📍 City guide
Port Isabel, Texas
Port Isabel is the historic fishing town on the mainland end of the causeway, with the only lighthouse on the Texas coast you can still climb, a working shrimp fleet, and the island five minutes across the bay for a fraction of island prices.
Browse Port Isabel by category
Anglers Choice Guide Service (Capt. Gary Farmer)
Port Isabel · Fishing Charter/Guide
Private inshore bay fishing with Captain Gary Farmer out of Port Isabel. Up to six anglers for redfish, trout, flounder, and snook on the Laguna Madre.
Dolphin Docks
Port Isabel · South Padre Island Day Trips
Dolphin watch and bay fishing trips from the base of the causeway in Port Isabel. 90-minute dolphin cruises and 4-hour bay fishing runs, open daily.
Joe's Oyster Bar
Port Isabel · Restaurants
Casual oyster bar and fresh seafood market in downtown Port Isabel, open daily 11 am to 7 pm. Order oysters and fried shrimp, or buy Gulf catch to cook back at
Long Island Village
Port Isabel · RV/Mobile Home Resort
Osprey Cruises
Port Isabel · South Padre Island Day Trips
Family-run bay cruises out of Port Isabel since 1976, running year-round. Dolphin watches, sunset cruises, and bay or deep-sea fishing trips.
Pirate's Landing Restaurant
Port Isabel · Restaurants
Waterfront seafood at the foot of the Queen Isabella Causeway, open from 7 am for breakfast through dinner. Bay views and Texas' longest fishing pier out back.
Port Isabel Health Clinic
Port Isabel · Clinics
Primary care and internal medicine clinic in downtown Port Isabel that works with Medicare Advantage plans. The nearest full clinic to the causeway parks.
Port Isabel Park Center
Port Isabel · RV/Mobile Home Park
Sierra Mobile RV
Port Isabel · Auto Repair
Mobile and shop RV repair on Highway 100 in Port Isabel. Parts, mobile service calls, towing, and wash and wax. Open weekdays and Saturday mornings.
Traveler RV Park
Port Isabel · RV/Mobile Home Park
The Season in Port Isabel
The lighthouse square is the center of town: the 1852 Port Isabel Lighthouse is a state historic site with a view of the whole Laguna Madre from the top, and the small museums around it cover the shrimping fleet, the Mexican-American War, and the treasure wrecks off Padre Island. The seafood here comes off boats you can watch unload, and the fishing, from lighted piers, jetties, or a guided flats trip, runs all winter.
The practical draw is the causeway. Plenty of Island Winter Texans actually live in Port Isabel: RV and mobile-home parks here cost well under island rates, and Sea Turtle Inc., the beach, and the island restaurants are a five-minute drive over the bay. You get the island season without the island rent.
What to Know Before You Book
The same coastal honesty applies here as on the island: winter means wind, and a norther will cancel your beach day. Groceries are covered in town, but a hospital or serious shopping means Harlingen or Brownsville, each about thirty to forty minutes. And on event weekends the causeway traffic backs up through town, so plan your errands around it.