A word about the name, because it confuses people. There are two Panama Citys here: the older inland city of Panama City, the Bay County seat across the bay, and Panama City Beach, the resort city on the Gulf — separate towns with separate governments. (Neither is the one in Central America, though the inland city is said to have taken its name from its spot on a straight line between Chicago and the canal.) When people picture “Panama City” with white sand and neon and a roller coaster, they mean the Beach.
The town that holds all this came together piece by piece. A resort “Grand Opening” in 1936 put the beach on the map; over the next decades a string of separate beach communities — Long Beach, Edgewater, Gulf Beach and more — grew along the shore, incorporated in 1953, and finally merged into a single City of Panama City Beach in 1970. Before the resorts there were fishing hamlets, turpentine camps, and, during World War II, a shipyard and a gunnery range on St. Andrews Bay.
Why People Visit Panama City Beach
Panama City Beach rewards visitors who want bright white sand, warm emerald water, and an unpretentious good time, with a thread of retro neon still running through it. Add the piers, Shell Island, and the year-round Gulf sun, and the World’s Most Beautiful Beaches make their own case.
