For my wife's family, Mustang Island is an annual rite of passage, generally booking a large suite at the Sandpiper or Sea Gull Condo towers, located mid-way between Port A. and Corpus, to kick off summer. Either crossing the bay bridge on one side, or taking the short ferry on the other was the line of demarcation between ordinary life and beach life. But over the years, those condos have become more and more expensive to rent. And now, no longer having school-aged kids to accommodate, we can do different things, like go in October (when it's still 80 degrees).
Just south of those two condo towers (of course on State Highway 361, like everything else on Mustang Island) is the Lost Colony set of beach houses. This year we booked house #2, and I prefer it greatly to tower-life. First, assuming you'll have more than two people, the cost per person beats the adjacent condos. Also, it's just more personal to me to just walk out your unit and be at ground level, and not have to wait for an elevator, etc, or having to hear people run up and down the hallway outside your door at all hours. We were only there for three days, so didn't need to take advantage of the available laundry equipment in our unit, though my mom-in-law was there longer and that seemed to be very handy for her. Our unit was decorated in a "Pier One Beach" motif, so you'll never forget where you are even with the blinds closed. And our unit (not sure if all do) even had Netflix.
Downsides are that the curtains are all pretty sheer, so trying to sleep in with the morning sun could be a problem if you're used to pitch black like we are. Much of the sheets didn't seem to fit the beds, when we wanted to swap out when we left and another guest was going to take our place. We didn't really use the lower floor bedroom with the bunk beds, but if you've got a couple kids, that would probably be a plus. The kitchen was pretty much stocked well enough for us (though we did buy a couple things, like trashbags, when we got our groceries), but the upstairs shower was pretty nice and big if that's important to you. The A/C unit inside was in the main living room though, so that was fairly loud and distracting when it was running, and with the thin curtains and not well insulated windows, probably ran more than it should have. Though when it ran, it blew cold and hard! Almost so much that it was difficult to find a balance between too cold when it was running and blowing on you, and warm when it stopped. We were not bothered with having to take our trash to the dumpsters by the main road.
All in all, we liked it. It being gated and smaller helped with the privacy. Honestly, the biggest complaint I had was the loud A/C in the living room. So, first world problem. I'll put this just shy of four stars, so round up. read more