Beach Picnics Elevate SPI Tourist Experience

by R. Daniel Cavazos

Flowers adorn many of the beachside presentations of SPI Beach Picnics

It all started with a request for a picnic on the beach.

Nadia Turner knew about staging events having grown up in her family’s restaurant business and arranging parties and celebrations. And Turner described herself and husband Louie as “beach people” who enjoyed South Padre Island, growing up as area natives and later as adults traveling to resort areas in Mexico and Florida. Her friend’s beach picnic request piqued Turner’s interest.

She decided to give it a go, arranging the surfside event. Turner would run into a maze of permitting regulations from the City of South Padre Island. A simple request was difficult to achieve. Cameron County government proved to be far more accessible and welcoming. Turner’s friend got her picnic off Beach Access 3 on county-managed beachfront. In the process, Turner discovered a new business that would become SPI Luxury Beach Picnics By Nadia.

“I posted it on Facebook,” she said of photos from the June 2022 picnic. “It hasn’t stopped since then.”

High Energy

Turner goes through an upcoming weekend and its preceding days when describing her imminent work schedule.

She and her husband will be busy. There’s a beach wedding to stage on Thursday. The next day the Turners will be in San Benito to cater an event. 

Romantic events like proposals and weddings are popular themes for SPI Luxury Beach Picnics

On Saturday, they will be back on the Island to cater and arrange a birthday party at a condominium. 

From there, on the same day, they will stage another one of their spectacular and stylish beach picnics, with this one having the added allure of being a night event.

“We’re kind of like the little train that could,” Turner said of going from one event-to-another.

The Turner couple is high energy and effusive about their business ventures. Based in San Juan, they also have a residence in Port Isabel, where Louie has a commercial kitchen to prepare the meals used to cater events on the Island. TNT Catering is overseen by Louie Turner, a U.S. Army veteran and former Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy who also has an extensive cooking background. The third piece of the Turner business activities is a concierge service in which tourists are driven to-and-from SPI from all points in the Rio Grande Valley.

“We work for ourselves,” Louie Turner said. “We don’t have bank loans or investors. We work with what we have.”

SPI Luxury Beach Picnics By Nadia is known for its elaborately designed and staged events. 

High-End Vibe

The affinity for surf-and-sand has taken the Turner couple to the resort beaches of Mexico and the white sands of Florida and its Gulf Coast beaches.

Returning home, they wondered why South Padre lacked some of the higher-end amenities seen elsewhere.

“That’s our driving force,” Louie Turner said. “We believe the Island is underserved. Our goal is to attract more tourism and drive more business here.”

One way of doing that is through the elaborately staged and beautifully adorned beachside events hosted by SPI Luxury Beach Picnics. Nadia Turner’s passion and skill for design and décor are evident in Luxury Beach’s Facebook photo gallery. There’s umbrellas and flowers galore, balloons on the beach, with elegant white tablecloths and the Gulf of Mexico providing a sweeping backdrop. Romantic events make up a significant share of their business, be it marriage proposals or wedding ceremonies and the receptions that follow.

Surfside and sunny at another beautiful event staged by SPI Beach Picnics

Night events under starry Island skies are visually striking with small bonfires and lighting hanging from canopy tents. They are all moments the Turners want their customers to remember fondly the rest of their lives.

“People are always looking for romantic things to do,” Louie Turner said.

“We’re trying to provide a higher end vibe and incorporate things that are more luxurious.”

The Turners’ quest to that end is just getting started with their year-old business. They spoke of frustrations dealing with City Hall regulations while expressing an understanding for the need to follow rules. Louie Turner described himself as being a stickler for following the County’s beachside directives and wishes the City would make it easier for small businesses to operate on the Island. Still, Turner spoke optimistically of improving relations with City regulators as he and his wife chart plans to grow their businesses.

“We want to elevate the tourist experience on the Island,” Nadia Turner said. “We want people to talk about the Island like they do about Cancun and Destin, (Florida).”

Nadia and Louie Turner are working to elevate the tourist experience on SPI. (Island Matters)

Click here to unsubscribe. | Click here to forward
View this email as a web page
Message sent by Island Matters , sarah@islandmatters.org
Island Matters | P.O. Box 2778 | South Padre Island, TX 78597