Let this blog post be your sign to book a last minute trip to the beach with a friend…cause that’s what this trip was!
Ya’ll know I’m a planner, but when my friend Ashlee and I were talking about going on a girl’s trip, we quickly realized how busy our summer schedule was and how hard it would be to take off work at the same time. Whenever we found out that our best shot would be booking a trip for 2 weeks from then, we decided to be spontaneous and go for it! So if you’ve been thinking about visiting 30A, keep reading!
DAY ONE
We flew into Panama City Airport and took an Uber to Seaside for lunch at a cute taco place to hang out until it was time to check into our AirBnB. And of course, since no trip ever goes perfectly smoothly…here is where we ran into our first issue! We had no idea that we were there before “high season” and there was a shortage of Ubers. With our condo being a mile and a half away and us having all of our luggage, this was clearly a problem! We attempted to rent a golf cart (with no luck, but later found out they were $120 a day so we were glad we didn’t get one!). We had no idea what to do!
That’s when we spotted a bicycle rental place. We had already been considering renting them, so we walked over, explained our situation, and asked if they had any sort of cart we could use for our luggage. They were a bit shocked as apparently nobody had done this before! But after a few laughs and realizing we were serious, they attached them for us, helped us load everything, and we were on our way. Huge thanks to Seaside Transit Authority for the bikes! We made it safely to our Airbnb and unloaded everything. If you’re looking for a cute place to stay, this place was great. There’s beach access right across the road! The owners just bought it and haven’t remodeled yet so it’s quite outdated, but had a lot of retro charm and it was perfect for what we needed, especially booking last minute.
After we got our suitcases unloaded, we headed to the beach for a well-deserved nap. The beaches on the emerald coast are known for clear blue water and soft white sand, it’s hard to believe you’re not in the Caribbean! After beaching’ for a few hours, we got back on our bikes, took the carts back, and did some shopping at The Seaside Style. I’m pretty sure over the course of our stay we bought nearly every color of sweatshirt they had! I highly recommend walking around Seaside and seeing some of the shops, restaurants, post office, and school because it’s the perfect little beach town!
Bud & Alleys has a great rooftop with a view of the ocean, so we headed up for supper and drinks. The food is a little pricey but well worth it for at least one night, make sure you try to get a table closer to south side for the best sunset view. It’s a seat yourself kind of place, so we stood on this end and waited until a couple got up to leave. We then walked on the beach a bit to catch the last little bit of sunset, then headed back to the condo for bed!
DAY TWO
After riding bikes with carts and about 75 pounds of luggage, we were pretty sure we could ride bikes anywhere…so we decided to ride 5 MILES EACH WAY to Alys Beach! Yes, you read that right, a total of 10 miles! They designed the 30A highway with a bike path right next to it that connects all the towns, so it honestly wasn’t bad at all. Make sure to pack water & sunscreen!
We stopped at Dough-Sea-Doughnuts on the way, which is a cute store but I will admit their donuts and coffee weren’t the greatest and neither was the service. Perhaps we caught them on a bad day though!
However, Alys Beach was such an adorable little area with gorgeous white houses and pastel accents, you’ll feel like you transported to Bermuda or Greece. We strolled around admiring the homes and posing at every photo opportunity. If you visit, make sure you try Raw & Juicy for a snack or lunch, their lemonade is fantastic! I honestly have sooo many pictures from the few hours we spent here, it was so hard to go through and edit them because I loved them all!!
If you go a bit further down the highway, you’ll be in Rosemary Beach. We didn’t make it that far but I definitely want to visit it next time!
After adventuring around Alys Beach more, we slowly worked our way back to Seaside. There are several gift shops and boutiques in between the two towns so if you get tired, they are great spots to stop and enjoy the air conditioning for a moment. Once we got back to the condo, we spent a few hours at the beach to rest before going back to Seaside to explore a bit more.
Along the highway in Seaside is a row of food trucks; I HIGHLY recommend trying all of them! We loved The Meltdown for their grilled cheese and Barefoot BBQ for their nachos. Not only do these trucks have tons of options, but eating at them vs. a restaurant is also a great way to save some money and support a small business! After supper make sure you head over to Dawson’s for some ice cream or fudge, then go take a walk on the beach to enjoy the sunset.
DAY THREE
Just our luck, the forecast called for rain ALL DAY! We laid in bed for a bit and waited for it to stop pouring long enough for us to hop on our bikes and go grab some breakfast. Unfortunately for us, less than five minutes after leaving, the rain started up again!
Since it was too late and we were hungry, we kept on riding and ended up at Cowgirl Kitchen (literally drenched, might I add!). We got some hot chocolate, coffee, and yummy breakfast and sat on the barstools by the window and waited for the rain to stop and then decided to head to the beach for a while!
It was a bit gloomy at first and it sprinkled a few times (which sent us running underneath the steps down to the beach to take cover). Honestly though it was perfect because there weren’t very many people, so it wasn’t crowded at all!
The sun finally decided to come out, so we decided to go have lunch in town at the food trucks and do a little more shopping before spending a few more hours at the beach. I love that Ashlee and I wore matching swimsuits most days!
For supper we got dressed up for our last night and dropped our bikes off, then visited Bud & Alley’s pizza bar for some drinks & pizza. We enjoyed the sunset on the beach one more time; I have said this before but I swear they just hit different on the beach! We both agreed the pandemic has made us light-weights because after a few drinks we already had a pretty strong buzz going on!
Since there weren’t any Ubers, we were stuck paying almost $100 for a taxi to take us back to the airport the next morning. I hated paying that much but it was really our only option! If you’re in the area make sure you check into this, because we had to call the day before to set the taxi up.
Honestly it was such a fun trip, even if it was booked last minute! It was great to do more relaxing and just go with the flow. We never had a “schedule”, just some things we knew we wanted to do or see. We obviously had a few bumps during our short stay but we were able to work it all out. This escape from the real world was much needed and I’m so glad Ashlee was willing to go with me, she was a fantastic travel partner that was up for anything! I foresee a lot of girl’s trips in our future…where should we go next time?!
I have just about everything I wore and brought during this trip linked on my LIKEtoKNOW.it! Click here to follow me on the app. If you have any other questions about our stay, feel free to DM or e-mail me!
Thank you for reading! 🙂 If you’ve ever been somewhere along 30A, let me know about it in the comments so I know what to do next time!
