ELTIPS AV R T
Dispatched by my posh hotel on my one and only night there years ago to what, I was promised, would be a top dollar watering hole, the cab driver dropped me off at a fast food joint under a freeway.
I sat in my best bib and tucker to eat a burrito off a tray before hitching a ride out for a strong word with the concierge.
My return to kick off a two-week road trip around Texas couldn’t have been more different.
Fun pub quiz factoids to thrill your mates with: Houston is the home of AstroTurf and was where the first open-heart surgery was performed.
Then there’s Nasa space centre. If you have ever built your own Thunderbird Tracy Island, you’ll feel right at home in the 60s throwback control room.
I used to think the best view of Houston was in the car’s rear view mirror but I changed my mind after treading her river banks and sampling the best Mexican nosh at Ninfa’s on Navigation and beers at the 8th Wonder Brewery.
I drove to Galveston, 80 minutes away, the city that was once the financial capital of Texas until the hurricane of 1900 near wiped her off the map. There I visited The Grand 1894 Opera House, where I took to the stage, belting out some Glen Campbell, albeit to an empty house.
The surge from Hurricane Ike in 2008 tore through this building again. But thanks to generous locals it reopened 92 days later. Catch a live show here if you can – and don’t miss a promenade along the famous pier.
Don’t leave without chowing down on the catch of the day at Gaido’s.
A four-hour drive west took me to Corpus Christi, home of the longest barrier island in the world at Padre Island National Shore. I stayed CHECK out the compact Port Aransas Museum and take a tour of Farley’s boat yard – a living exhibit where you can see boats being made and a replica of the one Franklin D Roosevelt took out. TAKE a trip to The Venetian Italian restaurant in Port A. It serves some of the best calamari I’ve ever had. STRIKE up banter with the locals over a beer or frozen margarita – you won’t be disappointed. at the Omni Hotel, with its wraparound top-floor restaurant a good spot to pick out landmarks and neighbouring Port Aransas.
Surfing is huge here, as was made clear on my visit to the Texas Surf Museum. These dudes are the only ones left when hurricanes hit, racing to take on the giant swell.
Hunting
Two great treats for kids of all ages in Corpus are the neighbouring aquarium and the aircraft carrier HMS Lexington. But the real jaw-dropper for me on the Gulf Coast was the island of Port Aransas, where Texas snowbirds (retired(ret people in search of warmer climest)clim descend on the beaches. BoardingB a tiny ferry, we took just a fe few minutes to cross over into a world of wildlife away from Corpus. wo rW Wherever you go in Texas, the localslo are fishing, hunting or twosteppings with their partners in a livelyl bar. Port A is no exception. It’s a melting pot of ranchers, oil and gas mill millionaires and surfe surfers. Beer, bait ( TexanTe sushi!) an and t ackle – you’r you’re hooked on arriv arrival. I stayed at the historic Tarpon Inn, where President Roosevelt once laid his Stetson. It’s the perfect place to sit on a haunted rocker and watch the world go by.
Kick off with the Trolley Tour around the island to get your landlubber’s bearings.
One unmissable treat is the dolphin watching tour. Make sure you and the kids grab the right one, where pirates in Johnny Depp gear attack the boat, pebble dashing you with popcorn cannon fodder while you fire back with water pistols.
It’s not all fishing and shooting, mind. How about turning your hand to belt sander racing at The Gaff on Port A? No, me neither. But believe it or not there are league tables for folk who want to plug in their pimped-up power tools and race them. It’s a statewide thing. If only I’d packed my Black & Decker.
Port A is also known as Island of Lost Souls and you find all human life here.
It’s one of the most diverse parts of the US you could visit and I defy you to find a warmer welcome in the South, whatever the size of your Stetson. FACTFILE: BA flies daily from Heathrow to Houston from £442. Visit ba. com/ houston. Rooms at Omni Hotel from £ 119. Rooms at The Tarpon Inn from £70. traveltexas.com