I have been asked multiple times in my life, which would you choose: the beach or the mountains! My answer is, I want to live in the mountains and vacation at the beach! The beach to me is a place to relax, soak in the sun, and have no worries in the world! We sporadically made a much needed weekend trip the Corpus Christi, Texas and I will tell you it was the perfect place to just leave our worries and stresses and just soak in the heat and play all day long!
Corpus Christi is your typical beach town made up of adorable houses on stilts, seafood restaurants around every corner, seagulls scavenging parking lots for crumbs, and the smell of the sea wherever you go! Gosh I love that ocean smell….okay I love it initially, ocean soaked swimsuits and clothes with that seawater stink makes me ill. Haha!
We drove over to the North Beach area in Corpus Christi, parked our car and spent the ENTIRE DAY in this area without paying a ridiculous amount in parking and also without even having to move our car! Everything we did was in walking distance! Is that a great way to vacation or what!? One thing I dislike about vacations is spending so much time in the car getting from place to place, well ditch the car and get your steps in for the day with these super fun things to do at North Beach in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Your List Of Essentials For North Beach:
- Beach Towels
- Umbrella
- Sunscreen
- Water
- Bathing Suit
- Sandals
- Hat
- Sand Toys
- Camera
Parking:
There are parking lots all around this small area, and they are almost all $5 all day parking. We went to the Texas State Aquarium first and just parked in their parking lot. It is $5 all day parking there as well. This was the best parking area as there were many shaded parking spaces from the overpass bridge above the parking lot. Just when you go to buy your ticket, pay for your parking space then. They will give you a token to open the gate when you exit. Just don’t lose your token!
Fun Things To Do On North Beach:
Swim at North Beach
You are at the beach! Obviously you need to go play at the beach and swim in the ocean. The beach itself isn’t very wide and so it can very easily get crowded, but who cares when you have a gigantic ocean to play in!
What I loved about this beach was that the water wasn’t that deep for a large portion. It is about waist deep for probably about 50 yards. You get pretty far out without even swimming.
There are beach lounge chairs provided at the beach, so if you aren’t wanting to lay on the ground you have other options. The sand is thick and brittle, but there are feet washing stations to get the sand off.
Price: FREE
Location:
Texas State Aquarium
THIS WAS ONE OF THE BEST AQUARIUMS I HAVE EVER BEEN TO!! So I am an animal fanatic! My husband often complains cause wherever we go I always make sure we go to the local zoo or aquarium. I have been to some amazing aquariums, like the OdySea in Pheonix, Arizona and the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia; but this one is the best!
There was so much to see and such a variety of activities. There is a sting ray feeding show and a DOLPHIN SHOW! (dolphin show is only at 11am and 3pm) Its like a extremely mini version of SeaWorld! Some of the coolest parts of this aquarium were:
- The shark tank: You can look at it from above the tank and see the haunting shadows of sharks swimming near you or you can walk around the tank and watch them swim above you in a half tunnel. It is an awesome viewing tank!
- The dolphin tank: The dolphins have their own building with a viewing area inside and it is huge. The glass is almost the whole length of the side of the tank. My kids loved racing the dolphins across the tank every time the dolphins took a lap.
- The sting ray tank: There is a sting ray feeding, but if you don’t make that show don’t sweat it, because you can still reach in and pet them. These sting rays are so friendly they are almost like puppies of the sea! My daughter loved as they would swim straight up the side of the tank and splash her.
- The splash pad: Yes they have a splash pad and a fossil dig sand pit that are like a dream come true for little kids.
These were just some of our favorite parts of the aquarium, but seriously there is so much to do and see. There are otters, alligators, flamingos, macaws, tons of fish, jellyfish, the cutest little dwarf seahorses, and even sea turtles!
A big problem I have with a lot of aquariums is that you can’t see the animals because the tanks are too busy or too crowded. This was something I loved about this aquarium, you could see at all angles of almost every tank which made it not so crowded. Some tanks you could go under them and look up and some you could walk all the way around them. It was so fun to see a sea creature in every tank they had!
The aquarium was pretty pricey, but it was worth every penny I thought!
Price: 13+ $39.95, 3-12 $29.95, 2 and under FREE, military/senior/student $37.95, parking $5
Other Experiences: Feed the Fish Tour- $49.50, Snorkel with Sharks (must be ages 8+ to swim and have an adult snorkeling too if ages 8-12) $99.95
Hours: CLOSED MONDAYS, Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, splash pad: Sat-Sun 11am-5pm
Location:
USS Lexington
So we ran out of time, but there is one thing I think would be amazing to do in Corpus Christi and that is walk through the USS Lexington. This was the first thing I noticed when we pulled up to this beach. I mean this battleship is HUGE!!! You really don’t realize how large they are until you get up close to them.
You can actually go in the ship, but even just walking around the outside of it and is amazing. From a distance you can see the jets on the decks and the giant cannons. It is an incredible sight and something I 100% want to go back to and walk through!
On the ship itself if a flight deck with a ton of jets, a 3D movie, an exhibit on Pearl Harbor, model displays, a flight simulator, and some virtual battle stations. There is even a Mess Hall Cafe if you get hungry.
Price: 18+ $18.95, 60+ and 13-17 $16.95, military $14.95, 4-12 $13.95, 2 and under FREE, $5 parking
Other Experiences: Escape Rooms-$38
Hours: 9am-6pm
Location:
Blackbeards On The Beach
Whenever we are anywhere near a beach, you can bet that my diet consists of mostly seafood. I LOVE SEAFOOD! Black Beards At The Beach was no disappointment either! It was delicious! This purple building has pirates sitting out the door to welcome you in.
It isn’t the cutest set up inside, but there are quite a few skeletons, small fish tanks, and pirate pics. So when I walked in I honestly thought this place, just by the looks, was going to be cheapy and gross, but I was dead wrong. Our order was:
- Combo Basket with Fried Shrimp and Fried Oysters
- Combo Basket with Hush Puppies, Fried Fish, and Fried Shrimp
- Fried Shrimp Po Boy Sandwich
So the fried shrimp was incredible and I could not get enough of it, the fried oysters on the other hand weren’t my favorite. They were good, I just think maybe oysters are too soft to fry, haha! Like I said even though they were slimy, they were good! The fish was really amazing too! It wasn’t super fishy, and had a great flavor to it! The cutest part of the whole meal was actually the pirate skull symbol on the bread of the po boy! So fun!
Hours: Sun-Thurs 11am-9pm, Fri-Sat 11am-10pm
Location:
Pier 99
If you are looking to eat right on the ocean AND have great photo ops than this is the place to eat! As you walk up to this restaurant it looks like a large wooden shack built on the ocean. Okay it looks like that because that is exactly what it is, but it just has this beachfront feel to it. You can sit right out on a deck over the ocean to eat your seafood. Can you really get more into the beach mode than that?
My favorite part about this restaurant though was the photo ops! There are fun paintings around the sides of the building and there is a painting that you can stick your faces in to make you look like sea creatures.
Such a cute place, but because of how cool and cute it is; everyone wants to eat here!! The line that was there when we went to eat at 2pm was made up of 3 separate lines because there wasn’t enough room for just one line of people! So if you are willing to wait, it is an awesome place to be. Maybe snack before hand though, cause you won’t be eating for a while.
Hours: Sun-Thurs 11am-9pm, Fri-Sat 11am-10pm
Location:
Gift Shops
I don’t know about you, but I love to window shop. I may not be a huge shopper, as in I rarely buy things, but I just love seeing all of the souvenirs and creative stuff people have made! Okay, I lied a little, I do try to buy a magnent and Christmas Ornament where ever I travel. Anyway….
A fun reason why you should go check out the gift shops around north beach are the photo ops!
Here are some of my favorites that we found:
Other Nearby attractions within 10 minutes:
- Hurricane Alley Waterpark
- Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures
- The Art Museum of South Texas
- Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
- Selena Memorial Statue
- Texas Surf Museum
- Art Center of Corpus Christi
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