Spring Break Airfare Price Drops by 12% vs. last year

Our analysis of spring break airfare pricing from around 50 US departure cities to South Padre Island, Texas for spring break reveals that airfare has decreased in price approximately 12% on average. We feel that the safety of going on college spring break to Texas, combined with the travel deal that seems to exists points to the fact that South Padre Island should be one of the hottest spring break 2010 destinations this year.

Saida is THE place to stay with Inertia on Spring Break in South Padre

Inertia Tours offers complete spring break trip packages with airfare, included airport transfers, condos at the Saida Towers, and 2 dine around restaurant meals per day.
Trip prices with airfare run $649 to $1099 per person with all fees included. Visit http://www.inertiatours.com for more details on this exciting destination or call us toll free 800 821 2176 x 1
or email chad@inertiatours.com

South Padre Island businesses happy with Spring Break

Aaron Nelsen
The Brownsville Herald

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Chad Hart’s voice is hoarse after a 34-hour shift organizing Spring Break events on South Padre Island for his business, Inertia Tours.

Inertia offers seven-night Spring Break packages that include lodging, meals and a schedule of parties for $400 per person.

With several of the Island’s largest hotels closed and others struggling to fill rooms by late February, the early indication was Spring Break 2009 would flop, but you wouldn’t hear such talk from Hart.

“I won’t rest until the end of April,” Hart said. “And right now I have a group of spring breakers in front of my office waiting to check in.”

Hart says he won’t know until this year’s sales are counted, but he expects to top 5,000 packages sold, up from roughly 4,000 in 2008.

In fact, Inertia sales for Texas Week, usually the busiest week during Spring Break on SPI, surpassed 2008 sales.

“My sales are up 35 percent,” Hart said. “It seemed there were true people here on vacation instead of people just doing laps on the strip.”

In February, the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau indicated that it was anticipating a weak economy would take a toll on students.

The CVB projected 40,000 college students would take their Spring Break vacation on SPI, down from 60,000 in 2008.

On Monday, an upbeat Dan Quandt, executive director of the South Padre Island CVB, said while the overall number of visitors doesn’t look like it will surpass the CVB’s early estimate, Spring Break 2009 should be considered a success.

“Of course, there are some students who’ve yet to arrive,” Quandt said. “But all in all I’d say we did pretty good, probably better than last year.”

Prior to the arrival of students, many Island businesses were concerned what affect the economic recession at home and escalating violence on the border with Mexico would have on students.

Hotel occupancy numbers, sales tax totals and liquor sales won’t be published until April. Until then most seem content with this year’s turnout even if there were fewer spring breakers.

“It went OK,” said Daniel Salazar, general manager of the Isla Grande Beach Resort, formerly the Radisson Resort. “We had about 90 percent occupancy for Texas Week. That’s a little down from last year, but nothing drastic.”

The Isla Grande Beach Resort features one of the Island’s biggest attractions with the Coca Cola Beach, which pulls daily crowds between 12,000 and 18,000.

The Coca Cola Beach wraps up later this week, but Salazar and his staff have already turned their attention to conventioneers.

“The mood is still Spring Break, but I’ve done a 180,” Salazar said. “The posters have come down and most of the students are gone. My focus is now on conferences.”

Coca Cola Beach 2010?

One of the quirks of South Padre island is that the combination of seasonal business and the occasional hurricane lead to a lot of businesses opening, closing, or changing ownership/names.

For older spring breakers, this is a non-issue as they graduate and take jobs without the week off. But, for the younger ones who might make a couple trips down here, all the name changing can make for some confusion.

Here’s a guide to some of the recent name changes for now, though it may be also out of date by Spring Break 2010.

Bahia Mar Resort – Closed for now.

Tequila Frogs – Reopened as Mooncusser’s.

Skky Bar – Reopened as Padre Rock.

Inverness Condos – Closed for now.

Radisson – Reopened as Isla Grand

Full Throttle/Sprite Remix Beach – Changed back to Coca Cola Beach.

The Best Meal on South Padre Island

One of the big perks about South Padre is that 90% of what goes on around the island occurs within a couple miles north of the bridge that connects it to the mainland of Texas. All of the clubs and most of the restaurants are along this stretch, whereas the portion south of the bridge is devoted more to jetties, surfing, fishing, camping and the like.

Accordingly, one of the island’s gems–missed by most spring breakers–is a little restaurant holed back with the piers called Dirty Al’s. If logic prevailed, folks would realize that the best seafood on the island should come from a restaurant with a pier out back. But, for several reasons, most have no reason to venture this far south.

Still, this the spot for my favorite dish on the island–the blackened fish tacos. In spite of the location, there used to always be a long wait to get a table. But, over the years, the restaurant’s success has allowed it to expand to three, similar islands elsewhere on the island.

But, the original is still the best. And if that’s not enough to compel you to visit, you can also see their sweetass logo with Al drinking a beer riding a fish.

The more things change…

I found a picture of spring break in South Padre from back in 1988. My first impulse was to say that the only major change on the beach (other than the crowd size and corporate sponsorship) is the fashion, but with the resurgence of neon in the last couple years, even that’s debatable.

South Padre Then:

South Padre Now:

South Padre Frequently Asked Questions

Understandably, parents have a lot of concerns about their kids going on spring break. So, in the Inertia office, we end up answering a lot of the same questions repeatedly as the spring break season gears up.

Here are a couple of the most common:

Q. Where is South Padre?
A. It’s a long skinny island that runs along the coast of Texas.

Q. Is South Padre a part of Mexico or the U.S. or independent?
A. It’s a part of the U.S.

Q. Is South Padre safe, since it’s so close to Mexico?
A. We’re a full 40 minutes, one border, and several checkpoints from Mexico. So, not unlike Las Vegas, whatever is going on in Mexico, stays in Mexico.

Q. What’s the drinking age in South Padre?
A. It’s 21, like everywhere else in the States.

Q. What if I’m on a party cruise, don’t the laws change in international waters?
A. The party cruise sails around the bay between South Padre and Texas. It’s still the United States.

Q. South Padre is an island, but it doesn’t have an airport. So, do we have to take a boat there?
A. No. We’re connected to Texas by a bridge.

South Padre by Any Other Name

One of the phenomena on South Padre Island is it’s penchant for fouling up folks’ pronunciations and spellings.

Some of them are just oversights, like the constant references to “Mooncussers” as “Mooncrushers.”

Much of it has to do with foreign names. One of the restaurants on our meal plan is La Jaiba (Spanish for “The Crab”). Most of our staff (myself included) tend to call it “La Hy-E-Ba.” But the locals insist the restaurant is “La Hy-Ba.” Conversely, one of the most popular condo complexes on the island is Saida. But, in this case, the “I” is pronounced so that it’s spoken “Sy-E-Da.” (Though nearly all of the spring breakers call it “Sadey-Uh”).

Going the other way, the Spanish-speaking DJs on the island are constantly referring to Inertia Tours as “Interita Tours,” when talking on the mic during parties.

And before folks ever get down here, we get a lot of calls in the office from parents who want to know more before sending their kid off to spring break on “San Padre/San Pedro/South Padre/etc.”

Where the Locals Drink in South Padre

A lot of what folks come on spring break for is to hit up the arena-style clubs they might not have at home. And the island has no shortage of them–Louie’s and Mooncusser’s (formerly Tequila Frogs) are particularly huge.

The flipside, of course, is that with that many people–getting a drink isn’t always easy. And occasionally, you just want something more intimate. So, the favorite change of pace on South Padre is a little place way up at the north end of the island called the Coral Reef.

There’s not much here that’ll surprise you. Not many spring breakers. Long lines for karaoke, but short lines at the bar. They don’t have ginger ale (but will mix Coke and Sprite together, if you’re desperate). And the bathrooms (the men’s at least) are covered with pictures of the an older man (the owner? I don’t know) groping the breasts of several exotic dancers.

I tried to find a website for them, to find a better picture–but all I could find on-line was an explanation for how their beer is so cold. Apparently they use this:

It’s a pitcher with ice built into it! So the beer stays cold, without getting diluted!

Midnight Pancakes: An Alternative Spring Break

In addition to the tens of thousands of college students that swarm South Padre Island each spring break, the island is also invaded by folks looking to both spread the gospel through creative ministries.

Primarily, this means offering free shuttles and free pancakes to college students rolling out of the bars and clubs.

While this could be a preachy nightmare for partiers and a night of unprovoked belligerence for the “Beach Reachers,” there’s actually a fair amount of rapport. Put simply, the pancake station outside Louie’s makes for a subdued afterhours spot for folks to regroup and fill up–which spring breakers love. And for the pancake makers, it’s probably a better way to engage peers than handing out literature or carrying a giant cross down the beach.

So, if you’re looking for an alternative way to spend spring break, spreading some cheer while getting some sun, this might be the ticket. Plus, since most of the work to be done takes place at night, it frees up the day for making a giant sand Jesus.

Partying by Day in South Padre

While there are several megaclubs on in South Padre, by far the largest venue on South Padre is Coca Cola Beach. It actually changes names depending on who sponsors it. So, folks tend to think of it as Coca Cola Beach even on the years when it’s been Full Throttle Beach or Sprite Remix Beach.

Regardless, it’s located behind the ISLA GRAND BEACH RESORT–which has undergone a name change itself, since it was a Radisson last year. And its party stage attracts daily crowds between 12,000 and 18,000 at for games, drinking, a lot of banter about whose college is best, all competing with a 50,000 watt sound system.