Texas shores hot for spring breakers

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas -- Sure there's Cancun and Florida, but when it comes to the college crowd's annual quest for sun and fun, the good ole fashioned road trip to South Texas seems hipper than ever.

And folks here are getting ready -- fixing the bungee jump, painting the emcee stands, dusting the strobe lights and waving goodbye to the legions of Midwestern retirees who leave this strip of aquamarine shoreline just before the craziness rolls in.

Sometime during the past few decades, spending Easter break someplace warm with a gang of college buddies became part of Americana.

For the frigid campuses of the upper Midwest, that meant South Padre Island, with the exodus starting with a trickle in early March and becoming a monsoon when Texas colleges let out en masse for "Texas Week," this year starting Monday for many campuses in the region.

South Padre, once a desolate barrier island populated mostly by pelicans and migratory birds, grew up with the trend, and continues to embrace as it co-markets itself as a family resort and upscale retirement haven. Now the island is a stretch of campy novelty shops against a backdrop of high-rise hotels and multimillion-dollar condominiums. And while March is the peak time for college-age visitors, waves of other tourists come throughout the spring, from families to sports enthusiasts. A "kiteboard rodeo" is scheduled for April 9 and 10, and a windsurfing competition will be held April 30 and May 1.

Right now, however, after a few lackluster years post-Sept. 11, travel bookers say college kids are calling with money to spend on the most upscale debauchery they can find.

"Higher-end beachfronts are really what's going," said Chad Hart of Inertia Tours, one of several agencies that specialize in spring-break packages. "They're just saying, 'What's awesome? That's what we want."'

While the Internet has allowed students to book their own hotels and research their own activities, he said plenty of students go for package deals that include meals, club passes, an evening cruise and a jaunt to the Mexican border -- particularly the girls.

"Girls like to have a real full package, they don't want to take chances. A lot of guys, it's still, 'Let's just load into my dad's SUV and sleep in a tent."'

During the past decade, the island's popularity waned against the competition of package deals to foreign destinations, especially Southern Mexico. But parents have grown warier of sending their kids outside of the country, and each year the area is seeing more East Coast students arrive on $900 weeklong packages. Those students on tight budgets are saying they'd rather pitch in for a couple of tanks of gas than spend hundreds of dollars on airfare to a destination outside the United States.

Part of South Padre's allure has always been that it's near the Mexican border, where the drinking age is a loosely enforced 18. Buses are on hand to run the spring-breakers back and forth to a neighborhood of bars in Matamoros, Mexico, only a block across the border but fully in another country.

No one here thinks the current U.S. Department of State travel warning about violent drug killings in northern Mexico will stop kids from going.

Dan Quandt, head of South Padre's Convention and Visitors Bureau, said bookings on the Mexico buses are up 30 percent from last year, but the island's message about Mexico hasn't changed.

"We've always urged students that if they're going to go to go on one of those vans, go in a group, stay with people," he said. "If you don't know where you're going, don't go there."

For those with the energy and the money, South Padre offers many alternative diversions to lying in the sun.

It is one of the best spots in the world for kiteboarding, but lessons are pricey -- a three-hour class for two runs $225 a person at South Padre Island Kiteboarding. Groups can spend a morning or a day deep-sea or bay fishing. Dolphin tours are delightful, and with prices typically well under $20 a ticket, relatively inexpensive. There are personal watercraft rentals, or one can parasail or ride the waves in a banana boat.

The U.S. Army will be erecting a climbing wall on the beach, and visitors can try out for -- or just watch -- the filming of "National Lampoon's Greek Games," a televised parody of the Olympics with competitions such as the handsfree Salisbury steak toss, a keg toss, and female strip wrestling in Velcroed cheerleading suits.

But locals also know that it's important to make sure their college-age visitors remain safe. The Convention and Visitors Bureau Web site has a page on "How to Avoid Getting Busted," reiterating the local drinking age and zero-tolerance policies against drugs and drunk driving. There are also safety warnings for students under 21 who cross the border to party.

Stormy Wall, a former college athletics coach who manages the Padre South hotel, said he's ready to take on the killjoy role of making sure kids who drink too much don't fall of balconies or walk through glass windows. He's threatened to throw kids out for flouting his rules and once chased a local drug dealer out of his hotel and down the beach.

In the end, he said, his guests seem to understand that safety is as important as having fun.

"I have guys calling me on the phone, saying, 'Dude, I'm coming back. Remember me? We're the guys that gave you a hard time."'

If you go ...

ABOUT SOUTH PADRE ISLAND: Located on the Gulf of Mexico at the tip of the Texas tail, South Padre is 7 miles long, 1/2 mile wide, at roughly the same latitude as Miami.

TRIPS ACROSS THE BORDER: The U.S. Department of State has a travel warning for northern Mexico due to gang violence, so visitors are advised to go with groups and stick with well-known bars, restaurants, and shopping districts.

TIP: Many a spring-breaker has gotten a ticket for failing to slow down while driving through small towns on the way to South Padre Island.