30A Florida Roadtrip

We recently decided to take the kids on a trip to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. After hearing so many positive reviews about it, we thought we better check it out. I’ll give you my full thoughts at the end of the post but first wanted to talk about what we did, where we stayed, and where we ate.

Where we stayed

Let’s start with the most important part. There are so many air bnb’s and vrbo’s available there. It was honestly hard to choose where we wanted to stay. But there were some things that went into our final decision; a few of those were price, how kid-friendly it was, and how close to the beach it was. This place checked all the boxes for us. It is the cutest little 2-bedroom townhome just a block from the beach and it was so affordable. Not to mention the amenities they included for the kids. Here’s a link for this cute little place and a few photos to show you how dang cute it actually is.

What we ate

Here’s a list of the places we ate and our short, but sweet review of each.

The Bay Restaurant was right on the bay (hence the name) so it was about 10 minutes from where we stayed but if you like seafood, it’s an absolute must. We ordered a seafood platter and it was phenomenal.
The Big Chill has the coolest atmosphere and I think it’s a must see. There are different types of cuisines there for every palette. There are some really cute little shops around and often they have live music or games playing on the big screen and stage.
Pecan Jacks is another place we would definitely recommend for ice cream. The flavors are so unique and they have a list of “adult flavors” too which makes it even more fun.
Blue Mountain Beach Creamery is another ice cream place worth checking out. Every flavor we got was amazing but one thing to note is that 1 scoop there is HUGE so make sure your tummy is as big as your eyes.
Dough Sea Dough was a small little shop we stopped in to grab donuts one morning. Our little family of 5 ordered a dozen because they all looked so.dang.good. And they were just that; very tasty!

What we did

We packed a couple of adventures into our short time there. And we loved them all.

1. We drove to PCB one day (about 40 minutes away) and rented a boat from Salty Pontoons to drive out to Shell Island. My entire family could not recommend this enough. The only thing I would do different is to rent it for the whole day instead of only half of a day. Shell Island is INCREDIBLE. It’s as close to the Caribbean beaches as you’ll get in the states.
2. We went to the beach at Deer Lake State Park one afternoon which was so fun. the public beaches around us were pretty busy because of fall break so this was a bit less chaotic. It’s really beautiful there.
3. We watched the sunset on Grayton Beach one evening. Parking to get there was a struggle BUT it was so worth it. You can take your car out onto the beach (if you drive something that can get through the sand – we had our minivan so we did not) and watch the sun go down. So many people were having bonfires out there. It was gorgeous.
4. We rented a golf cart for a day from Outlaw Rentals. There are several places to rent golf carts from but you need to make sure where you stay allows them because some don’t. We only did a 24 hour rental and probably would do longer on that next time also. It’s just more fun to cruise on a golf cart than in the minivan.
5. We checked out one playground at Aly’s Beach. I’d love to explore that area more because it’s so unique and beautiful but we just didn’t have the time unfortunately. But the playground was so fun for the kids!

It’s time to pack your suitcases and head that direction. The 30A area definitely lived up to it’s nickname “The Emerald Coast”. The waters were unbelievable and the sand was incredible. It’s somewhere we will absolutely be returning to and a place I would highly recommend you visit if you’re looking for a beach vacay in the US. Nothing is cheap there but we did decide to save some money and drive down so we could spend extra on some fun things and we agreed that it was well worth it. Before I forget, here’s a list of some beach must haves and some road trip essentials in case you decide to drive down.