This past summer, our little family of four took a road trip to Florida. My daughter is obsessed with the ocean, so she spent months counting down the days until we went on vacation.
This was by far the most relaxing vacation we have ever been on. Most of the days were the same— my daughter woke up before 7:00 every morning and wanted to go to the beach (my son was more interested in the pool), then we ate lunch in our condo, we took naps every afternoon (all of us! It was so nice!), then we would go back to the beach or pool, we’d go out to eat for an early dinner, and maybe do some sight seeing.
That’s the great thing about a vacation in a beach town like this one. If you want to constantly be on the go and sight-see everyday, there’s more than enough attractions to keep you busy, but if you want to chill at the beach and nap every afternoon (like we did), you can do that too, and still have an amazing time.
Where We Stayed.
We originally booked a condo in a complex called Seychelles (which is located on the southeast end of Panama City Beach, near St Andrews park). We rented our condo through HomeAway and we were scheduled to check in on June 9th. On the morning of June 7th, I got a phone call from the property management company saying that the condo was being renovated and wasn’t going to be ready for us. I immediately started freaking out internally, somehow I was able to stay calm on the outside. Thankfully, the woman I spoke with was incredibly helpful and was able to find one other condo available on the beach for the dates we wanted. It wasn’t anywhere near where we were originally supposed to stay, but honestly that didn’t matter too much to us.
We ended up staying at the Tropic Winds Condominiums, which is a 23-story tower right on the beach. If you ever stay here, I feel like I should warn you, the first 4 floors are the very compact parking garage. If you drive anything larger than a mid-size SUV, it’s just not going to fit. Our car is a Ford Explorer, and I don’t think anything larger than that could maneuver around the garage or park in the spaces without serious issues.
Our condo was on the top floor of the building; I didn’t realize I had a small fear of heights until we stepped off the elevator and I looked over the rail. I have no idea how people in large cities work in skyscrapers every day.
The condo had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, it was very clean, and the only issue we had with the condo itself, was the air conditioner stopped working on the third day we were there. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, my husband is super handy, so he quickly figured out that it was just frozen. We let it defrost, slowly brought the temperature back down in the condo, and we didn’t have any more issues with it after that.
Our favorite things about staying here: My husband and I both loved the balcony overlooking the beach. There’s just something so calming about listening to the ocean waves. My daughter loved the direct access to the beach; every morning she woke up, downed a bowl of cereal as fast as she could, put on her swimsuit, and she was ready to go! My son loved the indoor/outdoor pool. He swam in it as much as he possibly could.
Shell Island
On our second morning, we decided to take a trip to Shell Island, an undeveloped peninsula that’s part of St. Andrews State park. As I’ve mentioned several times, my son prefers the pool to the beach. He likes the idea of the beach, but as soon as he gets within 30 feet of the ocean, he freaks out. (He’s also recently developed a sensitivity to noises, so he’s not a big fan of the sound of waves crashing.) Needless to say, I was a little worried that our decision to go to Shell Island was going to be a complete disaster… but it wasn’t. Both my kids had a great time! We took a ferry over to the island, which both of the kids really enjoyed; the water on the side of the island where the boat docked was so calm.
This is the first time my son put his feet in the ocean. This was a huge deal! He played in the ocean, and he loved it!!
My daughter and my husband went to the other side of the island to find some seashells. Apparently the waves were much much bigger over there, so after a little while they came back to hang out with us in the calm water.
My daughter spent a lot of time with her face in the water trying to find fish and crabs (she found quite a few of both). We only spent a few hours on the island, but there were a lot of people who brought pop-up tents and coolers so they could hangout all day; this is something we’ll definitely have to remember for next time. Although it is undeveloped (no restrooms, picnic tables, shaded areas) there are a lot of people who visit Shell Island daily. There was also a concession boat on the day we went, which was really nice.
I can’t say enough great things about our time there, or Panama City Beach in general. I enjoy vacations, but I’m one of those people who likes being home too. This was the only vacation we’ve been on that I wasn’t dying to come home by the end of it. We will definitely make our way back to Panama City Beach in the future.