Galveston Island Family Vacation

My family just returned from a 3 day 2 night trip to Galveston Island in Texas, and it was wonderful.

I highly recommend this as a family vacation destination and here is why:

1. Super awesome Hotel room.

We stayed at The Casa Del Mar. It Had an ocean view and was under $200 a night! Our room had a kitchenette, sleeper sofa, bunk beds and a separate room with a queen size bed. The Kitchenette was used both mornings to make breakfast with food purchased at Walmart. The hotel provides plates, silverware, pots, pans, and cups. The Super Center was really close and the prices beat our Walmarts for sure, some things were a dollar cheaper! The hotel also has two pools to enjoy, or as in my case get dragged down to at 9:30 pm kicking and screaming (I was the one kicking and screaming). This is the hotel we will come back to for all future vacations. 

2. So much to do for the whole family.

We went to:

Moody Gardens Aquarium

This was a blast! All of us enjoyed this aquarium and it's air conditioning. Jax took a minute to warm up to the giant tanks but after that he was hooked. Get it ? Hooked? LOL fish joke! It took us right under an hour to go through but if you are one of those families who like to read the signs and such it could possibly take up to two hours.  Do not plan for this to take up your whole day.

Moody Gardens Rain forest Experience

After we went through the Aquarium we walked right over to the Rain forest Experience. Just a little warning here, half of the exhibits are in a rain forest, so expect humid conditions. The other half are in the coolness of indoors so relief from heat is never to far away. This only took us an hour to go through as well. It might have lasted longer if not for my lack of patience in the heat. All of us would go again.

Galveston Island Train Museum

So much fun. Ethan loves trains and so we originally planned to go here just for him. As it turns out we all loved it as much as he did. There are open cars to walk through, some to climb around on and tons to explore. It is the old train depot and they have it set up like it was back when it was in use. It is was gorgeous  inside and kind of made me wish thats how people still traveled. The whole family loved the model trains exhibit with all the little towns and villages. I recommend this to anyone.

The Beach

Galveston has a ton of beaches to choose from. This beach was right across the street from us so we walked on over to it. The waves are perfectly small for the kids and the sand perfect for castle building. Emily never wanted to leave. We purchased the boogie boards at Walmart for under $10 each. Well worth it for all the fun they had with them. Even Jaxon got in on the boogie board action.

3. So much Food!

We enjoyed,

Denny's

We went here because we had just drove onto the island and everyone wanted breakfast, well, except for Noah who ate almost exclusively giant cheeseburgers the entire time.

Rainforest Cafe

We waited 45 minutes to get a seat here. The busiest place in town for sure.The kids loved it here. Jaxon loved watching the animals move around. The whole place reminded me of Adventure Land at Disneyland. If you plan on eating here be prepared for theme park prices.

Tortuga Mexican Food

I ate my favorite meal of vacation here. It was an avocado stuffed with seafood and veggies. Everyone else enjoyed their food too. I will be thinking about that avocado for a while.....

Joes Crab Shack

There are two Joes on the Island. We chose to eat at the one on the harbor side. Honestly what not to like? 

Shellfish and butter... delicious! 

There was so much more we could have done but we ran out of energy and time. The Hubby and I are already planning our itinerary for next years trip down. I am over the moon with how our official first family vacation went.I am so blessed to have a husband who works hard so he can take us places like this.

If you ever want to go here on a vacation I recommend checking out Galveston.com for a bunch of great tips and ideas. Also if you want to go to any of the attractions we went to for up to 40% off check out
galvestonislandpass.com. We saved so much money on tickets through this website!!

On the way back home my amazing husband took us to IN & OUT as our final vacation meal. I cant strees to you enough how much I love this burger place. We dont have any here so this was a big treat. If you have never been to one, I'm sorry you are missing out, you must go to one if you ever get the chance.

I'm glad I got to share this adventure with you.

Love,

Ashley B