Padre Balli County Park looks straight out at the Gulf, with the surf at Bob Hall Pier close enough to hear from your site once the kids are asleep. Winter Texans settle onto North Padre Island for weeks at a time, and Corpus Christi families do the same over a school break, with the motorhome plugged in, the air running through the afternoon, and the beach a short walk away.
South of the county park, the island runs into Padre Island National Seashore, and the second half of the week moves there. Malaquite's paved sites back onto a grass-covered dune with the Gulf just over the top of it, and a couple of dry nights in that spot are the reason to bring the rig this far. Inland, Lake Corpus Christi State Park trades the wind and sand for shade shelters and a long week of fishing.
Padre Balli County Park at Bob Hall Pier
Bob Hall Pier is the landmark you'll orient by all week, running out over the surf with the campground at its foot. Days move between the sand, the pier and the rig, which stays close enough for lunch, shade and an afternoon nap with the air on.
Nueces County runs the campground in two parts, a water-and-electric section with a dump station and a premium section with sewer at the site, and the premium side is where a winter stay goes long. Two-week premium stays run October through March only, as of September 2026. Reservations go through the county by phone or a request form, and the county doesn't allow rental trailer drop-offs, so plan on driving a motorhome in rather than having a towable delivered.
Port Aransas, at the north end of Mustang Island, is its own beach week with a rig, and that trip lives on the Port Aransas RV page.
Malaquite campground in Padre Island National Seashore
Malaquite feels like the edge of the map after the pier crowd, a line of paved sites with the dune rising right behind them and the Gulf on the far side. Kids climb the dune before the engine has cooled, and the evening is the beach and the stars with nothing built between you and the water.
All 48 sites are 40 feet by 18 feet with no hookups, as of September 2026, so a rig longer than 40 feet is the wrong rental for these nights. The campground is first come, first served with no reservations, which means rolling in early in the day and keeping Padre Balli as the fallback. The seashore keeps a dump station and fresh water at the Malaquite entrance, open to all visitors, so arrive with full water and dump on the way back out to the county park.
Two people who would rather sleep on the open beach are better off in something smaller, and the Corpus Christi campervan page covers that night along with Mustang Island State Park. Goose Island State Park and its Big Tree are written up there too.
Lake Corpus Christi State Park and the Javelina loop
Inland, the days slow down to fishing off one of the park's two lighted piers and long afternoons under a shade shelter, with an 18,256-acre lake in front of you. After a few days of Gulf wind, the change is the point, and the piers keep the anglers in the family out well after dark.
Put the rig on the Javelina loop, where the sites are full-hookup pull-throughs with water, sewer and electric, and many have shade shelters. Summer is when those hookups earn their keep, with July highs averaging 94 degrees at the park and the air running all afternoon.
The park often fills, with busy weekends from late winter through summer, so reserve the Javelina site through Texas Parks and Wildlife before you book the rig.