First of all, these beaches are no comparison to the Florida beaches I grew up with. Texas beaches allow you to drive up and camp on the beach, which is what we ended up doing. We ended up paying $13 for two people to camp on the beach a night. The beaches can be oily because of the active oil rigs offshore, but generally this does not cause too much of a problem. The water was very warm (around 85°F) and relaxing to swim in. A grocery store is a close 15 minutes away, and it’s not a bad drive. We spent most of the day on the beach. There were other people, but no one was really bothersome.
Overall, it was a great trip. We only ended up staying one night because we really had to get back home. The park was nice enough to give us a refund!