Off-the-Beaten-Path Stops on Your Way Through West-Florida
In late April 2021, my boyfriend David and I were working our way along the Gulf Coast and down the West Coast of Florida on our way to South Florida. I thought you all might appreciate some advice on some off-the-beaten-path places to go (or NOT go) if you decide to do your own FL road trip. Check out the ratings I gave each place out of five stars.
The landscapes on the more rural highways aren’t that much different from the forested parts of Louisiana and the South East coastal states. The combination of timber industry pines (perhaps Monterey Pines that are planted for their fast growth) and semi-tropical plants was something interesting to look at on otherwise boring roads. The coolest thing I saw on the drive was a Wildlife Corridor, which is basically a bridge over big highways, covered in native plant life, for wild critters to safely cross to the other side, and to help connect fragmented habitats and populations–Go Florida!
Destin, FL
Destin is one of the first cities you hit on your way from coastal Alabama to Florida. We only stopped because we had driven all night and arrived exhausted enough at 4am to get a room in a cheap motel. It wasn’t much to speak of, but if you do decide to stop, here are some of the things we did:
A cheap motel with cigarette smell in the room & burn marks on the sheets. 1 extra star for not having bed bugs. We only stopped there because we were exhausted after driving through the night all the way from New Orleans.
We stopped for breakfast at First Watch, which I think would be very popular in California, since it was bougie, and had health conscious and special diet options. The french toast and million dollar bacon were delish! This is a chain in Florida and the South-East, I believe, so don’t feel limited to the First Watch in Destin.
3 stars because it was cold and cloudy, the water was chilly, and the flat white sand and flat blue water weren’t very exciting. This was the nearest beach, and David was so excited to see pretty water that he ran barefoot across the fine white sand, stripping into his swim trunks with the cutest, most child-like grin I’ve ever seen on his face, and dove under the pale turquoise water, clearly overjoyed to be back on his home turf. I took my time because it was cloudy and below 70 degrees, walking out into the low waves, flinching back from the chilly splashes until I was able to convince myself to dive under; the water is definitely warmer than the Pacific, but not THAT warm up on the Panhandle. We hung out on the sand, hoping for sunshine, and I enjoyed watching the little clams dig themselves underground, and finding the huge crab holes. I’m not convinced that Florida beaches are better than California’s.
Gainesville, FL
Gainesville is definitely a college town, with lots of young people, shitty housing, lots of cheap restaurants, and a big university campus. We stopped there to shower and visit some of his buddies who were finishing up their last semester at university, and really only walked around for an hour or so after it had already gotten dark.
Definitely not our favorite restaurant, and was more fast-foody than we realized it would be. Also, the wait time for food was surprisingly long, considering we were the only two people in the whole shop.
We walked around the campus a little at night. They have a huge stadium and lots of parking.
Tampa, FL
We then made our way south towards Tampa, because I wanted to see a little more of the west coast before we spent the next week on the south eastern coast. Tampa was a big city with big roads and lots of traffic, that reminded me of a baby Los Angeles, with more trees and water features. Also, we only went to Amateur Works and then took a short walk along the boardwalk across the lawn, so we by no means explored the whole city.
A gorgeous building full of restaurants near a college campus and surrounded by lots of patios, outdoor seating, giant chess boards, and inlets from the bay apparently inhabited by both manatees and alligators (I looked hard but didn’t see either, sadly). (Of course I know alligators are freshwater animals; there was a pond right next to the bay that was clearly freshwater).
David had some of their fried empanadas, which were kind of weird because they were very Americanized. This was a colorful little pop-up restaurant in the Amateur Works building.
I had the very tasty Ray Ray’s BLT from Graze—the roasted tomatoes were a great touch. This was a very chic bar and restaurant in the Amateur Works building.
St. Petersburg, FL
Our next stop was the bougie city of St. Petersburg, FL, right on the water. We enjoyed an hour or two on the pier and the boardwalk.
There was well-maintained, native landscaping on the pier with name labels, as well as some restaurants, playgrounds and a discovery center. The water below the pier was luke-warm, and there were lots of muscles (different from those on the west coast of the Americas) and barnacles stuck all over the place. The public restrooms near the Yacht Club were great and free.
Thank you so much for reading! Check back soon for another travel or backpacking post 🙂
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Kirsten is an enthusiastic, bilingual naturalist with 11+ years of experience as a non-formal environmental educator, 6+ years as an outdoor recreation guide, 6+ years as a content writer, and 13+ years as an eco-friendly horticulturist and landscaper. She has designed and maintained 2 websites dedicated to public-facing environmental and outdoor education information for community consumption. Successfully taught 5 online, multi-week zoom workshop series to 5-10 regular participants on an international scale.
One Comment
Thomas Cook
Very nicely done!! 😉