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.
Our Panama City Beach logo carries the Florida alligator over “Florida Territory · Est. 1845,” the year Florida became a state — the shared emblem of every Merlin Classics Florida town. Printed in clean retro black-and-white that reads like an old crate label, the alligator stands for Florida as a whole; what makes this one Panama City Beach is everything behind it — the neon Miracle Strip and the Starliner’s wooden hills, Goofy Golf’s concrete dinosaurs, and the quartz-white sand and emerald water of the World’s Most Beautiful Beaches.
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.
