travel

Why 30A: Choosing a Beach Location

November 25, 2020 /

If you live in the South you may have seen the beach stickers on people’s car with 30A (image source, google search). 30A or the beaches of South Walton include small picturesque towns you may have heard from such as Seaside (where The Truman Show movies was filmed), Watercolor, Alys Beach and Rosemary beach. Why would we choose to spend Thanksgiving week on 30A? Today I am sharing some of our reasons and in the next few weeks, I will be sharing different posts about some of the places we enjoy around here.

30A - YouTube

Bike Trails

There is a 17 mile strip of bike trails along 30A with pretty views of lakes, wild flora, and pretty towns you can bike through and admire the pretty houses.

The biking is fairly flat, paved and easy for families to handle. This is the first time we have come here during Thanksgiving week and it was definitely busier than in September. Thankfully there were large distances without anyone in sight on the bike trails. I tried not to breathe when we would cross with other bikers.

There were some really pretty spots in Watercolor. It even had a wild little trail near the lake behind the houses.

This was the view on one of my jog on the biking/walking/running trail. Perfect early in the morning! One of the many lakes.

State Parks

There are several state parks along 30A with quiet beaches, bikes and hiking trails and some where you can RV or camp. These include Deer Lake Park, Grayton Beach Park and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park (there are a total of 5). I always love to see different plants and landscapes and Florida’s plants are really cool.

Picturesque Towns

Seaside made us a little uncomfortable as far as crowds go. Most wore masks but there sure were quite a few people in the square. We ordered some icecream and sat on the porch with no one around and I walked in a couple of shops near the park back where it was quiet and deserted. Funny what we look for nowadays! I did find a cute little camo crossbody/clutch in a small locally owned store and I really wanted to get a couple of masks in this other shop but it was so deserted there was no one working in it! I even called the store number with no response.

Seaside’s post office was quite festive and perfect for a couple of pictures. We spent a little time and lots of money in Sundog  Books which we always visit when we are here. They have the greatest selection of Usborne sticker books and my 10 year old even remembered them from our last visit 4 years ago.

My husband got a cool book mask, the boys got their sticker books and my oldest and I got some 30A wear!

If your kids like sticker books, Usborne sticker books are the best!

Beautiful Waters

The gulf has clear water and white sand. After vacationing in the area for the first time 18 years ago (we would stay in Panama City Beach then), we have found that this is our favorite type of beach. If you come at the right time of the year, there is no seaweed in the water and depending on the day the water can be calm like a lake or full of waves. With 3 days here, we have experienced both.

The sunsets have been magnificent (I will share some pictures on Friday) and on Monday, we saw some manta rays.

Now I typically share how our vacations are budget friendly and while you can find some fairly budget friendly places along 30A, this particular vacation was not particularly budget friendly. We chose a condo complex with really nice amenities, on the beach side (pool view but no beach view from our condo: that was definitely way out of the budget as in $1000 more for the 3 bedroom condos) in Santa Rosa Beach. This is by far the nicest place we have stayed at on 30A and we have vacationed here in the past (last time might have been 4 years ago) by ourselves and with friends, on the beach side or accross the street, always in condos but with little amenities and not much curb appeal) at least 5 to 6 times during our fall breaks. I will say though that I think that this was totally worth it. It was been a busy work year for my husband, life has interesting to say the least and this has been a wonderful vacation so far.

A bientôt!

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