The water lives up to the sand. This is the heart of the Emerald Coast, where the Gulf runs from peridot to jade depending on the light, clear enough to see your feet in the shallows. At the east end, St. Andrews State Park guards the pass with dunes and jetties, and across the channel lies Shell Island — miles of undeveloped barrier beach where the only crowds are the dolphins. Nine miles of public sand, a pier or two, and that water: the whole reason the beach exists.
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.
