Cruisin’ the beach in style…

I will admit that I was a little nervous about renting a beach cart – well, you know us, we had to rent 2, both 6 seaters! LOL! First, would the cart owner freak when we pulled in and 10 kids piled out of our van? And, beach carts, even if you are just using them on the beach, are subject to the same laws that govern vehicles (meaning seat belts…), so what were we going to do about the littles and their car seats? Then, of course we would love it, but what were we going to do with the carts for 4 whole hours (we HAD to rent them for 4 hours instead of 2 because it was much cheaper per hour! )???

Well, we needn’t have worried! We had a marvelous time, in great carts, rented to us by fabulous people, and for just the right amount of time!!!

We chose to go to Bron’s Beach Carts as he had the best looking lot/carts in the area. We were pleasantly surprised by the upbeat and friendly staff that he had on hand, and we loved that they weren’t drop-jaw’d when our tribe piled out of the van! They rented us 2 of their snazzy carts (they were all nice!) without batting an eye, and even helped us to belt car seats in, warning us that the officers were very strict about kids being buckled in (we were just glad that they didn’t care we were putting car seats on their cart seats!). We chose to keep the carts for 4 hours; they said we could keep them longer if we wanted and we’d just settle up when we eventually came back.  We bungeed in our cooler full of lunch, and pulled off the lot and onto the street headed for the beach.

We had a fabulous time! At first we thought that the beach carts didn’t go very fast, but they were plenty quick! The humidity and wind off of the gulf made for a chilly ride, and the littles ended up wrapping up in beach towels because we hadn’t thought to bring their coats! We drove up the beach to the jetty and stopped for lunch, then we drove miles down the beach. We stopped a few times to get out and explore (and play football), but mostly, we just drove. Cuz I have guys…

Guys who LOVED the beach carts!  We all had a great time driving down the beach, along the edge of the water (but not in!), with the wind blowing through our hair, and laughing and yelling between carts. Emma, who is 7, was in the cart in front of us, and she yelled back at me, “Mom! We should do this every year when we come to Padre!”.  The rest of the tribe all agreed!

We drove and drove and drove, and finally drove back to town – a little earlier than our carts were due back, so we stopped by D.Q. for some treats before returning the beach carts (and on a side note, we’ve been to oodles of DQs, and this was the first one where they held the kids’ Blizzards upside-down to show how thick they were… just thought you should know that because they are all supposed to…;).  It did seem a little strange (and fun!) to see 2 bright beach carts parked in the parking lot instead of our van!

In Port Aransas, some people who fly down to visit don’t bother to rent a car; they rent a beach cart for their stay – the carts are street legal, plated for town, and can often be seen parked in front of restaurants and shopping, and at the beach. Considering coming to Port Aransas?  You can check out local campgrounds through the Woodalls Campground Directory!

There are several beach cart rental shops in Port Aransas.  You can find these same, fun carts that we rented, at Bron’s Beach Carts (where in the off-season he cuts some pretty great deals! shhh!). We got great service here, and the carts were clean and well maintained, and even came in cool colors!    When we returned the carts, 4 hours later, we got to meet Bron himself, and he was a really nice guy.

As for us, we are already looking forward to touring the beach in beach carts again next year!!!