This past week I spent the week with my mom and sisters down at Seacrest Beach, and it was such an amazing week, I didn’t want it to ever end! Seacrest Beach is one of the beautiful beach communities along 30A in Florida, and I first fell in love with the area when I visited another one of the towns, WaterColor, a few years back. The area is seriously one of my favorites places in the world, and I’m still a little heartbroken that I had to come home! I could definitely see myself living there one day.
There’s just something about the 30A area that is like out of a storybook it’s so cute and picturesque! It’s a strip of beach towns all with a slightly different character to them, but it’s the perfect combo of beach life and southern simplicity. It’s hard to describe why I love it so much until you experience it for yourself! Everything is colorful, the architecture and homes are beautiful, it’s totally laid-back, and the entire area looks like something you’d see in Southern Living! It’s the perfect little beach bubble with everything you could possibly need, from delicious restaurants, cute food trucks and beachside boutiques, and you can get just about anywhere on a beach bike! (There’s more bikes than cars, haha, and they’re all colorful and cute!) The sand is so soft and sugar white, the water is clear and you can see in the photos that it’s a breathtaking mix of shades of turquoise and deep blue! I wanted to share my 30A travel guide with all of my favorite spots and tips for visiting!
We stayed in Seacrest this time, but I’ve also stayed in WaterColor. We mostly stay within the strip that goes WaterColor, Seaside, Alys Beach, Seacrest, and then Rosemary Beach, all within about a 15min drive from one end to the other. I honestly love all of them and you can’t go wrong. Each has a little different style and vibe to them, and some are a little busier than others. WaterColor is right next to Seaside which is one of the busiest towns, so being down in Seacrest was nice that it was a little less busy. I definitely recommend renting a car if you don’t drive down there so that you can visit all of them! Rosemary Beach was maybe 2 minutes from where we were, but we drove down to Seaside and Watercolor multiple days to eat, shop, see the sunset, etc! It was also helpful to have a car when going to the grocery store to stock up the house.
I also love that they take such great care of this beautiful area, and have a few rules in place so that everyone can relax and enjoy the beaches and their neighborhoods. Past 10pm was quiet time in our area, and we wore removable wrist bands for beach/pool access so that the pretty beaches weren’t just a free-for-all, and they also limit wheel traffic in areas near the beach. Each town has it’s beach access, so it’s not like some places you visit where you go and it’s just a big stretch of beach that anyone can show up to. It’s definitely nice that it’s a little more limited and very well kept for the guests of the towns so that you can truly enjoy it! Below I have listed all of my favorite spots and tips for when you visit 30A!
We flew into Panama City, and the airport was so easy, and on the smaller side. We rented our car there too.
HERE is the link for the home we rented: I can’t recommend it enough, and we were so happy with our choice! It was beautiful, clean and very spacious. It looked like it was right out of a Pottery Barn magazine, ha! The location couldn’t have been more perfect, we were just steps from the town center with the restaurants and shops, which made pizza to-go and ice cream every night so easy! We were only a 5 minute walk to the beach, too! There were also a few pools right by us. I loved all of our pretty porches and rooftop deck, and we could sit and watch movies or read with the porch doors open.
Tips When Going to the Beach:
– Try to pack light. It can get tiring trying to lug a bunch of stuff to and from the beach, especially when it’s hot, wet and covered in sand, haha.
– Depending on where you are staying, some places don’t allow wheel access to the beach (Golf carts, wagons, etc). Many people take little pop-up wagons to the beach with all of their beach gear in them, and the Seacrest beach access where we were didn’t allow you to wheel them through the neighborhood up to the beach. You had to load it on one of the trams that take you throughout the neighborhoods, and it would then drop you at the beach stairs, and you would have to carry the wagon down the stairs to the beach. Kind of a lot of work, haha, so like I said, try to avoid bringing too much with you. Each area is different on their rules though.
– I’d recommend a beach umbrella and chairs, whether you bring them with or rent them at the beach. Most of the beaches have guys (we called them the beach boys, lol) that set the umbrellas/chairs up everyday and you just rent them. They were so sweet and helpful, and we rented a set of umbrella & two chairs for $40-45 per day. The beaches get so hot and it helps to have an umbrella to shade you when you need a break, and also your bags/stuff all day from the sun. I thought the colorful rows of umbrellas were too cute!!
– We rented a paddle board at our beach one day and it was so fun! Also, buy a boogie board 0r a float at any of the little stores because they’re so fun with the waves! Bring some goggles too because the water is really clear and we looked for shells and all the little fish!
– Pay attention to the beach flags!! Be aware of the different colors and what the warning is! Rip tides aren’t uncommon and you have to be careful! Two of the days we were there were stormy and the waves were huge so it was a red flag warning and we didn’t go out much further than our knees, or just not at all.
– Don’t forget sunscreen! I love being tan and soaking up as much sun as possible, but the sun down there is so much stronger than we’re used to here in KC, so we were reapplying all day long after not putting enough on the first day, haha.
Where to Eat:
– Pizza by the Sea: really delicious and super popular. Give yourself some time to order or call ahead! We had one right across from our house, but they have multiple locations.
– Ticheli’s Pizza: another delicious little pizza shop in the town center right across from our house! Pizza to-go is the perfect post-beach meal! Eat it at the picnic tables with the live music or take it back to your house! {Seacrest}
– Bud and Alley’s: they have their restaurant, Pizza Bar and Taco Bar all located right near each other by the water! We went to the Pizza Bar the first night and sat on their back patio overlooking the beach and I was in heaven. We went to the Taco Bar later in the week after watching sunset on the beach and the guac and queso was SO yummy! {Seaside}
– Pickle’s Burger & Shake: they are famous for their fried pickles! It was my first time trying fried pickles, and I loved them! The burgers are delicious. Do yourself a favor and grab your meal to go and take it up to the deck overlooking the beach. You might never get up though, the view is amazing. We ate our lunch there and I could’ve stayed all day. {Seaside}
– La Cocina: this restaurant was also right across from our house in the town center area, and we loved it! Delicious guac and queso, and the meals were so tasty. {Seacrest}
– Great Southern Cafe: this one came highly recommend to us! {Seaside}
– Freshii: if you’re looking for something on the healthy side, try this! They do delicious bowls, salads, burritos, etc and everything was so fresh and yummy! {Inlet Beach}
– Any of the food trucks in Seaside: there’s a bunch of cute food trucks in the town center and they’re covered by twinkly lights at night! So many yummy choices!
Sweet Treats:
– Heavenly’s Shortcakes & Ice Cream: try the Cookie Monster flavor, my mouth waters thinking about it!! {Seaside}
– The Yurt: we could walk right out our front porch over to this ice cream shop and it’s seriously some of the best I’ve ever had! We tried a new flavor every night! A few of our favs were moose tracks, strawberry cheesecake, key lime pie, oatmeal cookie, and cookie dough. They open at 7pm. {Seacrest}
– Charlie’s Donut Truck: there’s the actual donut truck located in Alys Beach, and then they also have a little shop that was in the center right across from our house in Seacrest! SO good. They open at 6:30 am until they sell out (which is usually by 8 or 9am!)
– Dawson’s Yogurt: really good soft serve ice cream. I love a good twist cone, especially rolled in rainbow sprinkles (which unfortunately they were out of when we went) It’s something we used to get growing up on the boardwalk when we lived on the East Coast, and I can’t find anyone that makes it like that here in KC, so I was excited to find it in Seaside!
Where to Shop:
– Ophelia’s: the prettiest dresses, beachwear and swimsuits! Some gorgeous brands that I don’t see online or in stores often. {Seacrest}
– The Seaside Style: do yourself a favor and stop into one of these stores and get yourself a comfort colors Seaside sweatshirt or t-shirt, or just try not to buy the entire store, ha! You’ll see people sporting them everywhere you go in town! I got a cozy oversized sweatshirt. {Seaside}
– Cabana by The Seaside Style– Their shop is made up of a bunch of cute blue & white striped cabanas and I seriously want their shop to be my closet! You would die at how cute their clothes, straw bags and beach accessories are. {Seaside}
– Deja Vu: such cute clothing and brands that you don’t see everyday! {multiple locations}
We did all of our grocery shopping for the house at Publix. There’s a few locations and they were really nice and had everything we needed! It was funny because they were always so busy even late at night! We also went to the little grocery/convenience store across from our house, Seacrest Sundries, for small things.
I am already dying to go back just thinking about it, and if you are ever looking for a relaxing beach getaway or the perfect place for a family vacay, you can’t go wrong with 30A. Please let me know if you ever have any other questions about the area! I have also linked all of the details for everything I’m wearing in these photos in the scroll bar below. Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you find this 30A travel guide helpful! Stay tuned for my travel vlog from this week on my YouTube channel! I will add it to this post when it’s done!
