Pensacola: Florida’s Best-Kept Vacation Secret
Attractions
Pensacola calls itself the City of Five Flags because they’ve been under five different flags through their history: Spain, France, Britain, the US, and the Confederate States of America. Held in early June, the Fiesta of Five Flags features children’s events, parades, balls, jazz music, celebrations at just about every restaurant (including Seville Square’s minifestival), and special events throughout the city. It’s one of the top festivals in Florida, and one of the oldest and largest.
If you don’t show up at the right time of year, there are events throughout the summer at the small parks in downtown Pensacola, often featuring some of the area’s best jazz music. Pensacola celebrates a laid-back version of Mardi Gras as well. And the Blue Angels Homecoming festival is breathtaking.
This part of Florida is saturated in history – the French and Spanish settlements, the Civil War, and Geronimo. Visit Pensacola Village in downtown Pensacola to visit the past here at Charles Lavalle House and the Julee Cottage Black History Museum, among other museums packed into just a couple of city blocks. Artifacts dug up in the Village and during many construction projects are on display around town, notably City Hall.
Fort Pickens and Fort Barrancas are two opposing forts on the west end of Pensacola Beach. Pickens is on Santa Rosa Island with the beach, while Barrancas is on the mainland. During the Civil War, Barrancas was taken by the Union Army, while Pickens was held by the Confederates. They amused themselves for years lobbing cannonballs at one another that never quite hit; Pickens is the only Confederate fort that was never taken by the Union Army. And Pickens also holds the distinction of being Geronimo’s long-time prison. If you go, ask the park ranger about the relationship between the Southern belles and the Indians – what a story!
If you love aviation history, you must visit Pensacola. The National Museum of Naval Aviation (free admission) at the US Naval Air Station is two stories and several acres of historic aircraft, from a mockup of the Wright Brothers’ plane to a real, decommissioned US Stealth Fighter. From one balcony point, you can overlook over an acre packed with planes on the ground and suspended from the ceiling. The kids can climb into cockpits, play on flight simulators, and generally just absorb the history here. It’s at least a day-long adventure, with an on-site inexpensive restaurant and a very nice gift shop
Pensacola is the home base of the US Navy’s world-renowned Blue Angels precision flying squad. In the spring, you can often spot them flying practice maneuvers over the city, and just before their big tours kick off, they salute their host town with an hour-long display of aerial acrobatics that will knock your socks off, right down on Pensacola Beach.
Speaking of the beach! That’s Pensacola’s crown jewel. With perfect white sand and summer movies on the beach, Pensacola Beach is several miles of pure romance and beauty. You’ll find the longest fishing pier on the Gulf Coast here, as well as relatively-calm Gulf of Mexico waters. And you can get a nice room right on the beach for less than $70 a night. For a romantic getaway with your spouse or special friend, you can’t beat this beach – the moon rises perfectly over it on clear nights, creating a perfect atmosphere for lovers.
Restaurants and Night Life
Pensacola is filled with world-class restaurants – I lived there five months and still had restaurants on my list to visit. For starters, try Landry’s Seafood, for some of the freshest seafood you’ve ever had in your life. Landry’s also manages Crabs, on Pensacola Beach. For fish of a different kind, try Hot Rock Sushi – and don’t miss their hot saki!
If you don’t feel like fish, then you have got to go to McGuire’s. The walls and ceiling here are decorated with over $300,000 in dollar-bill tips left over the years by patrons, creating a unique atmosphere. McGuire’s boasts over two dozen kinds of burgers, including the Terrible Garbage Burger (with a little of everything, it’s actually pretty tasty, if sloppy) and the $100 Burger (Angus sirloin, served with a side of caviar and a magnum of wine probably worth more than $100). They have a regular bagpiper who patrols the halls and outside, a superb bar, and they brew their own beer. Toss in some of the best steaks and Irish food in the area and the 19-cent Senate Bean Soup (the best bean soup I ever ate, and for nineteen cents!) as well as the convenient location near the bridge to Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach, and you have a winning evening.
For great Mexican food, try the Screaming Coyote, with a to-die-for buffet of hot sauces and salsas – absolutely great! Barnhill’s buffet, the Barracks Street Fish House, La Hacienda, Copeland’s, Italian Pizzeria Pavola Calda, Atlas Oyster House, and even Seville Square all have fantastic food. If you’ve never tried one before, check out the Mongolian Grill deeper in the city; it’s a bit of a drive from the beach, but it’s unique enough to be worth it.
Nightlife on Pensacola Beach is always hopping, with its strip of popular bars right on the beach. But for the real nightlife, try Palafox Street in Pensacola, and especially Seville Square. With right-priced drinks, several connected bars with different atmospheres, and a dueling piano bar, you can while away the whole night.
Hotels and Condos
Where you stay depends on your budget and what you want to get out of your trip to Pensacola. If you want to live the beach life, you must stay at one of the many hotels or condos on Pensacola Beach. I recommend the Travelodge if you don’t have much money; it’s on the beach, has a playground for the kids and a grill for you, and it’s reasonably priced.
If you don’t mind spending a little more, you should try The Dunes, a beautiful resort hotel very close to the main beach at Pensacola Beach; it’s a great place to walk through the sand. The Sandpiper is also a very nice place.
Contact a real estate agent from Pensacola Beach if you want to rent a condo for a week or a month; there are hundreds available.
If you don’t need to stay near the beach, you can save yourself a little money by staying in town – but with prices for beach motels as low as $50 a night during some seasons, why would you want to?
Day Trips
Pensacola is within an hour’s drive from Mobile, Alabama, and also close to Foley, Alabama, a mecca among outlet malls. If you go to Foley, don’t miss having dinner at the very rustic Lambert’s CafÃ?©, where the staff circulate among the tables with heaping containers of fried taters, fried ocra, blackeyed peas, and sorghum molasses to put on the rolls another staffer will throw to you from well across the room.
New Orleans is a little too far to drive, but Pensacola is a good stopover trip if you’re driving there. It’s about a three-hour drive.
Fishing from Pensacola makes a great day trip. There are dozens of small deep-sea fishing guides who will be happy to take you out to the good spots. If you don’t like the open sea, you can always fish from the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier, which extends nearly half a mile out into the sea.
If You Want To Live There
Pensacola is one of the nicest places in America to live. You have the Florida climate and the ocean in a town with a Southern atmosphere. The people are friendly and helpful, and the land is plentiful and cheap. Housing costs rate among the lowest in the nation; you can get a nice, fairly new ranch for under a hundred thousand dollars, or you can rent a very nice apartment on the beach for less than $800 a month.
Cost of living overall is low. Gas, food, and retail prices are among the lowest in the nation, and it’s surprisingly cheap to eat out as well. The biggest drawback to Pensacola is the school system; Florida schools rank pretty low, and Pensacola schools are no exception. The schools on Gulf Breeze, however, are among the best in Florida.
Unique places to try if you want to live in Pensacola include Joe Patti’s Seafood and the Silver Screen. Joe Patti’s has fishing and shrimping boats drive right up to the dock, pull out the fish, clean them inside the building, and they’re on ice ready for you to buy within a half hour. Most of the seafood restaurants in the area purchase their seafood supplies from Joe Patti’s.
The Silver Screen is a unique and cheap treat for a family with kids. It’s a second-run movie theater. Tickets are $2 per person, less with a military discount, and seating in the theater is arranged around small tables. The Silver Screen offers dinner-and-a-movie specials, so you can buy a pizza, toss it on your table, and munch your way through the movie.
Pensacola – World-Class Tourist Spot
Pensacola is a wonderful place to visit and to live. If you have been thinking about Gulf Shores, Alabama, you might want to look into Pensacola first – same beaches, same amenities, lower prices and fewer tourists.
