Galveston Island State Park Campground

Texas state parks did great on this one. Revamped after being closed for years due to hurricane damage, everything is new.

Love stopping here. Sites with elec & water, or dry camping at half the rate. Also tent sites. Did not use facilities so no comment.

Only negative for me was the curb without ramp at dump station hard to use with tote.

Not many obstructions so my Starlink worked great. Visible & Cricket worked fine. Did not bother testing Verizon nor T-Mobile 5G

Great friendly staff.

One of the best state parks we have stayed at. Check-in at the entry station to get your pass. The gulf side campground is fairly new and has good utilities, 50 amp and water. We could see the gulf from our site.
Bathroom and shower facilities are nice. Food and groceries are close by. No traffic noise on the gulf side of the campground.

Pros: Location, easy access to food and restaurants, good facilities.

Cons: None

Great AT&T cell service, 5 bars of 5G. Many HDTV channels.

The beach side campground at Galveston Island State Park recently re-opened following several years of major renovation and construction. There are 66 camp sites with fees ranging from $15 - $35 per night for the site, plus an entrance fee. Camping is also available on the Galveston Bay side of the 2000 acre park. As I have noted in previous reviews of Texas state parks, there are real benefits to purchasing an annual park pass.

The beachside is divided to accommodate day users and campers. Both access the 1.5 miles of beach front. However there is more to do than swim or lie in the sun: you can picnic, birdwatch, hike, fish, or kayak.

Camping sites are concrete with easy water and electrical connections. The sites are angled / staggered allowing for plenty of visual space. A dedicated shower / restroom facility is located central to the campground.

This is yet another outstanding example of how Texas parks set the standard for outside recreation.

Note: bring mosquito spray!

If you are staying a week or more in TX state parks, definitely worth getting the park pass to cut the individual entrance fees and discount on 2nd night camping. Some road work ongoing on the bay side (gulf side still closed) during our stay that confused our arrival, but rangers were friendly and accommodating. Limited area open currently and the sites run a bit small and close, but the location on the bay was really nice. Bathroom/shower located in the electric only loop - not sure whey they dont make a cut through from the W/E loop to make easier access - were fairly new and in good shape. Nice location a little ways down from the highly developed part of the island without being too far.

Park is a work in progress….beach side is completely closed. There is beach access just down the road which you can drive your vehicle onto the beach. We appreciated the water and electric and concrete pad that was perfectly level and allowed for easy access to back into the spot. There are no toilets or shower house in this loop. Sites are closer together than at other TX SP and image why there are not campfire rings at each campsite. As we left, we saw staff putting campfire rings in the middle of the loop (not sure how many). It’s about 1/2hr drive into the downtown portion of Galveston. Nice place, price was right would stay again.

****There is a $5 fee per person over the age of 12 in addition to the camp fee if you don’t have the state park pass. This fee is automatically added to your online reservation if you don’t have the pass at the time of reservation. When we booked the reservation we were outside the window we would have received the pass in the mail (we were advised to buy pass at first park we stayed at). Check in was longer than normal because each park we stayed at had to refund the fee.

First, the price reflects discounts with the TX State Parks pass. It's worth getting if you are camping throughout the state like we did. We enjoyed this area with the different walking trails and birding. It was quite windy while we were there, so we never put our kayaks in but that would have been awesome at this park. Our site was level with some space between the next site. I would not normally choose the entrance site but it showed as the only one open which actually wasn't the case. But we had a nice time in the area and at this little park.
There is quite a bit of trash around the site. There was a table at the site with fire rings in the center island for all to use. We picked up Dish satellite and Verizon hot spot.
Note 1) The beach side is closed and being rebuilt so only the bayside is available.
Note 2) The road in is horrible; take it slow