GALVESTON ISLAND is about an hour’s drive from downtown
Houston and is home to many residents who work in the Houston area and Houstonians who own weekend and vacation property in Galveston. Also, thanks to the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston is home to a thriving medical center and the personnel who staff it.
So proud of their heritage, and dedicated to the preservation of the island, native Galvestonians distinguish themselves from the rest of the local citizenry with the title “BOI” – meaning they were “born on the Island.” Imbued with a rich history and rightly proud of its survival and recovery from some of the worst storms in history, Galveston continues to thrive and rebuild itself.
Believed to be the island where the Spanish explorer, Cabeza
de Vaca, was shipwrecked, it has been a pirate refuge and the mega-center of Texas deepwater commerce. It has seen unimaginable riches and disasters, natural and man-made. The Islanders—past and present—have been impacted by disease, fires, hurricanes and a Civil War; and yet an indomitable spirit has always emerged, intact and proud. Galveston is a prime example of the Texas heritage that makes us exceptional and defines us.
Still, Galveston is best known as a tourist resort, along the gulf side’s boardwalk, where you will find Texas Gulf Coast’s premier amusement park, the Pleasure Pier, and on the bay side with its Moody Gardens offering the Aquarium, Rainforest and Discovery Pyramids, an IMAX 3D Theater and the beautiful Palm Beach. The Galveston Strand is a hot spot of activity virtually every weekend but truly comes alive during various celebrations including Dickens on The Strand during the holiday season and
its Mardi Gras parade and related activities are renowned. Add to that, the nearby Port of Galveston, which welcomes a growing number of cruise lines.
Galveston’s housing options range from stately Victorian-era and traditional homes within the city itself to beach and Bayfront villas and bungalows on both the well-established West End, home to such communities as Pirates Beach, Lafitte’s Cove, Jamaica Beach and Sea Isle, and the more recently
developed East End that includes Beachtown. Also, a number of high-rise condominiums and apartment complexes dot the shoreline.
