[TootsieWootsie]

How long or what is the distance from Gulf Shores to Panama Beach, Fla? And what is Orange Beach in that area?
What is the most upscale town in that whole area?
Thanks...I cannot locate this on the net.

[Southlander]

Originally Posted by TootsieWootsie

How long or what is the distance from Gulf Shores to Panama Beach, Fla? And what is Orange Beach in that area?
What is the most upscale town in that whole area?
Thanks...I cannot locate this on the net.

Google and then click in the upper left on maps to get directions, distances etc.
Gulf Shores is about 137 miles from PC via U.S. 98.
Orange Beach is town that is part of the Gulf Shores area. Three or four years ago, I'd say that OB is more upscale than GS, but new buildings have pulled GS up even. But you might check Fairhope for upscale. If you're looking at condos, Perdido Beach or Ono Island, in the same general area, are somewhat upscale.

[Bravo35223]

The most upscale town in that 137 mile stretch of beach is Destin, FL.

[kaykay07]

in that stretch, it's definitely destin. Destin is BEAUTIFUL but the traffic would kill me. We used to live on Navarre Beach and Hwy 98 is bad enough towards that end without adding all the tourists.

It's a pretty little drive though, from PCB to Gulf Shores.

[2bohemians]

Even just a little east of destin and just west of panama city beach, is the scenic highway 30a and the beaches of south walton. In our opinion, this is by far the most upscale group of beach communities along the panhandle of florida. Another link that you might like is Discover 30A

[Southlander]

And there's Seaside and Rosemary Beach, I think.

[recycled]

I was in FL and AL gulf coast in December. I drove from Gulf Shores to Panama City Beach via US 98 and was stunned at the amount of traffic. I drove on a weekday, not during "commute hours" and it was a continuous stream of cars and trucks in both directions. Going through Ft Walton Beach and Destin was quite a slow drive as at the traffic signal intersections, it sometimes took more than one turn of the signal to get past an intersection.
I was surprised an all the new condo construction in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. I was in the area not long after Hurricane Ivan went through about 3 years ago, and at that time there were perhaps dozens of three or four story condo buildings that had the lower support structure buckled and the buildings were virtually destroyed. I see all of those were torn down and replaced by huge steel and concrete high rise condo towers. I spoke at a lunch stop with some construction guys who had been working almost non-stop on a lot of these buildings for the past 3 years, guess they made some good money on the jobs.
Ever notice how many hundreds or perhaps thousands of high rise condos are for sale right now in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores? Don't know how "upscale" those are, but some are pretty high up. I picked up a real estate flyer, and there were 30 or 40 pages of condo listings. Don't know if $300K for a high rise condo is a good deal or not in those places, but that's the approximate range a lot of them are listed for.

[Southlander]

Just as in Florida, homeowners in Gulf Shores were hit with huge insurance increases after 2005. Condo owners had huge assessments from the building to repair damage to lobbies, parking lots, swimming pools etc. $300,000 would be low for a beachside 3-bed, 2-bath condo. At least it was low last year.

[2bohemians]

Traffic can be really bad on the 98 especially in Destin, Fort Walton & Panama City Beach in the spring and summer when the tourists are in town. And if it is a rainy day .... forget it .... all the tourists are out shopping instead of relaxing on the beach. However, the beaches that we mentioned and the stretch of beach called the Scenic Highway 30A is much quieter ... less crazy spring break kids ... we live on the west end of the 30A and rarely leave our little beach unless we just have to go to wal-mart or stock up on supplies. We have height regulations and sign regulations so that our little stretch of beach communities don't end up filled with giant condos like so many other beaches in Florida. It's beautiful here and definitely worth a visit if you have the time.

[mercedes1]

Thank you, Bohemians, for the awesome restaurant link!