Still searching for your lost shaker of salt? Chances are you’ll find it secreted in the sugar sand on the beach out front of the Margaritaville Beach Hotel down on Pensacola Beach.
Inspired by Jimmy Buffet and his music, the casually elegant property takes its fun seriously – just like the rest of the resurgent Florida Panhandle, a place whose re-tread reputation as the Gulf Coast’s “Redneck Riviera” was replaced by that of a region ravaged by this country’s worst oil spill.
Obvious traces of the oil are all but gone now, and what remains is what brought people here in the first place: pristine, dazzlingly white reaches of sand as far as the eye can see. Some of it, such as Pensacola Beach, is dutifully developed, fronted with hotels, condos, oyster bars and assorted souvenir shops. Other stretches, such as Johnson Beach, are pristine, devoid of development. Part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, Johnson Beach is best explored early in the morning, when the only footprints will be yours and the lightly-treading seabirds. This is the time of day the shelling is best, the time when you all but own the beach. Automobile admission for a full week is but eight bucks.
While Pensacola is rife with hotel rooms, many of the right on the Gulf, one of this Cheapflights reporter’s favorite is Buffet’s gingerbread, blue and white palace – the Margaritaville Beach Hotel. It’s far enough down Pensacola Beach as not to be crowded out by kitsch. A King Bay View sans balcony runs $219 per night during late March. On the other end of the spectrum, a Corner King Executive Bay View will cost $319 per night.
The on-site restaurant, Frank and Lola Love Pensacola Café is first rate. The ambience is casual, and the seafood succulently fresh. Yeah, it’s from the Gulf, and folks down here promote the fact.
Just east of downtown Pensacola proper is another restaurant that cherishes the local catch. Twist their arm gently and the folks at The Fish House will serve up a platter of Grits A Ya Ya: spiced Gulf jumbo shrimp topped with a sauté of spinach, Portobello mushrooms, applewood smoked bacon, garlic, shallots, and cream over a heaping bed of smoked Gouda cheese grits. The price of this lighter-than-air feast is $19.95. You’ll want a second chardonnay to savor it properly. The sushi selection just may the best between Panama City Beach and New Orleans. Ask for an outdoor table overlooking the water, the better to drink in live music on the deck.
Look around over dinner and you well might spy some of this country’s best and brightest. The Navy trains its pilots at Pensacola Naval Air Station. The next day, immerse yourself in all things Naval aviation at the Naval Aviation Museum. It’s located on the air station and open daily. Admission is free.
March through November raise your gaze from the shimmering sea to the heavens above it. That’s when the Blue Angels practice. If you want to follow the aerobatic team’s exploits, download the Blue Angels app from iTunes.
“Red Neck” revelry? Not exactly. Pensacola’s pleasures are as patently patriotic as they are surprisingly sublime. Just open your mind.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Images: Margaritaville Beach Hotel, National Naval Aviation Museum, The Fish House)
