If your dream vacation includes relaxing time at the beach, outdoor activities, eating good food and drinking amazing cocktails, all paired with cotton candy sunrises... Pensacola is the place for you.
Pensacola is located in the Northwestern part of the Florida state and sits on the Florida Panhandle. It is also about a 3-hour drive away from New Orleans, which I found to mean that the Southern hospitality is everywhere in this city! The first Naval Air Station is also located in Pensacola and it is also the base of the Blue Angels flight demonstration team! I have been told that it is a huge event whenever they do demonstrations and people line up on the beach just to watch it. If you get a chance, you need to go sailing on a trimaran with Condor Sailing. There are only 21 made in the world, and only 1 open to the public. The other 20 are still used for racing around the world! There is no leaning side-to-side, so therefore no seasickness!! Also, Captain Kirk is awesome. I actually got a couple DM's on Instagram from locals in Pensacola reiterating the same thing, so you know it's got to be legit ;)
If being on the water isn't your thing, you will absolutely love the beach. The sand is the purest white you'll ever see - it literally looks like a land of white sugar! It's the most amazing thing to walk around in, and it even squeaks as you walk on it because the sand is composed of almost 100% quartz!!! I highly recommend setting your alarm before the sun rises, so you can go to the beach to watch the sky turn into the pinkest cotton candy-like sky as the sun was rising. It was honestly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!
Other activities I'd recommend checking out is the National Naval Aviation Museum and Fort Pickens, if you're into the historical sights! You can also visit one of the State Parks in the area and explore. We decided to visit the Big Lagoon State Park during our visit and spent some time canoeing! It was actually so peaceful to float around in the area (even though it was like an arm workout haha). After that, take a drive through the beach houses as they're all so stunning!! It was really fun to walk around and just explore different neighborhoods and see the different types of houses.
Don't forget about the food here too! As you can expect, the seafood is amazing in this town and it's something you don't want to miss out on. We got our fair share of oysters, fish, and shrimps, to say the least! Pensacola is also home to Restaurant IRON, one of 50 Best Southern Restaurants in America. We also enjoyed a really nice breakfast on our hotel balcony during our stay at the Hilton Pensacola Beach, where we got to enjoy the sunrise and ocean breeze from our rooms.
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I hope you were able to learn a bit about Pensacola through this post and that the above convinced you that Pensacola should be on your list of places to visit next!! To be completely honest with you, prior to visiting this region of Florida, the only two things that came to mind when someone mentioned Florida was crazy drinking in Miami or Disneyland in Orlando. I have been to both and have loved my time there, but Northwest Florida officially has my heart.
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