots of foreigners visit there. It's worth the drive!! We saw a hawk perched on a speed limit sign eating a fish he had caught.

Didn't realize there was a National Park on Padre Island and was glad I stopped in. The visitor…read morecenter gave quite a bit of history and insight to the area. Fun part was finding a National Park Monopoly game! Ample parking and the views were amazing from the upper deck. Restrooms were clean and the changing/shower area much larger than anticipated.

The perfect spot on the coast. Fishing, surfing, BBQing, camping, horse shoes, or whatever makes…read moreyou happy. The area is well maintained. The few people there are all cool. We had a great and memorable time there. Lots of great pics. Can't wait to go back. It's a truly special place. Check it out. Only leave footprints.

not worth the money at all. $25 overnight fee + $14 per night, and for that you get no hookups, no…read morewater, no dump station, no cell coverage, and cold showers. you can get four nights at a state campground for a similar price, and that'll have water + electric hookups and hot showers because we're in a first world country. the beach is real nice though

Priceless! One of…read morethe last if not " the last" pristine undeveloped pieces of uninterrupted costline in the United States. Complete solitude is yours here if you want it. Fortunately,not many want it.

Really cool NPS site. Simple / no frills visitor center. Awesome / clean beach. Interesting wild…read morelife. Nice junior ranger program. Lots of parking near beach. A place worth checking out.

Good location a block away from the beach entrance, no need to get into the main road…read more Room are good size, price is good. Has a pool, jacuzzi, and kiddie pool. They offer "breakfast" cereal, pastries, coffee, tea, and I think they have a waffle machine. They have an ice machine but you can't fill in your ice chest! Customer Service was great!

Absolutely would not recommend…read more We were checked into a disgusting room. There were stains everywhere, a candy wrapper left on the headboard, spilled ice cream in the freezer, dirty floors, dirty sheets, a strong chemical odor, visible mold, and dust throughout the room. When we approached the front desk about the condition of the room, the employee was dismissive and essentially told us, "Sorry, you can leave if you want." We then requested to speak with management and were told that the manager "wouldn't do anything" and "doesn't care." The condition of the room was unacceptable, but the complete lack of concern from the staff made the experience even worse. It was evening and I had small children and no other place to go. They refused to clean the room and I requested at least to be moved. When they finally showed us another room it was better but also clearly neglected.