Northwest Florida Getaways 2008 - (Page 5) northwest getaways In and Around Panama City and Panama City Beach Attractions and Events in the Small Towns of the Northwest There’s lots to do in this region, from new animal attractions to even newer resorts. Gulf World Marine Park’s “Reptile Show” slithers with snakes and lizards, while ZooWorld’s “Parrots of the World” shows off these skilled birds. On the water, things are speeding up. Shipwreck Island Waterpark now has online ticketing to expedite playtime at rides like Tadpole Hole, with its slides, tubes and swings. The new Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium looks like a capsized luxury cruise liner on the outside. It’s even stranger inside, but it’s Ripley’s Moving Theater that moves visitors at breakneck pace through big screen 4-D movies (so close you’ll think you’re in them). Relax and unwind at a host of new spas: Serenity at Bay Point at the Marriott Bay Point Resort offers Vichy water massages and oxygenating facials. The Spa at Majestic Beach Resort’s “Basalt Stone Massage” will coax the stress right out of you. Edgewater Beach and Golf Resort’s new spa and fitness center dips guests in a “Parisian Body Polish.” The newly opened Shores of Panama resort features two-and three-bedroom suites, a game room and a naturalistic pool on the Gulf of Mexico. The shopping complex Pier Park continues to add to its roster of coveted stores and services with the recent addition of The Grand 16 theatre. Carillon Beach Resort and Spa’s inn boasts both multi-level suites and condominium suites overlooking Lake Carillon. After a 16-mile, $23.5 million beach replenishment, there’s never been a better time to stake out some prime resort space on one of the world’s whitest beaches, now gleaming with fresh sand from below the Gulf of Mexico. Information at: Carillon Beach Resort and Spa, 850-234-5600, www.carillonbeachresort.com; Edgewater Beach and Golf Resort, 800-874-8686, www.edgewaterbeachresort.com; Gulf World Marine Park, 850-234-5271, www.gulfworldmarinepark.com; Majestic Beach Resort, 866-494-3364, www.www.majesticbeachresort.com; Marriott Bay Point Resort, 850- 236-6000, www.marriottbaypoint.com; Pier Park, 850-235-1159, www.pcbeach.org; Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, 850-230-6113, www.ripleyspanamacitybeach.com; Shipwreck Island Waterpark, 850-234-3333, www.shipwreckisland.com; Shores of Panama, 251-626-6495, www.shoresofpanama.net/; ZooWorld, 850-230-4839, www.zoo-world.us. Trader Vic’s and Beethoven in Destin and Fort Walton Port St. Joe in Gulf County is home to the Taste of the Coast festival. April in Port St. Joe brings A Taste of the Coast, an art auction and food fest featuring samples from some of the area’s best restaurants as well as music and a spirited competition among art students. Meanwhile, Blountstown’s not-to-bemissed 47-acre living history museum, the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement, offers regularly scheduled offbeat and kidfriendly programs: try sacred harp singing in February, a peanut boil in September and Sugar Cane Syrup Making Day in November, just in time for the holidays. Hikers should hustle out to the new fivemile Blountstown Greenway, which joins up with the Florida Trail and ends at the Apalachicola River. Now open to bikers and walkers, the greenway calls to nature lovers of all kinds. This year’s Bonifay Kiwanis Club Gospel Sing is July 5. This 50-year-old event brings national acts like The Kingsmen and Michael Combs. Bonifay’s Northwest Florida Championship Rodeo returns in October with parades, pageants and cowpokes. Around since the 1940s, the rodeo draws a tough crop of competitors who vie for bragging rights in seven rodeo events. Food festival-wise, Apalachicola’s Florida Seafood Festival kicks off with an oyster eating contest and is hosted by King Retsyo, son of Neptune, in late October. Information at: Blountstown Greenway, 877-HIKE-FLA, www.floridatrail.org; Bonifay Kiwanis Club, 850-547-5363, www.bonifaykiwanis.org/rodeo.htm; Florida Seafood Festival, www.floridaseafoodfestival.com; Northwest Florida Championship Rodeo, 850-547-5363, www.bonifaykiwanis.org/rodeo.htm; Panhandle Pioneer Settlement, 850-674-2777, www.ppsmuseum.org; A Taste of the Coast, www.atasteofthecoast.com. Mattie Kelly Fine & Performing Arts Center, Niceville. Plan a trip to the Emerald Coast (Destin/ Fort Walton area) and you’ll have your pick of new and notable resorts. The Palms of Destin Resort and Conference Center has spacious suites with a Polynesian-inspired spa. Guests at Emerald Grand at HarborWalk Village on Destin Harbor can take advantage of the resort’s water taxi and Kid’s Club. See the tiki-tiki environs of the new Trader Vic’s Restaurant; this retro eatery is a reborn version of the classic Trader Vic’s restaurants popular in the 1960s. Fort Walton Beach’s Musical Echos event (set for April 25-27) features Native American flutes. The Philharmonic of Northwest Florida’s 2007-08 season finishes in March with Heroic Endings, a concert of Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 Heroica. Beethoven also finishes up the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra’s season, April 18 at the Mattie Kelly Fine & Performing Arts Center at Okaloosa-Walton College in Niceville. In Destin in April, Sinfonia Gulf Coast, brings Play: A Video Game Symphony to the stage and hosts Baytowne Pops at The Village at Baytowne Wharf. In April, Valparaiso’s Heritage Museum of Northwest Florida offers Saturday in the Park, a festival of period crafts, pony rides and antique cars. Information at: Emerald Grand at HarborWalk Village, 850-337-8800, www.emeraldgrande.com; Heritage Museum of Northwest Florida, 850-678-2615, www.heritage-museum.org; Musical Echos, 850-582-1776, musicalechoes.org; Philharmonic of Northwest Florida, 850-218-8705, philharmonicnwf.com; Sinfonia Gulf Coast, 850-267-1478, www.sinfoniagulfcoast.org; The Palms of Destin Resort and Conference Center, 850-351-0500, www.palmsofdestin.com; Trader Vic’s Restaurant, 850-351-0900, www.tradervics.com. Northwest Getaways 5 http://www.carillonbeachresort.com http://www.edgewaterbeachresort.com http://www.gulfworldmarinepark.com http://www.emeraldgrande.com http://www.majesticbeachresort.com http://www.floridatrail.org http://www.heritage-museum.org http://www.marriottbaypoint.com http://musicalechoes.org http://www.bonifaykiwanis.org/rodeo.htm http://www.pcbeach.org http://www.floridaseafoodfestival.com http://philharmonicnwf.com http://www.ripleyspanamacitybeach.com http://www.sinfoniagulfcoast.org http://www.bonifaykiwanis.org/rodeo.htm http://www.shipwreckisland.com http://www.palmsofdestin.com http://www.ppsmuseum.org http://www.shoresofpanama.net/ http://www.atasteofthecoast.com http://www.zoo-world.us http://www.tradervics.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.