Florida Panhandle Family Vacations

South Walton on the Florida Panhandle is a world like no other in Florida. Stretched out along the sand-blown, two-lane 30A, families have been coming to this sleepy area nestled between Panama City and Destin for its peaceful and safe communities built with families in mind. 30A is not just a road passing by pastel-colored homes with tin roofs or white-sand beaches overlooking turquoise waters where dolphins can be seen playing, it's a state of mind.

South Walton is made up of 15 towns, each with its own flair. The most popular include Seaside, the "perfect" community featured in the movie "The Truman Show" and filled with pastel-colored cottages; Rosemary Beach, with a more rustic, yet luxurious beachfront environment; Alys Beach, a bit of the Med in Florida; and WaterColor, providing some of the area's best dining in restaurants like Fish Out of Water. The towns run along 26 miles of coastline, all with beaches certified as "Blue Wave Beaches" by the Clean Beaches Council. Not only are the beaches clean, soft and uncrowded, making them ideal for kids, they are home to nesting sea turtles, and visitors can watch the baby sea turtles hatch and make their way to the Gulf. Instead of towering hotels, nightclubs and bustling restaurants, the community hasn't allowed new buildings over four stories, keeps the lights off the beaches for the sea turtles' safety, and prides itself on being a more intimate area with families renting vacation homes and grilling on the back porch or joining their neighbors in the tucked away restaurants dotting the sparse stretch of tree-filled land.

The communities also offer fun in the sun with bicycle rentals (most visitors never use a car during the duration of their visit), hiking on 200 miles of trails, kayaking and canoeing on the country's largest concentration of coastal dune lakes in the world, and, of course, ocean water sports and fishing.