Our 30A Trip Recap + A Travel Guide

Today I am sharing our 30A travel guide. ohhhh wow. this place you guys. 30A is a MUST VISIT! Please put it on your list of places to travel to with your family. While this little gem destination in Florida can be enjoyed by anyone and everyone in any stage of life, I’m going to focus on how extremely family friendly it is because that’s where we are at the moment. From the moment we landed in that nice little tiny airport in Destin, we felt welcomed and excited for what the next week would bring.

I’ve been trying to get down to 30A for years, in fact, it was one of my lovely followers who first introduced this place to me back in 2011, an OG!! We got to hang out a bunch while we were there, too, and I now get to call her and her husband Brad, our dear friends! She was amazing in helping us plan this whole trip, down to the rentals we should look at, restaurants, things for the kids to do, etc… girl should be her own tourism board!

(this is Alli!)

WHERE WE STAYED

Let’s start with where we stayed. There are SOOOO many options to choose from so it was really helpful to have Alli’s help with narrowing them down. She gave me this list, and we ended up going with the SeaGate 3.

Seagrove **this is where we chose to stay and we LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. If you end up booking here, tell Molly we sent you!

-Private home. Centrally located on 30a. Bike to Seaside.

BeachFront Town House

OTHER PLACES TO STAY

Blue Mountain Beach:

Arena Blanca

-Hello beautiful! Private home on a quite beach with community pool.

Grayton Beach:

Defuniak St

-Grayton is cool area. It’s has an old school/hippie beach vibe. Locals hang here.

Watercolor:

-This is a community with resort amenities. Multiple pools, kids club, beach club, etc. Probably the most popular spot to stay which also means a lot of people.

735 Western Lake

Grace by the Sea

Condo

Watersound:

-Probably the most gorgeous stretch of beach on 30a. Resort amenities also. Beach club is fab.

C110 Bridge Ln

Saltbox

Gulf Front Condo

Rosemary Beach:

-Another great neighborhood.

Carlin Ward Cottage

Okay so here is a SUPER COMPREHENSIVE list of places to go broken down by town while you’re there, with a lot of help from my girl Alli (who is a local) 👯‍♀️

Dune Allen //

Stinkys Fish Camp for lunch. We didn’t make it here but according to Alli, they’ve got great fresh/local seafood, burgers, oysters, shrimp baskets, etc. She advises to get the “Great Big Salad” w/ Shrimp and The Brie Burger. Kid friendly. Live music on Sundays for Brunch and Thursday Nights. Great band, The Forest Williams Band, usually plays on Thursdays.

Gulf Place //

Shunk Gulley is a newer place with a great view of the gulf and cool vibe. Good anytime of day, lunch, happy hour, early dinner (before it’s dark). Also family friendly.

Blue Mountain Beach //

La Loba, Great little bakery. Amazing granola, cinnamon roll, cookies, etc.

Big Daddy’s Bike (bike rentals)

Local Catch: Great on Sundays, live music

Grayton Beach //

Chiringo: yummy cocktails. Little lawn for kids to run around.

Black Bear Bakery: Soooooo yummy! Great coffee, pastries, breakfast sandwiches, breads, etc. Some cute little shops and galleries surround it.

Crackings: Classic Breakfast Spot.

Watercolor //

Fun to ride bikes back through the butterfly garden and to the bridge over the lake. There are some nice shops on both side of the intersection there.

Wine World: Nice spot to sit outside and sip on some good vino with a cheese board.

FOOW (Fish out of Water): Beautiful beach front restaurant that was just remodeled and is part of the Watercolor Inn. The closest grocery store, Publix, is here too.

Seaside //

Epicenter of 30A. Lots of shops, lots of food, and lots of fun. There is a big lawn the kids can run around on. There is a really cute specialty market, Modica Market, with all the basics and grab and go food. Scoop up one of their Mimosas to go.

Bud and Alley’s is a great place to happy hour and watch the sunset upstairs. I think the best shrimp and grits EVER are at Great Southern. Oh and their Key Lime Pie!!

The Pizza Bar is really good.

Brian and Grace loved getting shave ice from the famous Frostbites (airstream).

The Cabanas (open air shops) on the beach side always has fun beach vibe finds.

There are always kids activities going on, make sure to check out the events calendar.

Seagrove // *where we stayed

Mostly a stretch of homes and condos but there are a few restaurants and shops in between. Seagrove Village Market: Known for their great grouper sandwich and fried shrimp I had the best sandwich of my life at Cowgirl Kitchen!!

Watersound //

The Hub: We spent so much time at this place!! It’s amazing, they have a big lawn with these cool chairs, lots of picnic tables, a big screen TV and a ton of little restaurants to choose from! It’s the perfect place to bring the kids because they can run around and play while you and your hubby or friends can enjoy some peace! HIGHLY recommend this spot.

Alys Beach (pronounced Alice) //

Okay so this place is straight out of Architectural Digest magazine, it’s like Santorini on the gulf coast. It’s a great place to explore via bike. We didn’t spend too much time here because #kids but apparently you have see the pool area! The only way you can get in is to eat or have drinks there at Caliza. Everyone told us to eat at Georges for lunch and/or dinner but we didn’t make it. We did have a drink at NEAT and it was so pretty!

Also, Charlie’s Donut Truck is a fun thing to do one morning.

Rosemary Beach //

Another beautiful development. So much to see and do here too. This is basically the end of 30A. Brian and I had dinner at La Crema and it was delicious. Other restaurants to note, Edwards, Paradis, and Pescado. There is a farmers market on Sunday mornings and apparently a lady that sells really good homemade guacamole and chips.

OKAY, lots of pictures coming!

the best part about where we stayed were all the kids! Instant best friends for the week!

I hope you enjoyed this 30A travel guide! If you would like to see more posts like this, you can check out my blog where I’ve shared details on many of our family travels.

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