Texas is wide enough that Big Bend and the Gulf beaches make two separate trips, so an RV week here picks its corner by the season. Once the first northers blow through, the rigs drift south to the coast and settle in until spring. In summer they turn back inland to the Hill Country rivers, where Texas families return year after year and stay the whole week.
The third trip is a road instead of a week. It starts in Dallas and leaves Texas the long way, along the Gulf.
Garner, Concan and the Highland Lakes
At Garner State Park the week happens in the water. The spring-fed Frio runs clear and cold over limestone ledges, inner tubes drift under the bald cypress, and kids line the rocks working up the nerve to jump. Back on the loops, motorhomes sit in the live oak shade with the air running through the worst of the afternoon.
Here the campsite comes before the motorhome. The park often reaches capacity, and Texas Parks and Wildlife recommends reservations, and site lengths vary with no single posted limit, so the site you land decides how long a rig to rent. For full hookups the prize is the 12 pull-through sites in Shady Meadows, with 137 more on water and 20, 30 or 50 amp electric, as of September 2026. The Garner State Park page walks the loops.
Around Concan, private RV resorts line the same river with their own hookups and river access, so the tubes go in a few steps from the rig. Those resorts are on the Concan page.
When the Frio books solid, the same week moves to the Highland Lakes northwest of Austin. Inks Lake State Park trades the river for a lake, with pink granite sloping straight into swimming water. Its 114 sites carry water and 30 or 50 amp electric, and the water-only sites take one RV under 26 feet. The Austin page runs the lake week, and San Antonio's pairs a full-hookup resort in town with SeaWorld and Six Flags Fiesta Texas for families who want the Hill Country as a day out.
Closer to the big cities, the summer lake week means Possum Kingdom west of Fort Worth, Lake Conroe by The Woodlands, or Sam Rayburn north of Beaumont. Each has its own hookup parks on the Fort Worth, The Woodlands and Beaumont pages.
Up north, Palo Duro Canyon cuts red rock walls into the flat Panhandle, with campsites on water and electricity and the TEXAS musical in summer, and the Amarillo page covers the canyon. In fall, gameday weekends at Texas Tech and Texas A&M put the stadium crowd and every other renter after the same rigs and the same pads, so read the Lubbock and College Station pages before you book either.
Dallas to the Gulf Coast and Florida, one way
The long one-way out of North Texas ends at salt water. From Dallas the road runs south to the Texas coast for the first beach night, then east along the Gulf through Louisiana's bayou country and onto the white sand of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, with a night or two wherever the water looks right. The finish is on the Florida peninsula, so there is no long drive back to Texas. El Monte RV runs one-way rentals from Dallas toward the Gulf Coast and Florida, with Orlando, Tampa and Miami at the far end.
Port Aransas, South Padre and the winter coast
Down on the coast the winter week runs long. Winter Texans settle in for the season, families come down for spring weeks, and the surf line runs a short walk past the pads. Port Aransas on Mustang Island and South Padre Island near the Mexican border are the beach towns the winter crowd favors, with resorts and county parks set up for long stays.
The rest of the coast spreads the same week out. Padre Island's beach parks are on the Corpus Christi page, Matagorda Bay at the mouth of the Colorado River is on Katy's, and the Houston page has Galveston's seawall parks.
That long-stay crowd is the reason to plan early. Winter Texans and spring family weeks want the same beachfront pads and the same rigs, so reserve the site first and fit the motorhome to it.
Winter is Big Bend's season too, when the Chisos peaks stand over the Rio Grande flats and the desert is cool enough to hike at midday. A motorhome's stop there is Rio Grande Village RV Park, the park's one hookup option, with 25 full-hookup sites and a 38-foot maximum as of September 2026, since the three Park Service campgrounds have no hookups. A longer rig won't fit, and the Texas campervan page covers the smaller-vehicle trip to Santa Elena Canyon, Caddo Lake and Colorado Bend. Midland's page covers the drive down, and San Angelo's has a lake week at Lake Nasworthy much closer in.
