Galveston Island State Park, Galveston

On Satruday's and Sunday's, the park has beach and bay walks for free. We went on the beach walk on Saturday and it was great fun for the family. We learned about how the park was affected by hurricane Ike, the swale and even saw some pictures of ghost crabs. During our hour tour, we all got to do some beachcombing and the best part was the seining and finding ghost shrimp. It was a great time for all.

Before my review I first have to spout off. I love these reviews..."too much sea weed...we were told we were noisy"...give me a break! You are camping...it's not a luxury resort. That's why we camp here. The beach has sea weed, yes, big deal...it's nature. And yes, you are camping with others..quiet hour is after 10:00. Voices carry, radio noise carry, be considerate and follow the rules. This is a wonderful park. If you want your own beach, showers when you are done swimming, rest rooms close by, the sound of the surf while you sleep, free fishing. low number of people,..this is the place. If you want to party all night long...large numbers of people on a groomed beach..head back to town. It will be quieter for the rest of us.

We arrived around noon and set up camp we had two sites an RV and a Popup. We decide to visit the beach while we waited for friends to arrive. What a big disappointment. The beach was covered with seaweed and it STUNK... Because it’s a State park they didn’t clean it like the other beaches around us. When we returned to camp Ranger Rick stopped by and asked us to move our vehicles around, no problem. 4 hours later a new Ranger comes by and tells us something different This went on the entire 4 days we were there. One night we were visited by Ranger Rick and asked to keep the music down and our mouths SHUT because we were disturbing the peace at first we thought he was joking we had the end sites and the closest camper was 3 down. We made sure our music could not be heard at the road just in case Ranger Rick drove by, as for our voices yes you probably could her talking and laughter at the road but we certainly was not disturbing the peace. This is definitely not a place to bring children there is nothing for them to do. The bathrooms were somewhat clean, but bring your own soap and towel to dry your hands on. The showers were small closed in boxes with no ventilation. We stay at an average of 10 state parks a year and this has been the worst..

We have camped at quite a few state parks and loving the beach we keep coming back to Galveston Island State Park. Both the Bayside and Gulf Side have pluses and minuses depending on your interests...fishing, Kayaking, Bicycle Riding, Beach Combing...we love it! Just came back from camping on the Bayside this past weekend and even though it was brutally hot the kids had a great time discovering nature's awesome beauty in the sunsets and sand crabs on the beaches. We do have an RV so it was very comfortable. I wish the fire pits would be closer to the campsites however. But love this wonderful natural habitat!

Just returned last night. I was tent camping on the bayside with electric and water only. Horrible! No picnic table or table of any kind on site, fire pit across the drive in the middle of park, no shelter at all beside what I brought. Would have been better off in camping area without electric b/c they do have tables and fire pit. I wanted to use several fans on our site and need electric. (Never advised when I called) RV sites that are self contained had picnic tables and they didn't need them! Go figure. I was camping with 2 other girls and my grandaughter. Took sixteen minutes to open two combination locks (no instructions; just given the combo numbers at check in) on 4 lane highway at 10:30 at night to gain entrance from one side of park to the other (Gulf to Bay side where the only showers are located), required getting out of the car! Dangerous for women alone. Keypad drive up makes alot more sense for all campers. The sand crabs almost carried us off with their invasion (by the dozens). Even sprayed our campsite with bug spray, ground and all. They crawled up the walls of our tent and under our screen shelter. Horrible problem and I am not bothered by too many things. The park it's self was clean and mowed nicely. Probably will never stay there again. My campsite was #58. Paid premimun price and got less for my money~

We stayed at the park a couple of years ago and it was not too bad. This year we were very disappointed. The lady in the office was rude, the price was too high and they wanted me to leave my dog in a hot car While I checked in. I decided not to check in and I will not go back.

We have camped at this park each summer for the past three years. We love this clean park with great beach access. The park also offers great educational programs on the weekend that my children enjoy.

This is a great park. We camped in a travel trailer. It was busy even at the end of November, and we heard you sometimes need to make reservations well in advance of a 'popular' weekend. We could see the water right from our site, and getting to the beach was only a hop, skip, and a jump across beach grasses (a short wooden pathway). It was beautiful. The beach was clean and we didn't feel cramped at all. We will definitely visit here again.

The Galveston State Park has a wonderful fish stocking program. A whole day of fun was had fishig for Largemouth at the park. Not one dull moment (whether it be a fish at the end of the line, or being attacked by bugs, I was kept busy)!

The park is on both sides of the main road. We checked out the ocean side and noticed the "natural" beach with its dark colored algae.....that was nice to see but went across the main road to the other side and decided to spend the day. Waterways everywhere and beautiful scenery. It was Monday so apparently not many people. Took out our beach umbrella, chairs and lunch to sit and soak up the picturesque views. Not much luck fishing (using shrimp, mullet) but throwing the cast net to catch bait fish was outstanding. Camping would probably be fun on the ocean side to hear the waves at night. Had a great time July 16, 2007.