Go There: White Sand and Blue Angels Make Pensacola a Better Beach Escape
Discover Pensacola's charm: sandy beaches, historic sites, and vibrant culture await your weekend adventure.
Pensacola, Florida, isn’t just a beach town, though its sprawling coastline of over 50 miles of white quartz sand is what draws most travelers. It’s a cultural destination for things like art, food, history and tossing a mullet across state lines (more on this later).
On the I-10 stretch between Jacksonville and Mobile, Pensacola is the only city boasting an orchestra, opera, theater, art museum, and ballet. Enjoy arias in your flip-flops at Opera Al Fresco, a free Saturday concert series at local parks, or mingle with artists downtown at the monthly Gallery Night, which is also free. In between, mix in lots of beach time and as much fresh seafood as possible, and you’ve got yourself the makings of a fabulous Florida vacation.
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Where To Stay in Pensacola
To really enjoy those picture-perfect shores, you want to stay close to the beach — like, walk out of the lobby and onto the sand kind of close. That’s exactly what you get at the Holiday Inn Resort Pensacola Beach.
On the way to your convenient beachfront access, you’ll pass the pool deck, where taking a long detour is too easy. Along with the pool, there’s a 250-foot heated lazy river, two hot tubs, plenty of lounge chairs and a sports grill and tiki bar for cocktails, apps and mains. On the weekends, you can catch live music or a family-friendly movie here after sunset; pirates and mermaids are there during the summer. Yes, mermaids.
Combine that with a cozy room, balcony views, and delicious food in their restaurant (the made-to-order breakfast is excellent), and it’s easy not to leave the resort.
But you should because…
What To Do in Pensacola
There’s loads to do here. If you’re here for a long weekend, spend a day on Pensacola Beach for fishing, sailing, kayaking and paddleboarding. If you don’t feel like getting out on the water, you can stroll the boardwalk for shopping and dining. Be sure to make the trip to Fort Pickens, about 10 miles west of the resort, where its intriguing history is only a little upstaged by the spectacular beauty of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.
Then, drive across the bridge and explore downtown, from murals to museums to the Palafox Pier. You can cover four and a half centuries of history in one afternoon at the Pensacola Museum of History and Historic Pensacola Village. Catch a show at the nearby 1920s Saenger Theater or the Vinyl Music Hall.
Want to really get away from it all and find your own island lost in the ocean? You’re looking for Perdido Key, appropriately named “lost island” by Spanish explorers. This nature-lovers paradise is about 30 minutes from downtown Pensacola, filled with osprey and herons, trails and boardwalks, and at least three state parks: Big Lagoon State Park, Tarkiln Bayou State Park and Perdido Key State Park. Take a day here to soak up the scenery.
While there’s no bad season to visit Pensacola — we don’t do winter here — consider timing your trip for one of their festivals. Two of the biggest are the Foo Foo Festival, a 12-day extravaganza celebrating all things creative, and the Interstate Mullet Toss, which is partly about seeing who can hurl a dead fish across state lines the farthest but mostly about having the biggest beach party imaginable.
Where To Eat in Pensacola
When it comes to dining in Pensacola, seafood is the star. On Pensacola Beach, Red Fish Blue Fish has the most chill atmosphere you could ask for, with its primo location facing the sound and featuring lawn games and cute umbrella-topped tables that get their own lighting at sundown. Start with an appetizer of shrimp (fried, boiled or sauteed in Cajun butter) or a half dozen raw oysters before moving on to the main event: fish tacos, blackened redfish or hearty gumbo.
Over on Perdido Key, the place to go is the Flora-Bama Yacht Club. There’s live music, tables in the sand, signed dollar bills stapled to wooden pillars and a general party vibe. But the food here is no joke. Try their fresh Gulf shrimp on top of pasta, in a po boy or covering their incredible nachos. After dinner, you can walk across the street to unwind at the world-famous beach bar that spans the Florida and Alabama state lines.
Downtown Pensacola has an especially impressive lineup of restaurants, including Bodacious Café, where you can start your morning with espresso and a croissant sandwich, an open-air food hall called The Garden on Palafox + Main, when you want some variety, and The Wine Bar On Palafox, for baked brie, charcuterie, and a happy hour that starts at 11 a.m.
Local Obsession
The beaches are a big deal here — see above — but nothing gets locals and tourists quite as hyped as the coolest aviation show in the country: the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.
The Pensacola-based demonstration team of Sailors and Marines performs impressive aerial stunts at their annual air shows in July and November, but you can also catch them practicing most Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from March through early November. The beach at Fort Pickens is an excellent viewpoint, as is the 159-foot Pensacola Lighthouse (which also has a maritime museum). You can even meet members of the Blue Angels in person on select practice days at the National Naval Aviation Museum. This free museum is worth a visit on its own, regardless. Marvel at authentic and replica aircraft, learn about air and space travel or try your hand at stunt flying in one of their simulators. And you can get right up close to an F/A-18 Hornet, the signature yellow and blue strike fighter flown by the Blue Angels.