We were in Vidor from January 25 to January 26, 2021, as part of our Winter Warmth Trip.

Where???

It’s a loooooong drive between Austin and anywhere appealing to the east. This Houston to New Orleans road trip guide has some potentially good stopover options, but after leaving Ocean Springs we wanted to keep driving until we were ready to drop, and so chose Vidor, an unknown dot on the map for the night. Our criteria were: a brewery (to have a beer after a long day, and also because generally towns with breweries tend to have other interesting aspects) and a campground close to town, since we were sick of driving.

Campground

We stayed at Texas Star RV Park. Everyone we met there was very nice. The park is a bit dumpy, and the campsites are narrow. It was fine for a stopover. Though it looks on the map like it’s just down the street from the brewery in town, it’s actually a ten minute drive down the access road and under the interstate and back up the other side.

Brewery

Oh dear. Again, the people were very nice. Unbeknownst to us, Rikenjaks Brewing Company in Vidor is an outpost of Rikenjaks Brewing Co in Lake Charles. Ok, fine, what beers do you have? It turns out they carry ZERO Rikenjaks beers, and only a few craft beers at all. The (very nice) server couldn’t even tell us about the beers and had to fetch someone else. It was all very dismaying when we thought we were at a brewery. The patio was smoky, but dog-friendly, with a noisy view of the interstate. Nobody wore masks, despite the signage. They did have fish tacos and fried pickles (yes we love fried pickles) on the menu! So there’s that. And the people were very nice. And it can’t qualify as the worst brewery ever since they don’t actually brew beers there or carry the parent brewery’s beers. 🙄 I guess I won’t be adding it to our brewery page.

In conclusion: you should probably only stop in Vidor if you’re not planning to leave your trailer. No offense.