Bolivar Flats Free Beach

What a great place to park on the beach and chill. Getting there was easy and scenic driving past Crystal Beach and all the colorful stilt homes. Did check out Crystal Beach and it's not as nice a beach and a little busier with people and rigs. Bolivar Flats seems to be one long beach; cant tell the difference is between the permit portion and free area. Maybe it's which direction you turn onto the beach. The beach is definitely hard pack, no issues driving a rig on it. Not many rigs here, it's quiet and private with the occasional vehicle driving past. Saw a few families and fisherman making a day of it.
Did buy a $5 beach permit which was unnecessary; didn't see any patrols.
The Mexican restaurant G's is worth going to. The Big Store connected to Ace is the place to go shopping and get gas. They also serve prepared food(the pizza is good) and groceries, beach stuff, pretty much everything.
The ferry to Galveston is only about 4 miles west, is free and runs all day. Check out the lighthouse and Fort Travis..
NOTE; the salt air, nightly dense fog, wind and sand can be very corrosive to any metal.

We were a bit anxious to drive on the beach with our 36ft diesel pusher. We had read a review that did not recommend going to bolivar flats with a class a...turns out it was easy to get in/out, the sand is well packed. The beach is divided in areas that require a permit va others that do not. We parked on the free beach which wasn’t busy at all (we suspect this beautiful spot must be pretty crowded during high season).
We had also read reviews that mentioned mosquitoes...we didn’t see any. There was always a cool breeze coming in from the gulf so it may be because of that?

All in all, a great spot to spend a couple of nights which we highly recommend to someone visiting the area.

We stayed one night on the free side, lots of traffic and high tide was a little to close in the spot I picked.

Went and got a permit and moved. It’s worth the cost I think. Ports potty isn’t even worth looking at!

Talked to the constable, it’s an unwritten rule that the max stay is 7 days. I plan on moving north up to crystal beach next,

Verizon is ok 2 bars about 1/2 mile from entrance.

Free beach camping! What’s better than that? We were excited to camp here, but didn’t make it thru the night (our furnace crapped out in the early evening ... and temps dropped to high 30s / low 40s that night ... Veterans Day Weekend - and yep we had plenty of propane ). We expected to see some other campers, but there was no one around for miles and miles.

Be sure to check the tide schedule and weather, you don’t want to get caught out her if the tides too high of a storms coming in. The beach was gorgeous except for all the litter. If we had stayed the night and weekend I had grand plans of picking up trash.

There was only one car that came by a little after sunset to do donuts. We were slightly concerned about being the only ones out there, but not enough that we would leave (well except for our fur

Decent AT&T coverage

Just moved from Phoenix, AZ and randomly decided that I wanted to go camping. Did a little searching and found this 8/22/19 (Friday) @11pm. Hopped on the ferry and made my way here. Followed the instruction for the “free” area ...which is clearly outlined by the sign as you drive onto the sand. Definitely says “free beach” and points to the left. I like to travel in my car and either camp/sleep in it or if the conditions are good I’ll pitch my tent. It’s a bit windy tonight so I’m going to crash in the car. It was too late to buy a pass so I’m definitely in the free zone. Having cocktails and listening to the waves crash is a beautiful experience. It’s my first. As I arrived, it’s literally empty. Not a car or camper in site. Checked the tide site as instructed by others...only showing 1.4ft so I should be good. Absolutely no complaints and I definitely feel safe. I know at times, as others stated, it can get packed...but tonight, it’s wide open and I feel perfectly safe. Will absolutely be coming out here to camp more often.

Side note...don’t drive too close to the dunes if you have a fwd car...I turned around a little too close to them and almost got stuck. Had it been daylight I’d have had a better view...stay on the packed sand and you’re golden!

Says it’s going to rain tonight...so I’m hoping I’ll be okay to drive out tomorrow afternoon. I’ll give an update if this ended up being a horrible decision. Ha

Very cool to be able to spend the night right on the beach. There were a lot of people taking advantage of the free camping area, to the point it seemed like some people maybe lived here.
You should treat this place as if there is no bathroom... unless you are okay with using a port-a-potty with a literal mound of poop and toilet paper overflowing the seat itself. Gross!!

There were people zipping on four wheelers pretty late into the night, and we had a family(?) that arrived right next to us at 3am with their lights on for awhile and appeared to not sleep the whole night, as we woke up to them still hanging around the tailgate of the truck kicking a soccer ball around. Very weird but they were harmless.

Overall, very neat experience to wake up to the waves and sunrise on the beach. I also recommend taking the free ferry over to Galveston where you can enjoy a day on the beach with your car there as well.

We stayed here for a weekend in early June. The first weekend after all the kids were out of school. It was a little busy during the day. But as the sun went down and people started to leave it was amazing! One tent was the only other person on the beach! Being able to sleep listening to the waves crash was amazing! I will say that as the evening rolled in so did the bugs though. So I would recommend bug spray or something to keep them away. Other than that we LOVED this place. We will be back for sure!!