Two years ago we wanted to head to Florida for spring break, but weren't sure exactly where we wanted to go. To keep costs in line for this family trip, we knew we would be driving and looking for reasonable accommodations. We also knew we'd be bringing with us our two black labs. That meant hunting for a condo or private home to rent that accepted pets. So I headed to one of my favorite sites, vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals By Owner) and started looking around.
Somehow my eye caught a side article that talked about the best dog beaches in the U.S. (or maybe even the world - don't remember right now). Since our dogs LOVE the water even more than our daughters, I clicked on the article and found out that Cape San Blas, FL had not only one of the best beaches in the world, but also one of the best dog-friendly beaches. Hmmm.. I had never heard of this place so continued my research.
Cape San Blas is located in northern Florida's Gulf Country, and is actually a peninsula that has the Gulf of Mexico on one side and St. Joe Bay on the other. The beaches are GORGEOUS and uncrowded, and there's not an amusement park or high rise in site. If getting back to nature and having a relaxing, fun, family vacation is your goal, then I recommend you consider this place.
We stayed in a 3-bedroom condo called Flamingo Retreat that was part of the Barrier Dunes development right on the beach with 2 outdoor swimming pools. It was perfect for us; I don't think you could go wrong in any of the rentals in this community. None are far from the beach (many are right on the beach), and the pools are great too. We would walk to the beach and often have the whole (huge) beach to ourselves. We could walk and walk and walk and never see a soul. The dogs were allowed to go offleash, so they had a blast swimming and running.
One day we rented a pontoon boat and spent the day on St. Joe Bay. That was incredible! We've never seen so much sea life up close and personal: rays, dolphins, hermit crabs, sand dollars, conches, shells, scallops, and schools of fish (mackerel maybe?) that would all jump out of the water at the same time. We just boated around, and would drop anchor whenever we wanted to swim or venture to shore. Really the highlight of our trip.
Other days we would spend at the beach, just playing in the water and on the sand. I wish we would've gone to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park at the tip of the peninsula. We did drop anchor near there and walked along the shore a bit, but I would've liked to have spent a day there to see some of the wildlife inland.
There are delicious restaurants and ice cream shops. We did much of our own cooking, though, to keep costs down. Really, I can't recommend this place enough. We'd all love to go back, and I highly recommend it as a wonderful family-friendly vacation destination.
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