We were in Pensacola Beach in February 2021 during our Winter Warmth trip.

We left New Orleans heading toward Eastpoint, FL with a one-night gap in our itinerary to fill. Pensacola is about halfway between the two towns, and there’s an RV campground at Pensacola Beach that looked promising and had an available site. We booked it from the road, not having done any research on the campground or area. Sometimes that ends well, sometimes it’s disappointing. This time it was a huge success!

Campground

Still feeling like we needed to treat ourselves because of our winter storm ordeal, we splurged on a beachfront site at Pensacola Beach RV Resort and it was SO AWESOME. We could walk out our door and into the sand overlooking the Santa Rosa Sound, with trees and chairs and shade and sun and it was glorious. The ocean is accessible across the street, and you can walk to restaurants, bars, the boardwalk, and the pier. But we didn’t leave our campsite and its little beach, other than to go for a run.

The RV resort has every amenity you could want, and it was extremely clean and professionally run, and when we were there it was super peaceful. And, rare for Florida beaches: dogs are allowed on the beach!

In the corner of the private beach is a beachfront tiki bar, and the staff was prepping it to open for the season, which runs March 1 to November 1. While in general I am super excited about beachfront tiki bars, I am very much not interested in a tiki bar right outside my trailer window. I’m sure it’s a fun time to party there, but not if you’ve gone to bed and the party is still going on next to your pillow. I know I sound like a grouch but the photo on their website of 1000000000 boats parked at our peaceful little backyard beach is horrifying to me. So maybe take that into consideration when planning your trip.

Activities

There are all sorts of activities available to you in Pensacola Beach, but like I said, all we did was go for a run and then enjoy our campsite. Just down the street from the campground, you can pick up a paved multi-use path that leads all the way to Fort Pickens, about nine miles away, and run or walk or bike to your heart’s content. If we’d had more time, we would have visited Fort Pickens, built in the 1800s to defend Pensacola Bay.

Maybe we’ll return to this beautiful beachy campsite. But only in the off-season!