Things to do

With its 21 miles of unspoiled shoreline, Surfside Beach, Texas is the perfect retreat for people who want to relax in a fully furnished beach house.

Only 58 miles south of Houston, Texas

Explore miles of wonderful, sandy beaches--walk on, collect sea shells, fish, or just watch the ships come in. And, a Surfside, TX beach house is closer timewise than a Galveston, TX beach house.

The sun sparkles like diamonds on the gentle waves of the Gulf of Mexico, and the neo-tropical climate is slightly cooler than Houston in the summer, and slightly warmer in the fall and winter.

Things to do (Most of these activities are FREE)

43 lb Red Fish
Caught from beach

Red Snapper
Caught offshore

Tuna & Red Snapper
Caught offshore
(click picture to enlarge)

Texas' best sports fishing

• 21 miles of freely accessible shorelines
• You can usually find good fishing from the beach right in front of your house
• Redfish this size are common in the fall, but the legal keep size is 20”-28”. With a license you can keep two oversized fish per year. The man pictured caught nine, and he released them all
• But, they’re delicious either grilled or blackened

• Deep sea fishing
• Surfside is only a three hour boat ride from some of the greatest fishing areas on the Gulf Coast
• Many varieties of Snapper, Grouper, King Mackerel, Amberjack, Ling, Dolphin (Dorado), & Tuna are caught

Action Charters	979-233-2999
Easy Going Charters	800-293-2947
Underwater Expeditions	979-285-0600

• For more, go to Saltwater Fishing at Surfside Beach
  • Basics for newcomers
  • Expectations and fishing licenses
  • Surfside Jetty County Park
  • Surfside boat ramp—easy access to the open Gulf

Enjoy one of the Audubon Society's favorite birding site locations in America

Brown Pelicans

Blue Heron

• Southern Brazoria County has ranked #1 in the North American Christmas Count four times in the last 20 years.
• During this time over 326 species have been sighted.
• An additional 50 migrant bird varieties converge during the Spring migration period from March to mid-May.

Pedestrian Beach

Located on the west side of Surfside Beach. This area has been set aside for beach visitors to enjoy the beach without any interference from vehicles. It is perfect if you have small children. Off-beach parking is permitted adjacent to the beach.

A number of our beach houses are located on this car-free beach.

Discover a rare sea turtle’s nest

One of the joys of the beach is discovering what has washed (or crawled) ashore. In May, 2007 an observant guest discovered a rare Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle laying 110 eggs directly in front of one of our beach houses.

While the Kemp’s Ripley was once the 12th most endangered species in the world (fewer than 1,000 nests in 1985), it is now recovering and dozens of nests are found each spring along the Texas coast. If you are fortunate enough to spot one of these large turtles, please call (866) TURTLE-5.

In this instance, U.S. Fish and Wildlife personnel came and carefully collected the eggs. They were taken to Padre Island Natural Seashore where they will be incubated and released back into the Gulf.

The safe recovery of these eggs made the front page. You can read about this wonderful discovery at:
http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=a5260af54a0f3981

Sea Center Texas

• $13 Million, state of the art fish hatchery and Visitor Center
• World's largest hatchery for red drum (also known as red fish)
• Produces 20,000,000 red drum fingerlings per year
• Currently working to spawn spotted sea trout
• 50,000 gallon salt water aquarium. Home of Gordon, the 350-lb. (and still growing) tame grouper.
• Two 12-foot Touch Pools--touch and feel blue crabs, hermit crabs, starfish, urchins, clams, snails, and anemones
• 5,000-gallon jetty exhibit + 5,000-gallon artificial reef + 2,200 gallon Coastal Bay aquarium + 1,000-gallon salt marsh exhibit
• Guided tours are available, call 979-292-0100
• ADMISSION IS FREE

HOW TO GET THERE: Sea Center Texas is in Lake Jackson at 300 Medical Drive. To get there from the stoplight in Surfside, take Texas 332 toward Lake Jackson. In 10½ miles you will come to a stop light at Plantation Drive (there is a Randall’s Food Market and a large Buckie’s on the left). Turn left. Plantation Drive dead ends at Sea Center Texas.

For more information, call 979-292-0100
website: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/visitorcenters/seacenter/

Brazosport Center for the Arts and Sciences

Generously endowed by Dow and other local benefactors, this is a remarkable collection of resources. Chosen BEST in category of “Best Attractions/Museum” by the Texas Travel Counselors in 2004.

• Brazosport Center Stages
  • Oldest theatre group on the Texas Coast
  • Teen summer programs
• Brazosport Planetarium
  • NASA scientists train here
  • Planetarium shows most Tuesday evenings
  • Can be reserved for private group showings
• Brazosport Art League
  • Local and traveling exhibits
  • Art classes for adults and kids
• Brazosport Museum of Natural Science
  • Largest sea shell collection in the southern United States
  • Wildlife and fossil exhibits
• Affiliated Groups: Visitors are welcome
  • Brazosport Archaeological Society
  • Brazosport Birders
  • Sea Shell Searchers of Brazoria County
• The Clarion at Brazosport College
  • 600-seat concert hall
  • Several concerts each year

Lake Jackson Historical Museum

• Dozens of video presentations, hands-on exhibits and interactive displays
• World’s first composite airplane that was "invisible" to radar. Precursor to the Stealth Aircraft.

Call 979-297-1570
website: www.lakejacksonmuseum.org

Dive the beautiful Gulf of Mexico "Flower Gardens" Reef

• Located 115 miles offshore, the Flower Garden Banks are the northernmost living coral reefs on the continental shelf
• Each August the waters of the Flower Gardens explode with an effervescent white glow as the coral reefs begin spawning
• The Stetson Bank is closer and is worth diving, but it does not have coral reefs

website: www.flowergarden.noaa.gov

Underwater Expeditions	979-285-0600
HydroSports Scuba	979-285-0600
Gulf Diving	979-233-4445

Dive Mammoth Lake

• Drive 10½ miles from stoplight in Surfside, check equipment, and dive
• 55-acre, 70-feet deep dive lake
• Scheduled to open in spring of 2008

Elaborate playing
(click picture to enlarge)

Simply playing

Play in the Sand

Whether you build something elaborate or quite simple, there is something wonderfully relaxing about playing in the sand.

It’s FREE. And, adults enjoy it just as much as kids.

Play in the Snow

Run on the beach

• “Best run you’ve probably never done.” Roberta Macinnis, Running Columnist, Houston Chronicle, 10/27/05
• Surfside Beach Marathon & Half Marathon is held each February
• Only Marathon in the US run almost entirely on a beach

Call 979-297-8224
email: surfsidemarathon@yahoo.com

Discovering

Birthday parties

Playing with family

Playing with Dad (click to enlarge)

Worn out with Dad (click to enlarge)

Kids playing at the Beach

• There are plenty of fun things for kids to do at the beach that are free
• If you are so inclined, you can rent moonwalks, popcorn, cotton candy, and snow cone machines to be delivered to your beach house. One source is McCoys at 979-266-8857.
• While supervised children’s parties are welcomed, we cannot rent our houses for adults or teenagers to party in
  

Grownups playing on a Casino Boat

TEXAS STAR CASINO GAMBLING BOAT

The Texas Star Casino is docked at its own dock at Surfside. They have put a lot of money into it, but they don’t have all of the required licenses yet. It is anybody’s guess as to when they will start sailing.

Galveston Island

Because we have so much less traffic than Galveston, it is often more relaxing to stay at Surfside Beach and drive over to Galveston if you want to do something over there.

Galveston Beach Houses. Galveston has a number of very nice beach houses. Although most of the houses on the first row at Galveston are privately owned and not available for vacation rental, there are beachhouses in Galveston a few streets back from the beach* that can be rented.

Some of the fun activities on Galveston Island:

• Cruise Ships
• Dickens on the Strand
• Mardi Gras
• Moody Gardens
• Schlitterbahn

Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historical Park

In 1824, Martin Varner, one of Texas' original 300 colonists started his sprawling plantation on the Brazos River. Governor James Hogg purchased it in 1901, and his daughter Ima Hogg donated the property to the state of Texas in 1958.

Majestic ante-bellum home with many Hogg family heirlooms, period furniture and historic documents

For more information, visit www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/varner or call 979-345-4556.

Interesting site on the way to Surfside –
Stephen F. Austin Statue

(Click on pictures of statue to enlarge)

A 72-foot tall cement likeness of Stephen F. Austin, the father of Texas, is being assembled on the east side of Highway 288, midway between Highway 35 and the north edge of Lake Jackson. The huge sculpture was designed by sculptor David Adickes who also designed the 67-foot tall statue of Sam Houston near Huntsville, Texas.

For more information: http://www.stephenfaustin.org

George Observatory

Brazos Bend State Park

4,897 acres and 3.2 miles of Brazos River frontage provide some of the state’s most magnificent hardwood bottomland. Good possibility of seeing a few alligators. Brazos Bend State Park is in the area of Stephen F. Austin's first colonial land grant from Mexico and Texas’ first Anglo colonization.

For more information, visit www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/brazos or call 979-553-5101.

George Observatory is located in the Brazos Bend State Park. It is home to one of the country’s largest telescopes, the 36-inch Gueymard Research Telescope—similar to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope – as well as two smaller domed telescopes. A satellite facility of the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

For more information, visit www.hmns.org or call 713-639-4629.

Save Our Beach Association

SOBA (Save Our Beach Association) welcomes everyone interested in improving the quality, safety, beauty and ecology of a very special place – Surfside Beach. Projects to enhance the beach or casual meetings are held on most weekends, year round. Visitors are welcomed.

The Save Our Beach Association is in close association with the Parks and Wildlife Department during the State of Texas Adopt-A-Beach program held each spring and fall. SOBA was established in 1980 and is a non-profit organization.

For more information: http://www.sobatx.org/Save Our Beach Association.pdf

Grocery stores

• Surfside has two “seven-eleven” type grocery stores. Both carry a reasonable assortment of groceries and drinks.
• Buckie's on the way to Surfside (on the corner of Highways 332 East and 523) has the cheapest price for crushed ice (99¢ for 20 lbs).
• The closest full sized grocery store is Randall's in Lake Jackson. From the stoplight in Surfside, go west on 332 for 10½ miles. It will be on your left, across the street from another Buckie’s.
• Two miles north of Randall's is a Wal-Mart Supercenter. It is one block west of the 332 West and 288 intersection.

Golf at several 18-hole golf courses

Hospital

Shopping

Surfside Beach is a relaxed, casual beach resort. But on the north edge of Lake Jackson at the intersection of Highway 332 and 288 is Brazos Mall. In the Mall and immediate neighborhood are several large stores, including:

Dillard's	Penny's	Academy
Target	Wal-Mart	Sears

The mall also has a fourteen-screen movie theater and several casual restaurants.

Surfside Jetty County Park

• 1,500-foot flat-top surface over granite boulders
• Puts the casual, or serious fisher person within easy reach of moving tides and feeding fish
• Volleyball courts and small playground

Stahlman Park

Wonderfully located on the beach. Spacious and inexpensive. An older building, it is more suited for meetings than dressy events. The building can be reserved by calling 979-233-1531.

Freeport Municipal Park

A nice, well equipped park, eleven miles from Surfside. Has a new, well laid out pavilion, the River Place. It is more attractive than shows in photo. With planning, can be made elegant. Overlooks Brazos River. Has an excellent playground.

website: http://www.freeport.tx.us/RiverPlace/RiverPlace.html

Accommodations

There are a variety of accommodations to choose from on this island. Beach houses (many directly on the ocean), motels, R.V. parks, and camping all can be found at Surfside Beach. Our houses can be viewed at the Accommodations tag, and the prices are available at Pricing Information.

Accommodations for larger groups

This is one of the nicest facilities on the Texas Gulf Coast to host your family reunion, company get-together, wedding, or church retreat. The Seven Views is discussed under the Reunions and Retreats tag.

If you have any questions about vacationing at Surfside Beach,
or if you would like to reserve one of our houses,
please call us at 713-995-6111, or go to Contact Us.

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