Gulf Coast

Panama City Beach, Florida: Sugar-White Sand, Historic St. Andrews & a Winter Stay at Emerald Coast RV

January 9, 2022 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: August 1, 2026

Panama City Beach is a spring break and vacation town for much of the southern United States, and its miles of sugar-white sand are consistently rated among the best beaches in America. The area went through a real estate boom in the mid-2000s with a wave of new construction and rising prices. Then, on October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael came ashore near Tyndall Air Force Base with 161 mph sustained winds — a Category 5 and the most powerful storm ever recorded to strike the Florida Panhandle. Driving through three years later, it was surprisingly hard to tell. Most structures had been rebuilt or repaired. What gives it away is the tree line: the downed and topped pines and oaks are still everywhere once you know to look. From Orange Beach, Alabama it was about a three-hour tow with the Airstream.

Empty stretch of sugar-white sand beach with no one in sight on a January morning at Panama City Beach, Florida

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Fort Pickens, Florida & Orange Beach, Alabama: Camping on Santa Rosa Island, Civil War Brickwork & Gulf State Park

January 4, 2022 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: August 1, 2026

Fort Pickens sits at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island inside the Gulf Islands National Seashore of Florida. Sandy and I have camped here before, and we keep coming back for the same reason: miles of white sand without the beach crowds or the wall of high-rise condos that swallow so much of the Florida coastline. This was our favorite kind of travel day — about an hour and a half of sunny, scenic coastal driving from Santa Rosa Beach and Topsail Hill Preserve to the Fort Pickens Campground, with our brand-new 27-foot Airstream behind the truck and Jake stretched out in the back seat.

Large coastal defense cannon aimed toward the Gulf of Mexico from the ramparts of Fort Pickens, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Pensacola Beach, Florida, photographed by travel blogger Michael Huntley

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Pensacola Beach & Destin, Florida

March 22, 2020 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: July 6, 2026

Pensacola Beach sits on Santa Rosa Island, a long barrier island that forms part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore — one of the most striking stretches of protected coastline on the Gulf of Mexico. The sand here is composed of sparkling white quartz, ground fine by millennia of wave action, and it looks almost like snow from a distance. We had camped at the National Park campground at Gulf Islands a few years earlier and loved the quiet, unspoiled character of the area. This return visit was a chance to explore further — Fort Pickens, the local restaurants, and the very different atmosphere of Destin just down the coast. A note on timing: our posts tend to run about a month behind due to editing, travel, and spotty internet. When we were here, the coronavirus pandemic had not yet begun affecting daily life.

The long fishing pier stretching into the Gulf of Mexico under dramatic dark skies at Pensacola Beach, Florida

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Apalachicola Oysters & Carabelle Gulf Views

March 14, 2020 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: July 6, 2026

Apalachicola is one of those Florida towns that operates on an entirely different frequency from the rest of the state. Located in the panhandle east of Destin, it sits where the Apalachicola Bay meets the Apalachicola River — a quiet, historic port community where life revolves around the water, the tides, and the extraordinary oysters that have made this bay famous across the country. There are fewer crowds here than on the sugar-white beaches to the west, fewer chain restaurants, and far more of the real Florida that drew people here in the first place. We had been to this area before and couldn’t wait to return.

Jake the dog exploring a foggy morning low tide on the calm shores of St. George Sound, Carabelle, Florida

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