Shopping, snorkeling and fine, white sand

By Blake Guthrie

For the AJC

Panama City Beach has become famous (or infamous, as the case may be) for being a place where reality-show TV cameras flicker to life every March to record spring break shenanigans. It’s also come a long way in the decades since it was first dubbed the “Redneck Riviera.”

The closing of the Miracle Strip Amusement Park in 2004 struck a blow to generations of tourists from the region that grew up vacationing here. It also marked a symbolic turning point for this popular Gulf Coast destination. The amusement park was closed to make way for a condo development that never came to fruition, but in the past few years the area has seen a flurry of development that includes upscale planned communities and huge shopping complexes.

The new international airport — slated to become fully operational in 2010 — is bound to change this section of the Emerald Coast forever when it starts bringing the rest of the world directly to the beaches of northwest Florida.

Don’t miss

Pier Park

Pier Park is a new multi-acre open-air shopping and entertainment complex across the street from the beach.

With a tropical motif sporting pastel-colored Caribbean-style clapboard facades crowned with turrets resembling lifeguard towers, it’s the latest go-to destination spot in Panama City Beach. In this faux city-within-a-city the streets and sidewalks are lined with palm trees, and plenty of local businesses mix with the ubiquitous national chains. Restaurants, boutiques, specialty shops, department stores and a multiplex theater are all within easy strolling distance of one another.

Don’t forget to cross Front Beach Road and check out the pier that gives Pier Park its name: Russell-Fields Pier (known locally as “City Pier”). The pier stretches a quarter mile into the Gulf, and there is a dog-friendly section of beach right next to it, something rare in these parts.

Directory and map of Pier Park at www.panamacity beachonline.com/PierPark.

Swimming with dolphins

The Gulf waters off Panama City are a natural home for bottlenose dolphins. Boat touring companies such as Shell Island Tours will take you on two-hour dolphin excursions. For an extensive and educational dolphin encounter, the ecotourism company Water Planet offers more comprehensive programs. If you prefer to swim with Flipper in a more controlled environment, head to Gulf World Marine Park, which now offers swims with trained dolphins in one of their large pools.

● Shell Island Tours: 
www.shellislandtours.com

● Water Planet: www.waterplanetusa.com

● Gulf World: www.gulf worldmarinepark.com

St. Andrews State Park and Shell Island

If you want to see what the dunes and beaches here looked like before commercial development, head to St. Andrews State Park at the eastern end of Panama City Beach.

On a peninsula at the mouth of St. Andrews Bay, the beach at this park was singled out by Stephen P. Leatherman (aka “Dr. Beach”) as America’s best beach in one of his highly touted annual surveys.

Once a beach makes the No. 1 slot, it is excluded from future surveys; the protected beach at St. Andrews hit that mark in 1995 because of its fine, unspoiled white quartz sand and pristine dunes.

Across the channel from St. Andrews is Shell Island, an uninhabited barrier island that is a popular day-trip destination for snorkeling and shell collecting.

The quickest way to get to Shell Island is through the shuttle company that operates from within the park.

850-233-5140, www.floridastateparks.org/StAndrews.

Shipwreck Island Waterpark

Shipwreck Island is the last vestige of the old Miracle Strip Amusement Park. Instead of remaining a forlorn remnant of the past, this water park continues to upgrade and add new thrill rides, slides and other water attractions. Group discounts available.

850-234-3333, www.shipwreckisland.com.