Where it is. Cameron County's own beach plan describes a county coastline of roughly 35 miles that is split in two at the Brazos Santiago Pass jetties, which form the inlet linking the Gulf to the lower Laguna Madre for ship traffic bound for the Brownsville Ship Channel [4]. South of Isla Blanca Park the county shoreline continues about 8 miles to where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf; that reach — Brazos Island — is Boca Chica Beach [4]. The same plan groups Boca Chica Beach with Isla Blanca Park as its "Zone 1" shoreline reach, running from the pass to the river, with an average erosion rate of roughly six feet a year and, in the plan's words, the site of the SpaceX launch facility [4]. The shoreline is building outward within about three miles of the south jetty and retreating farther south toward the river [4]. The county coastline's southern boundary is described as the Rio Grande outlet and the Mexican border [4]. (I found no primary-source page about Playa Bagdad on the Mexican side and make no claim about it — see Gaps.)
Getting there from Brownsville. In the county's access numbering this is Beach Access Number 7, described as 18 miles east of the City of Brownsville, reached by an all-weather road, free, and vehicular [4]. The access is "where State Highway 4 (Boca Chica Boulevard) ends on Boca Chica Beach" and it has "no structures" [4]. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's driving directions turn onto SH 4 at Keller's Corner and continue east "for up to 18 miles to the road's end"; the refuge's Boca Chica tract begins about 6.6 miles from Keller's Corner and an information kiosk stands about 11.5 miles east of Brownsville on Highway 4 [25]. The City of Starbase's erosion response plan states flatly that "The only beach access corridor is via State Highway 4" [6].
No road from South Padre Island. Nothing in any county, city, state or federal document I fetched describes any road or ferry link between South Padre Island and Brazos Island; the county plan's description of the pass as a ship-traffic inlet dividing the coastline [4] and the city plan's "only beach access corridor" sentence [6] together mean a visitor on SPI must drive back through Port Isabel and Brownsville to reach Boca Chica. I did not find an official mileage for that drive (Gap).
The south jetty and the river mouth. The county plan places the south jetty of Brazos Santiago Pass at the north end of the Boca Chica reach [4]. The National Weather Service's surf-zone forecast for the Cameron County coast explicitly covers "the beaches of South Padre Island and Boca Chica" and warns that even when the overall rip-current risk is low, life-threatening rip currents often form near jetties, groins, reefs and piers [35].
Boca Chica Village and Starbase. The FAA's access-restriction map for the launch site (reproduced as Exhibit A in every 2026 Starbase closure order) shows Boca Chica Village immediately beside the vertical launch area at the end of SH 4, with checkpoints on SH 4 at Oklahoma Avenue, Massey Avenue and Richardson Avenue and an "All Hard Checkpoint" at the village [8]. On May 3, 2025 Cameron County voters approved incorporating Starbase as a Type C municipality [13]. In 2026 the beach's name was itself contested: Cameron County announced that on July 9, 2026 the U.S. Board on Geographic Names' Domestic Names Committee voted unanimously to keep the name Boca Chica Beach and rejected a proposal to rename it "Cyber Beach" [3].
Check before you go
Road, beach, tide and park conditions can change quickly. Follow posted signs and verify current local-government notices before a long drive or any beach-driving plan.