Panama City - Family Vacation?

[ShelbyMay]

Is Panama City a decent place for a family vacation? We'v never been there, but can get a good deal at a resort through a friend. We would be going in August and probably taking our 1-year-old daughter. We mostly enjoy hanging out by the pool or on the beach and ordering room service on vacation, but would like some ideas for fun things to do in case that gets boring.

[Phen]

We took our then 25-month-old kids to Panama City Beach last August. My husband had business meetings most of the days, so the kids and I spent the mornings at the beach, came back to our rental condo for naps, and in the afternoons, we'd either go back to the beach or go do a sightseeing thing (there's a private zoo there, a waterpark, the Ripley's Believe it or not museum...). Then when DH was back from work, we'd all go swimming in the condo pool, go out for dinner, and put the kids to bed, then we'd watch DVDs.

It rained a little bit every day we were there, but one day it rained ALL day. We went to the mall that morning and also found a Target where we picked up some DVDs to watch in the condo in the afternoon.

There were a lot of families there. I was a bit worried that it would be a major Singles Playground, but apparently the zoo isn't a big pickup joint, 'cause we hardly ever saw roaming bands of singles. ;) Oh wait, I did see a bunch one night when I went out to pick up dinner and stopped to get a henna tattoo (I had them put a henna [temporary] tattoo of Elmo's face on my shoulder -- the kids were so tickled to see it!) at one of the 1,000s of souvenir shops.

It was fun. It was our best family vacation yet, actually.

~ phen

[savannahgrl]

As long as you don't go around Spring Break it should be fine. It tends to be a bit wild around those times. Since you are going in August, I don't think it will be a problem.

Seaside and Sandestin are really close and are very family oriented. These places might be fun for a day trip.