Impossibly pretty seaside towns, emerald-green waters washing onto sugar-white beaches and antebellum mansions fringed with gingerbread Victorian flourishes give Northwest Florida—stretching from the capital, Tallahassee, to the westernmost city of Pensacola—an inviting, Old South “Riviera” appeal.
With a host of fresh developments, including new resorts and a new international airport, this longtime vacation haven is an emerging destination for meetings and conventions.
Pensacola
Saturated in history and washed by temperate blue-green waters, Pensacola is the gateway to Florida’s “great northwest,” skirting the Alabama border but offering an all-Florida combination of scenic beaches, waterfront resorts, fresh seafood restaurants, frequent festivals, and a military legacy that includes the Spanish conquistadors and the U.S. Navy.
Beginning with the Pensacola Civic Center—a 10,000-seat arena with over 20,000 square feet of exhibition space and 13,000 square feet of meeting space—Pensacola offers a mix of national-flag hotels, including Marriott and Hilton, along with historic and independent properties with meeting space, and a unique mix of off-site venues, including vintage theaters and restaurants.
It’s called the “City of Five Flags” because at one time or another through the centuries, Pensacola has been ruled by Spain, France, England, the U.S., and the Confederacy. Local attractions offering insight into Pensacola’s past include Historic Pensacola Village, with period houses and archaeological sites spanning the centuries, and many—including Christ Church, the oldest church building in Florida still standing on its original site—available for group functions; the Civil War Soldiers Museum, displaying medical artifacts and personal items used by soldiers; and the National Museum of Naval Aviation, located at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, which is also home base for the Navy’s Blue Angels flight squadron.
Emerald Coast
Pensacola’s neighbor to the east, the Emerald Coast, is named for the dazzling green waters that sparkle offshore, and though you might be tempted to just sit on the powdery sand and enjoy the view, there’s much more to do in this multifaceted destination, which includes the communities of Destin, Fort Walton Beach and Okaloosa Island.
“Basically, I think people come here because of the beaches, but once you’re out of the meeting, you can enjoy everything we’ve got here,” says Darrel Jones, executive director, president and CEO of the Emerald Coast CVB. “It’s family-oriented, if attendees are bringing their families.”
The premier venue here is the Emerald Coast Conference Center, boasting more than 35,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, with another 100,000 square feet in the planning stages. Meanwhile, a number of new hotels and resorts with meeting space have joined a roster that includes Ramada, Sheraton and a number of independent properties.
You might want to bring your fishing lures when you come to the Emerald Coast, where Destin is known as the “world’s luckiest fishing village,” but the entire Emerald Coast boasts the Gulf’s best bill fishing as well as spectacular underwater shelling.
Going from sparkling green waters to golf greens, you can tee off on golf courses that incorporate the local terrain of woods, wetlands, bays, and bayous. And for those looking to drop a little green during their stay, Destin Commons offers more than 75 retailers.
Beaches of South Walton
Farther along the Gulf Coast, the Beaches of South Walton—not to be confused with Fort Walton Beach—is a collection of 14 seaside communities spanning 26 miles of award-winning beaches. It’s a place to de-stress and relax amid sun-washed oceanfront resorts that don’t overwhelm the beach, but showcase it.
Low-key meetings and luxurious incentives can be enjoyed in a variety of resort- and community-based meeting facilities, with groups gathering in settings that range from seaside cottages and pavilions to charming town halls and the 2,400-acre Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. National brands like Embassy Suites and Hilton also are available.
Sun-seekers can launch just about any water activity from the snow-white shores of the Beaches of South Walton, including sailing, parasailing and snorkeling. Golf, gallery hopping and wine tasting are a few of the pastimes waiting for those who can tear themselves away from the beach.
Panama City Beach
Known for its great wreck diving, championship golf courses and marine-themed attractions, Panama City Beach is poised take on a new identity as a major player in Florida’s meetings industry, once the new international airport and more than a dozen new hotels come on-line.
Ground is due to break this spring on the new and improved—not to mention larger—Panama City–Bay County International Airport, scheduled to open in late 2009.
In the meantime, the destination has completed 19 resort and condominium projects with 17 more under way. By the beginning of 2008, hotel inventory is expected to reach an all-time high of more than 28,000 rooms. With many of these new properties offering meeting space, “we’ll be in a position where we can compete statewide and actually nationwide in the meetings market,” says Bob Warren, president and CEO of the Panama City Beach CVB.
Like the rest of northwest Florida’s coastal towns and cities, Panama City Beach is popular for its brilliant white sand and turquoise waters, but this area is also distinctive for its great wreck and reef diving, as well as snorkeling at places like St. Andrews State Recreation Area.
Apart from diversions at the water’s edge, Panama City Beach is home to many attractions, including Gulf World Marine Park, ZooWorld Zoological and Botanical Park, and the new Pier Park retail and entertainment complex.
Tallahassee
Leaving the beach behind and heading northeast, the landscape becomes lush and rolling, a place where canopy roads are shaded by moss-draped oaks and fragrant magnolias, and 122 properties—including antebellum mansions—are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This is the Old South, yet things are always on the move in Florida’s capital city. Sure, you could bring a group to one of the largest arenas in the state—the Tallahassee–Leon County Civic Center—but put aside convention and consider one of the more unique venues dotting this monumental landscape. The Capital Cultural Center, the Old Capitol building, with its stained-glass dome, and the 150-year-old Goodwood Plantation are a few historic choices, while accommodations range from familiar chain and corporate hotels to country club golf course suites, rustic “gentlemen lodges” and restored inns.
The hub of government for the Sunshine State is also an academic and artistic center, home to Florida State and Florida A&M universities as well as prominent dance, theater and music organizations. The past comes to life in America’s largest concentration of original plantations—71 in all between Tallahassee and Thomasville, Ga.—while the area’s natural history can be explored at local museums and surrounding nature preserves.
