Panama City Beach, Florida

 We took a family trip to Panama City Beach in Summer of 2021.

Who went:  Whole family (4)

How long: Three full days and some partial

This was part of a road trip from Austin, Texas.  We also stayed in New Orleans for a couple of days on the way and hit the Scarlet Pearl Hotel and Casino in D'Iberville, Mississippi on the way back.  Some stops helped to break up the long drive.

About Panama City Beach / Why this beach? / Getting there

Panama City Beach is in the Florida panhandle on the Gulf of Mexico coastline.  Like many of the other beaches in this stretch of Florida, it has beautiful white sand and usually clear water.  We came right after a hurricane, so there was a lot of seaweed, but the sand was still pretty and fine in texture.

Coming from west of the area, we had to drive a little bit farther to get to Panama City Beach (vs other popular beaches like Pensacola, Destin, or Fort Walton Beach).  However, during this busy season, we felt like there were more options for lodging and kids' activities in the larger community. 

We took I-10 most of the way and encountered a couple of slowdowns for accidents (it rained most of the way).  Luckily for us, on the second accident we were stopped right by a U-turn in the highway and were able to re-route, only losing 15 minutes.  We got into PCB around 7pm and it was already starting to get dark.

PCB is very close to the front end of the Central time zone which stretches almost to El Paso, so it gets dark here much earlier and light in the mornings much earlier than in Austin.  Only 30 miles east is EST.  

Where to stay

We had several options for our stay and had to weigh options of being on the beach, near the beach, or away from the beach.  We settled on a VRBO property one block from the beach and located in the lower Grand Lagoon area close to beach public access #24.

Options we considered were in a high-rise condo on the beach (nice location, but smaller room), a house (bigger, but more inland), a coastal condo (which we selected - full kitchen, two bedrooms, living room, balcony).

Day One

Bix and Brooke / Panama City Beach 

Late morning, we headed across the street to the beach.  We did not bring our own chairs, but you could rent chairs and tents in that area of the beach which was very convenient.  We paid $60 for four chairs, a cooler, and a tent for all day.  The surf was pretty fun to play in and the sand was very fine.  We did not see any creatures in the ocean - no bugs, small crabs, jellyfish, regular fish, or sharks.  Just people.  The waves were small to medium-sized where we were, and we could safely go about 100-200 feet from the shore.  We spent a couple of hours at the beach and then walked back home to clean up.

After that, we decided to go to Finn's Island Style Grub, on Thomas Dr. not far from our condo, but they were closed on Monday.  Liza's Kitchen, which also had good reviews was also closed, so we switched gears from lunch to early dinner and headed west to where a lot of the seafood restaurants are, off Front Beach Road.   

Before getting to FBR, we spotted Pineapple Willy's (hard not to spot - there are signs everywhere).  I had this on my list anyway, so we decided to try it.  It gets pretty busy and has two overflow parking lots east of the main lot, but we found a spot in the main lot and checked in.  To wait out the quoted 35-40 min wait, we went to the large bar and bought daquiris which were super good.  Then of ourse we were called to our table in 10 minutes.  Pineapple Willy's serves seafood but are also known for their slow cooked barbecue ribs.  We got two buckets of ribs and some fried seafood platters.  Our opinion of the food was mixed, from very good to just OK, but nothing bad and good sized portions.  THe nachos were really good.  We had leftovers to take home.

Brooke at mini-golf

After getting a tshirt at a souvenir shop we headed home for a nap, then walked to Emerald Falls, a small amusement park near the condo.  We raced go-karts (mine was too slow), and played mini-golf (Brooke won).  Then we went home and watched the remainder of the All-Star game Home Run Derby - Pete Alonso won for the second time.

Day Two

Today I needed to work a little in the morning and then we went on a deep-sea fishing party boat run by Jubilee Fishing.  The dock was only about three miles down the street from our hotel on the docks near the Grand Lagoon bridge on Thomas Drive.  This is a cheap way to go fishing - there are usually 30-75 people on a boat, each with a spot and you drop a line in a few places out in the ocean and try to get a bite - you keep what you catch if it's within the allowable fish size.   They have deckhands to help you bait your hooks, or fix tangles, or get your fish off the line.  These boats are equipped with toilets, maybe a sundeck, and sell snacks and drinks inside the cabin area.

If you have read the Cabo post (or maybe some others) I get seasick pretty easily... and I was OK for about an hour because the boat was pretty big and the sea was not too rough, but after an hour I was getting pretty sweaty and dizzy and almost threw up.  However, I fished the first spot and even caught two fish.  Brooke also caught two fish.  Shellie got a fish on the third drop, and Bix was shut-out, which is strange because he's usually the one catching all the fish.

I did remember a pressure point trick I learned before, and with cell reception, even a few miles from the coast, I was able to look it up.  It involved putting pressure on your P6 spot which is between the two tendons coming up your forearm from the palm.

I went to town massaging this area on each wrist and I was good for the remainder of the trip.  I had red marks on my wrists which went away within an hour.

We decided to eat a late lunch / early dinner at Diego's Burrito Factory - a small chain Mexican food place with a couple of locations (Bix's pick).  It was actually pretty good and they made fresh margaritas at a full bar in the restaurant.

Afterwards we basically just went home and did nothing but watch the All-Star game.  The American League won (again).

Day Three

Today we went to Shipwreck Island - a waterpark about three miles from our condo.  I have seen this waterpark ranked in the top ten online, and having been to many waterparks, I thought it was pretty worthy.  There are not tons of rides like at Schlitterbahn, but the ones they have are fun.  The Raging Rapids is a tube ride down the side of a big hill - the rapids are pretty rough and it's possible to get tossed.  The other ride we all liked was a multi-person tube ride called "White Knuckle River" which was a twisty chute ride from a pretty tall starting point.

They had a speed slide which had two humps on the way down and was still pretty fast and a tower with two body slides - a twisty one that burned my back and a drop one where Bix caught air.  Bix also did a zipline.

The wave pool is large and fun and the water was very clear and fresh.  They had a mat ride which we didn't do and two kids' play areas.  The food wasn't that great (we had burgers and chicken sandwiches).

After the waterpark, we went to Monkey Lick's Ice Cream, which was a couple of blocks away - a little hole in the wall next to Monkey Shack.

That night, we ate dinner at the beachfront restaurant Schooner's Last Local Beach Club and had a great meal - the grouper was delicious and the salmon appetizer could have been had for a meal.  The place was packed, even for a Wednesday, so show up early.  They set off a cannon at sunset every evening.  There is beach volleyball just outside the restaurant.  The pictures outside were beautiful - see below.