Texas - Gulf Coast & South Texas (PDF Chapter)

This is the Gulf Coast & South Texas chapter from Lonely Planet’s Texas guide-book.

America’s ‘Third Coast,’ as it has dubbed itself, is a place of many contrasts. The beach-town scene of Port Aransas is a sea of calm compared with the frenetic hedonism of South Padre Is-land, for one.

• bird-watch in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a coastal wetlands reserve of nearly 115,000 acres that serve as spotting grounds for hundreds of species
• maps
• get up close and personal with wild alligators at Brazos Bend State Park
• transport
• gape at the Bishop’s Palace – the crowning jewel of Galveston during the 1800s, the is-land’s heyday as the country’s second-busiest port
• restaurants & accommodation

Coverage includes: Beaumont & Around, The Golden Triangle, Orange, Port Arthur, Galveston, The Coastal Bend, West Columbia & Around, Matagorda, Aransas Na-tional Wildlife Refuge, Rockport & Fulton, Coastal Plains, Victoria, Goliad, Corpus Christi Area, Corpus Christi, Port Aransas, Mustang & Padre Island Beaches, Kingsville, Lower Gulf Coast, Port Isabel, South Padre Island, Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville & Around, McAllen & Around, Laredo.