America's Best Little Beach Towns

Rockport, TX

This is nature Texas-style, big and ready to roll, with an enormous flock of whooping cranes in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, stunning beaches along nearby Matagorda Island, and a 1,000-year-old oak known simply as “the Big Tree.”

Stay: A funky little place with classic beach lodgings, the Fulton Beach Bungalows overlook Aransas Bay.

Eat: Steve Lew’s BBQ Kitchen will take you way down home, with pulled pork and Texas-style sausage. —Tom Austin

America’s Best Little Beach Towns