 , we trust that you will enjoy the content in this section. The purpose of the Texas Lakes and Boating section is to provide you with some basic information on Texas lakes, lake camping, rental of water toys and boats, Texas Outside Favorite Lakes with reviews and ratings, and other good information about Texas lakes and boating.
Texas Lakes
Texas Outside provides an easy way to locate a Texas lake, find out what it’s like, and what to do once you’re there. The lake information includes (or will very soon) the locations of marinas, Parks, restaurants, rental toys, fun bars with music, and more.
Over the last 26 years, we have been playing on Texas lakes and our intent is to part with that knowledge and provide you with our biased rating and review of Texas lakes. Included in each review will be a brief overview of the lake, where to stay (campgrounds, lodges, cabins, or rental houses), and fun things to do on the lake (coves for swimming, skiing/boarding locations, cruising spots, restaurants, bars, toy rentals, and more). During the summer, we will review at least one lake a month, so keep coming back to Texas Outside to learn more about Texas lakes.
Click here for a list of lakes we have reviewed and to read the reviews. See below on how we review and rate lakes.
 Can you think of anything better than sitting on the deck or dock with a hot cup of coffee or a cool refreshing drink and watching the sunrise or sunset over a beautiful lake? Or getting up in the morning and walking a few steps down to your boat or water toys to hit the lake for a fun day of skiing, boarding, fishing, or just cruising. Well, if you don't own a lake house, then here is where you can rent some lake front property for the weekend, week, or longer. Check them out, call and make a reservation, and pack the bags and get going.
- Lake Rentals - Texas Outside's list of cabins, resorts, lodges, vacation homes, and more
- Lake Resorts lists property throughout Texas
- Resorts & Rentals page also has information on resorts, spas, golf resorts, and more
Don't let not owning a boat stop you from enjoying the Texas lakes for skiing, boarding, fishing, partying, or just cruising around enjoying the scenery - go rent a fishing boat, waverunner, party barge, or ski boat! What are you waiting for - here is the Watercraft Rental Page that lists rentals by lake - get out on the lake!
If you are looking for a place to store your boat, either a wet or dry slip, or just looking for a marina for some gas, staples, repairs, or a restaurant, then the Marinas page is for you. You will find lake marinas and Gulf Coast marinas and a brief description of the services and amenities or a way to contact the marina.
Each month you can relive a typical Texas Outside weekend adventure that Texas Outside just enjoyed. Weekend trips typically involve a number of outside activities like boating, camping, hiking, biking, music festivals, and more. We'll tell you what we did, where we did it, what else you can do, and provides some links to finding more good stuff.
In this section Texas Outside will highlight some of the best parks for lake camping and provide some information on the park, campsites, and fun activities within the park or nearby. You’ll find park ratings, reviews, pictures, and much more.
- Visit the Texas Outside Parks and Camping Home Page for more information on camping in Texas, plus Texas Outside's rating and reviews of campgrounds
- Texas lake camping is one of our summer passions and we'll highlight some of the best lake camping for you
If you’d like to enjoy a Texas Lake for boating, fishing, swimming, or just relaxing, then you should take advantage of Thousand Trail’s free 3 day, 2-night offer. Thousand Trails has resort locations for your enjoyment on two of the best lakes in Texas - Lake Texoma and Lake Conroe.
If you're looking to spend some time on the lake at a Texas State Park, Corp of Engineers Park, or a private RV Park, make sure that you call ahead a make a reservation. Lake camping is very popular and the good campgrounds fill up fast so you need to make a reservation well if advance. Here you will find the links to reserve a State Park or Corp of Engineers Park using their reservation system.
- if you don't have a boat, below is where you can find a list of places to rent a boat, pontoon boat, party barge, or waverunner to explore, fish, ski, or party on the Texas lakes. If you like to fish and don't want to rent a boat, then check out the fishing guides listed below - they will help you catch that big one. If you're going fishing, you need a place to stay so check out the Fishing Cabins and Rentals page
If you love the water and haven’t taken a houseboat vacation, you need to get with it and plan a house boating trip now – you, your best friends, and your kids will never forget it! Texas Outside will help you find a houseboat to rent for a weekend or week or more. Visit the Texas Outside house boating home page.
We are fair-weather boaters, so during the summer months we will feature a Texas lake each month – make sure you visit the site frequently to find out what’s new! Each month’s lake will include our review, rating, and fun activities on or nearby the lake.
We have selected some vendors that we know provide quality merchandise and gear at reasonable prices. Support these vendors and spend your hard earned money with them by ordering directly from the Texas Outside website (it will also help us in our efforts to continue to provide new and exciting content and merchandise). You’ll also find some cool boating products of the month.
We are working on expanding this section as soon as we can. We are looking for great places to rent boats or water toys, excellent boat dealers, good places to buy parts and accessories, or any other ideas you might have. Send us an email if you can help us.
Texas Outside rates lakes on a 1 to 10 scale based on:
- Beauty: high scores are given for lots of trees, hills, or pretty houses
- Water Clarity: if you’re standing in two feet of water and can’t see your toes or the water has a deep brown color, the rating will be a 1
- Water Conditions: rough water with waves over a foot high due to consistent wind or boat wakes doesn't rate high on our scale -- it would rate high if you're trying to surf.
- Skiing & Board Conditions: on the weekends if you can typically find a good cove or a part of the lake with glass, we’re talking a 10
- Beaches: don’t you hate those beaches that when you step into the water you sink in mud up to your knees and loose your flip-flops or it’s all slime and weeds or small rocks that kill your feet – if so, that’s a 1
- Fun Scale: lakes scoring a 10 have fun restaurants and bars, music on the deck, excellent sights for cruising, great coves for raft ups or swimming, and fun rental toys
- Cruising & Touring: if you can cruise the lake and look at beautiful houses, nice marinas, pretty coves, or anything similar it will score high
- Restaurants & Bars: nothing better than cruising over and having some good food and great music on the deck of some fun restaurant –ride back with smooth water and a beautiful Texas sunset -- can’t get much better than that!
- Safety Level: lakes with lots of wild and crazy jet skiers or fast cigarette boats will score low
- Camping: we’re looking for beautiful spacious sites right on the water with a nice sandy beach to swim and park the boat
- Fishing: the bigger the better, and they must be easy to catch
Keep in mind that the new Texas Outside owners are expanding the Texas Lakes and Boating section and adding links and content as rapidly as possible. If you don’t find what you're looking for today, please come back later or email us with your ideas and suggestions. We have been camping and boating on Texas lakes since 1980 and we are adding content as fast as we can. We would love to have you submit your comments, reviews, rating, and pictures to share with fellow Texas Outside enthusiasts.
Before you leave, here are some facts and figures that you might find interesting or topics of conversation at your next dinner party:
- Texas is second only to Alaska in the volume of inland water with more than 6000 square miles of lakes and streams – that’s enough to keep you explorin’ and boating for a few years.
- Toledo Bend Reservoir is the largest reservoir in Texas with 185,000 surface acres and Sam Rayburn Reservoir is the largest body of water wholly within the state with 114,500 acres.
- Texas Parks and Wildlife operates over 82 parks and their goal is to provide a park within a two-hour drive of every major metropolitan area - 45 of the parks are located on Texas lakes.
- The Corps of Engineers have jurisdiction over 24 lakes and 18 lakes are under the jurisdiction of other authorities, water districts counties, or municipalities – all of these agencies operate numerous parks and camping facilities.
– For Texas Outside members we plan to have additional and unique content; special packages and discounts on golf, camping, or gear; newsletters; and other great stuff as fast as we think of it. When you sign up as a member, we encourage you to provide some personal demographics and areas of interest to help us in structuring content of value to you and to help Texas Outside marketing efforts in delivering more valuable and relevant information - including coupons and discounts.
Sign up below to become a member and start receiving our newsletter.
As the new owners of Texas Outside, we recognize that some of the content in certain Texas Outside sections is a little light – please be patient as we are adding content, reviews, ratings, pictures, etc as rapidly as we can. If you don’t find what your looking for today, please come back again to experience all the new stuff. We have been camping, boating, biking, hiking, golfing, and having fun weekends in Texas since 1980 and we are eager to part with that knowledge by expanding the content as soon as possible.
We have structured Texas Outside to deliver what you’re looking for – if we don’t deliver, please let us know. We’re interested in your comments, suggestions, and ideas on how the site can be improved to provide value to you. We can also use your help expanding the content – send us an email with your comments, reviews, rating, and pictures (keep ‘um clean) on fun things to do or places to visit.
To keep the site going we need advertising revenue and as such, you’ll see we have selected advertisers and vendors that offer products or services that relate to outside activities, rentals of fun toys or cabins, fishing and hunting guides, fun places to visit, and more – so please visit the advertisers by clicking on the link to their site or purchasing their goods or services through Texas Outside. Through Texas Outside you are dealing directly with the vendor and their best pricing.
Before leaving, make sure you visit the all the other Texas Outside sections on Parks & Camping, Golf and Golf Resorts, Hunting & Fishing, Hiking & Biking & More Sports, Discover Texas, Outdoor Weddings, Texas Music Festivals & Events and other outdoor activities.
Live. Play. Enjoy…….Get Outside!
Thanks for spending some time with us today, come back soon -- see ya outside.
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State Parks, Lake Parks, and Campground Reservations 
