RVing the Emerald Coast

The Emerald Coast has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It’s known for it’s sugar white sand and beautiful water color. This makes it a fantastic RV Destination. There are many great RV Resorts as well as some Boondocking Locations for smaller RVs. We took a recent trip to the area and wanted to share our experience in hopes to inspire you to take the journey to this incredible place.
Although we Drove in our RV the entire Emerald Coast, we are going to highlight some of the areas from Destin to Panama City Beach.
Starting from the Western Side of Destin at John Beasley Park and the Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier. If you have a separate vehicle from your RV you’re able to visit this beautiful beach because there isn’t RV parking. The fishing is top notch and the Pier has some great restaurants nearby.
About half way between Okaloosa Island and Destin there are multiple pull offs where you can walk to the beach. The third pull off after John Beasley Park is a very secluded and incredibly beautiful beach. As long as there isn’t a lot of cars parked here you’ll easily be able to fit an RV of any size. We were lucky enough to be the only people here and had the entire beach to ourselves.
The sand at this beach looked like snow and we had to remind ourselves it was 80 degrees.
It’s just a short walk to the beach from the parking area.
After setting up our chairs it was time to relax and have a picnic.
As much as we didn’t want to leave the beach we were really excited to meet up with my friend Josh Varner who I grew up with in Princeton, MN. He and his Wife live down here and they picked out a fantastic local Italian Restaurant. We caught up for many hours until we were the last people in the restaurant. The flexibility of RVing has allowed us to visit many friends across the country.
Because we were just going to sleep a few hours and get up early to explore we chose to boondock at the Walmart in Destin. We woke up early to explore the rest of the city and of course more beaches. I went out to photograph the sun coming up behind Destin and Danielle slept in a little bit.
After checking out three different beaches I brought the car back and picked her up so we could head to the Destin Harborwalk. This is a popping area with unlimited fun activities on and off the water. We really enjoyed walking the boardwalk and looking at all the boats.
They have great Dolphin watching boat tours.
There were so many charter boats. Everyone we saw came back with A LOT of fish.
We went to Harry T’s which is a Dog Friendly Restaurant right on the water and watched the boats cruise by. The views from both levels were unbelievable!
We enjoyed the view so much that we decided after our meal we would head across the channel and visit the beach we were staring at while we ate.
It’s a really popular spot and has a huge variety of things to do. You can walk on either side of the bridge.
On the other side of the bridge there were quite a few people fishing.
I thought it was cool to see all the boats parked on the sand bar with people swimming around.
After Destin we drove the scenic route on the coast to Panama City Beach. Just outside of Panama City Beach was a spot called Laguna Beach (not to be confused with Laguna Beach, CA. We happened to get married in Laguna Beach, CA.) We were driving on the coast and we needed to park and get some work done when I saw the most beautiful spot to park and work!
We planned on just staying for a few hours while we got work done but the view was too good for us to leave. This was the view from my workstation.
So I called the home owners association and got the ok to park here for the night! So we spent the day working and walking the beach.
Now this was a great way to relax and enjoy the sunset!
The next day we checked out Panama City Beach before heading out of town.
We finally left the Emerald Coast and headed off to Central Florida.
Thanks for sharing! We love some Harry T’s brunch on Saturdays and Sundays! We are currently weekend travelers, but maybe our paths will cross somewhere along our journeys!
Awesome!
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