The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 was the greatest natural disaster in American history. The storm surge submerged the entire island under 6 feet of water. Wikipedia:
The dead bodies were so numerous that burying all of them was impossible. The dead were initially weighted down on barges and dumped at sea, but when the gulf currents washed many of the bodies back onto the beach, a new solution was needed. Funeral pyres were set up on the beaches, or wherever dead bodies were found, and burned day and night for several weeks after the storm.Galveston never really recovered. Development in the area shifted inland to a little town called Houston. In fact, by the 1920s a channel was dredged thirty miles inland for ocean going ships to bypass Galveston and dock right outside Houston. That was that for Galveston as a big time economic center.
Over the last century Galveston has clawed its way back to viability. They built a big old seawall that offers them some protection against all but the worst hurricanes. Unfortunately, Harvey in 2017 was just that -- one of the worst. Once again Galveston was pretty much submerged, but this time, less than a year later, everything is pretty much back to normal. Hurricanes loom large in the Galvestonian culture. You see "high water marks" on many of the buildings and most new houses are built on stilts.
Galveston today is effectively the Jersey Shore for all of the explosively growing Houston/Austin corridor. It is bigger than a beach town, but not really a full-on coastal city in that its only real industry is visitors. It is an intriguing mix of hipster resorts, prole-ish amusements, history, and to some extent, natural beauty.
There is a main tourist area which harbors all the hotels, everything from high-end resorts to dive motels. I can recommend the Hotel Galvez -- it has likely the only place on the island that approaches fine dining, including an astonishing Sunday brunch, and it has a lovely salt water pool. Most of the properties in this area are across the street, or within a block, from the seawall. On the other side of the seawall is, of course, the beach. The seawall walk is active, lots of pedestrians and cyclists. The beach itself is very broad and the sand, while not the powder fine variety you get across the gulf, is decent. The water is swimmable, but quite brown; it is after all effectively the runoff from the Mississippi river before the Gulf Stream have a chance to filter it.
The centerpiece of the Seawall is Pleasure Pier -- an amusement park full of rides, that sits on a pier well out over the water. It's a striking, Coney Island-ish image, especially when lit up at night. There are of course restaurants and bars peppered all along the way, mostly the sort where certain types of people go to power drink and behave obnoxiously well into the night.
Inland, there are also some points of interest. Moody Gardens is park of sorts with an aquarium, botanical gardens, Imax, and a sort of extreme playground with zip lines and rope courses. There is a major waterpark nearby. In the older section of town there are historic houses you can tour. And then there is a downtown area called The Strand, which is a Key West-like wander-and-drink destination.
All things considered, Galveston should probably have a more prominent reputation than it does. I suspect what's holding it back is a lack of popular mythology -- say, a prominence in film or literature. It's also kind of trying to be everything to everybody, from a genteel resort and spa destination, to a family friendly fun spot, to a redneck Asbury Park.
More surprising to me is the slow pace of development. There seems to be an enormous amount of space just waiting for vacation homes or retail centers to be built. And the existing buildings all seem...vintage 1962. In contrast I think of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where there seems to be nary a square foot without a recently-built, multi-bedroom vacation rental.
I'd like to spend more time in Galveston and get to know it better (I only had a short weekend). That said, for me the flight to Houston and the flight to Florida are roughly equivalent and, other things equal, I'll take the Florida Gulf every time. Still, if the opportunity presents itself, I'd look forward to another visit. Galveston brings a solid beach town game.
