Mexico Beach & Cape San Blas: Florida’s Forgotten Coast
How top Spend a Week at a Top Affordable Beach Destination within Driving Distance from Atlanta and the Southeast
Florida’s Forgotten Coast, including Mexico Beach, Gulf County Beaches, St. Joe Beach, Port St. Joe, and Cape San Blas, makes a perfect beach destination within driving distance from Atlanta and the southeast. My family was in search of a spring break beach destinations that checked all these boxes:
- Warm – we wanted to visit a beach that would be warm in March and April
- Less crowded – we wanted a beach where we would not have to battle the crowds
- Affordable – we wanted to rent a 3-bedroom, stand-one house close to the beach, with a king size bed in the primary bedroom, but we had a budget
As we researched, we discovered that Mexico Beach checked all the boxes and as an added bonus it has sugar white sand! Florida’s Forgotten Coast and the Mexico Beach community were devastated by Hurricane Michael in 2018, however they are on the road to recovery. Many of the houses are new. The lack of high-rise condos means the beach is not over crowded. We found a 3-bedroom house on 14th Street in Mexico Beach within walking distance to the beach. It had a king-sized bed and a soaking tub in the primary bedroom, and a bedroom for each child. It was a perfect fit for us! We reserved Vacasa’s “C” Shucker Vacation Rental before Christmas for our week long Spring Break.
Day 1: Saturday – Road Trip from Atlanta to Mexico Beach on Florida’s Forgotten Coast
Road trips are opportunities for exploration. Some people like to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. I like to minimize time in the car, but it is fun to make a few stops to check out the restaurants and sites along the way! Our family loves to listen to audio books on the road. On this trip, we listened to a book Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood & Co series. This series is great for 5th graders and up who love the JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
Eufaula, Alabama
Our route took us through the historic town of Eufaula, Alabama. In the past, we have stopped here for lunch and toured a few of the house museums such as the Shorter Mansion and Fendall Hall. We stumbled upon a huge traffic jamb on this trip. Beware! The first weekend in April is the Eufaula Pilgrimage, which is an amazing opportunity to tour the historic antebellum homes of this adorable town. But it makes it difficult to drive through Eufaula. As we wound our way through the back roads of Eufaula, my daughter described the the Italianate Kendall Manor as, “magical.”
Michelle’s Restaurant
We ate lunch on the other side of the river at Michelle’s Restaurant in Georgetown, Georgia. Michelle’s has a large buffet including fried chicken, baked chicken, lasagna, fried okra, green beans, mac & cheese, corn on the cobb, sweet potato casserole, carrot & raisin salad, and green salad. My family discovered that all of these dishes are delicious.
Yummy banana pudding was available on the main buffet, but my children quickly discovered an entirely separate dessert buffet as well as a self-serve soft serve ice cream machine. The restaurant was busy, but they seated us right away and took our drink orders. The restaurant offers outdoor seating on the front porch. We ate a good meal and we all left happy – especially the kids! Be sure to check the restaurant’s hours before visiting.
Kolomoki Mounds State Park
Although it was raining, we stayed the course with our original itinerary and visited the ancient Indian Mounds at Kolomoki Mounds State Park. The park offered a nice little museum that allowed us to look inside one of the mounds to see what the archeologists discovered at the site. The museum explained the discoveries that shaped the archeologists’ understanding of the civilization that once occupied this site.
Arrived in Mexico Beach!
Mexico Beach is in the Central Time Zone. Eastern Time begins only a few miles to the east, so it is important to keep this in mind when going out to eat or to attractions. In addition to being aware of a venue’s hours, you must be sure to know which time zone you are in! The temperature hovered around 80-degrees the entire first week of April, which was perfect spring break getaway weather.
Dinner in Port Saint Joe
We did not want to cook as we had just arrived, so we headed down the coast to Port Saint Joe for dinner. Downtown Port Saint Joe is very cute. There are many options for restaurants and different shops. We walked over to Frank Pate Park, which is on the water, while we waited for our table. There is a pavilion that sits out in the water that is accessible by a path adjacent to the boat launch. The sun was going down and we enjoyed the beautiful view – especially of the light house in the distance.
Our dinner at the Brick Wall Sports Bar & Grill was good. They were very busy that evening. My husband and I ordered salads and the kids ordered chicken and waffles. We stopped at the Piggly Wiggly in Saint Joe to pick up a few groceries. This Piggly Wiggly does not sell beer or wine. Bluewater Outriggers, which is a water sporting store, is located next door if need supplies to make your beach visit more fun!
Day 2: Sunday – Mexico Beach Day
On our first full day at the beach, we relaxed and recovered. We slept in late and explored Mexico Beach in the morning. We spent the afternoon hanging out on the beach. My son took out his boogie board. We walked over to Super Scoops Ice Cream on our way back from the beach. The ice cream line was on the long side, but we played corn hole while we waited for our cones. The ice cream is delicious. It really hit the spot.
If you find something interesting on the beach and you want to know what it is, you can text a photo to the Beachcombers ID Hotline at 850-895-1519. Click the link for a slideshow of beach finds that others submitted to the hotline.
Day 3: Monday – Mexico Beach Day
We made this another beach day. We walked on Mexico Beach in the morning and then went to the beach for swimming and boogie boarding in the afternoon.
Dinner at Mango Marley’s
Mango Marley’s is the only restaurant that was open for dinner in Mexico Beach over spring break. They were extremely busy, but I thought that the wait staff did a great job handling the crowd. We started with fried pickles and ranch dip, which my family enjoyed. Then, we ordered a fried shrimp & chicken basket, a hamburger, a chicken Cesar salad, and a side of fried plantains too. The food at Mango Marley’s is great. We all left happy.
Day 4: Tuesday – Florida’s TH Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park & Cape San Blas
TH Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park: Gulf of Mexico Side
Today, we explored Cape San Blas and the Saint Joseph Peninsula. My son wanted to see if there were bigger waves than the ones at Mexico Beach. It took us about 45-minutes to get to TH Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. We parked in the second parking lot for Beach Access as recommended by the Park Ranger at the gate. There is a $5 entrance fee that was good all day including for readmittance – provided that the park is not at capacity upon your return.
Dr. Beach rated TH Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park as one of the top beaches in the country. It is still rebuilding following Hurricane Michael, so there were several construction projects in progress. The beach itself is beautiful. It is one of the few beaches I’ve visited without any development, so it was a treat to see the dunes and the Florida scrub in its natural state. My son boogie boarded. I don’t think that the waves were substantially larger than the ones at Mexico Beach. There were more shells. My daughter and I took a long walk and collected some lovely shells.
Lunch: Bad Mamma Jamma
We took advantage of the opportunity to reenter the park and exited to eat at the Bad Mamma Jamma food truck. The truck was located right outside the park in the parking lot at Cone Heads. The food here was delicious. I think that it was the best meal that we ate on the entire trip. We ordered a hamburger, a grouper basket, the taco Tuesday special, and the Florida salad. I highly recommend tracking down this food truck while you are on Florida’s Forgotten Coast!
TH Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park: Saint Joseph Bay Side
The Park Ranger told us upon entry that the Bay Side was closed, but we saw people out there and the water looked incredibly blue and beautiful, so we decided to explore the Bay side after lunch. We accessed it from Parking Access #1. There was a small sandy area along the water along with an access area for kayaks. The boat ramp was closed at this time. The water in the bay was very calm. It was shallow and there was a variety of wildlife in the water. My son reached down to pick up and interesting shell and it got up and walked away!
Day 5: Wednesday – Rest Day
We decided that we’d all had too much sun in the previous few days, so we hunkered down indoors today. We played Hunt a Killer’s Camp Calamity Mystery Game. This game was fun, but it was more challenging than I expected. The game is rated a difficulty level 4. We should have started with a lower difficulty level.
We walked on the beach that evening after sundown. Families roamed the beach with flashlights, buckets and nets catching crabs.
Day 6: Thursday – Apalachicola, Florida
We left at 9:30am to arrive in Apalachicola at 11:15am in the Eastern Time Zone – about a 45-minute drive. We visited the Ormon House and the Chapman Botanical Gardens before checking out the Visitor’s Center downtown. This historic maritime town is adorable. I quickly recognized the downtown and surrounding historic neighborhoods as the inspiration for homes designed in Seaside and Watercolor on 30A. We picked up a Historic Apalachicola Tour brochure at the Visitor’s Center and walked a small piece of it. The architecture of the homes and churches is lovely. A bonus is that many of these grand old Victorian homes are bed and breakfasts, where you can stay!
We ate lunch at the Up to No Good Tavern at the Grill. There are lots of restaurant choices available in Apalachicola. We selected this one because of its diverse menu. There was something to make everyone happy. The food was good. We ordered pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, and a large salad. This restaurant was packed. In addition to restaurants, Apalachicola is home to Oyster City Brewing Company. My husband picked up some of their beer during this trip. I am sure that he would have enjoyed hanging out in their tasting room.
Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve Nature Center
Recommendations for this nature center pointed out that this is where people come to see the real Florida. The earliest Florida that the settlers happened upon the type of landscape that can be seen here when they first arrived. We drove across the bridge to Eastpoint, Florida. As we drove over the bridge, we could see the wharfs of Apalachicola from the water and the huge piles of oyster shells deposited over the years.
We began our visit by walking the boardwalk through the marshes where we explored the flora and fauna of old Florida. We visited the Nature Center next. A short film in the visitor’s center detailed how water in the Blue Ridge Mountains makes its way to Apalachicola Bay. Inside the building three main types of displays show the aquatic life in the freshwater rivers, the brackish Apalachicola Bay, and finally in the Gulf of Mexico. Our last stop was the Bay Overlook Boardwalk.
Cape San Blas Lighthouse
I am a sucker for historical buildings and lighthouses are no exception. The historic Cape San Blas Lighthouse and its keepers’ cottages were moved inland to Port St Joe to preserve them. We drove back through Port St Joe and the light house on our way back to Mexico Beach, so we stopped to check out the compound. We explored the site and visited the gift shop and museum in the assistant keeper’s cottage. It is possible to climb to the top, however we did not.
Day 7: Friday – Mexico Beach Day
We spent our last day on the beach. We made dinner at our vacation rental. After dinner, we took a walk on the beach and stopped at Super Scoops for one more round of ice cream. Our week on Florida’s Forgotten Coast and Mexico Beach was a success. It was relaxing and it went by so fast! My Apple Health app let me know that I had a new trend of a lower resting hart rate for that week. Clearly a week at the beach is good for your health!
Day 8: Saturday – Road Trip from Mexico Beach to Atlanta
Florida Caverns State Park
We packed up our car and departed the vacation rental around 9:30am. Despite beautiful weather for the week, we had a rainy drive ahead of us. We stopped at Florida Caverns State Park to tour the cave. We spent about an hour touring the cave, which is the only above water cavern in Florida. I thought that the limestone was fascinating. At one point we could clearly see countless seashells in the ceiling and walls of the limestone cave.
The cave was a good place to visit on a rainy day. We planned on having a picnic lunch at the park and exploring a little bit, but that was not possible in the wet weather. There was a $5 entrance fee to the park and additional fees for tickets to the cave tours. This could be a day trip from the beach or a stop on your road trip.
Returning to Atlanta
It rained on us all the way back to Atlanta and it was cold when we arrived. The chilly weather at home made us appreciate the warm 80-degree temperatures that we enjoyed on Florida’s Forgotten Coast for spring break. By returning on Saturday, we still had all day Sunday to recover from our road trip, go to the grocery store, and prepare for the work/school week ahead.
Florida’s Forgotten Coast and Mexico Beach
Florida’s Forgotten Coast and Mexico Beach provided us with a wonderfully low key and relaxing spring break. If you are looking for a beach getaway without the crowds, I recommend that you add it to your bucket list. Have you been to Florida’s Forgotten Coast before? Do you have recommendations or suggestions? Please let me know in the comments. If you plan a trip after reading this article, let me know about that too.
Safe travels!
