Ft. Pickens, Florida

Wonderful! Barbra Jean Jo Barbara and Randy Randerson's pick of the south beaches.

Rating:

5 frosty beers out of the cooler on the beach. Would have been a six-pack if there had been full hookups at the campsite. A wonderful place!

This is a national park and only an hour or so from Destin Florida. It is the same sugar sand beaches, same warm gulf waters, same spectacular sunshine, but none of the crowd. In Destin, we had to fight for waterfront seating, here there were almost 2 miles of the same style beach, but only 5 people on it.

Fort Pickens is just across the bay from Pensacola, Florida. It was a pre-civil war military base, built in the 1800s by slaves and retired in the 1930s. The remains are open for the public to explore and there is a little gift shop and a ranger station onsite. There are public bathrooms available as well as water fountains and a spot to fill water bottles, but no other services (restaurants, grocery, etc) so pack what you need in advance.

The fort is at the tip of the peninsula (see photo to the right) and about 2 miles from our camping spot (left side middle of the photo). We unhooked the bikes from the back of the RV and rode them between the two. There is very little road traffic and as you are on national park land, the speed limit is less that 20 mph. The bikes allowed us to take in the scenery and we found that there were several nesting eagles within 30 feet of the road.

They offer camping spots to RVs as well as tents at a very reasonable price by the day or week. There are water and electric hookups but no sewer and no wi-fi. You are close enough to Gulf Shores and Pensacola to get their TV channels off-air.

You can walk out of the campsite, cross the road and be on the beach almost alone. This alone should classify this place as one of the best vacation beaches on the planet, but add that only a mile outside the gate is a Baskin Robbins, and this place becomes Paradise.

We only stayed one night and will most definitely be back.

Tip:

Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen! Both Barbra Jean Jo Barbara and Randy Randerson ended up with sunburns that caused our legs to swell, our skin to blister, and a change to Randy Randerson's voice that made him sound like he was whining all the time!

Plan this stay in advance, the lack of people here is by design as part of a conservation effort, so there are limited spaces and times available.

Price:

Check the National Parks website; these change with the seasons.