Active Pursuits in Panama City Beach
Boating Options in Panama City Beach
A variety of rental boats are available at marinas near the Thomas Drive bridge over Grand Lagoon. These include the Shell Island Boat Rentals at Treasure Island Marina, 3605 Thomas Dr. (tel. 850/234-7245), which rents pontoons and Boston whalers. Also check out such websites as Boatsetter.com for direct from owner rentals (they do bareboats and captained ones).
Fishing in Panama City Beach
The most intense way to try your luck is with Captain Anderson's Deep Sea Fishing, at Captain Anderson's Marina, Thomas Drive at Grand Lagoon (tel. 800/874-2415 or 850/234-5940). The trips last 5 to 12 (!) hours, with prices ranging from $85 to $150 per person, including bait and tackle. Observers can go along for $40 to $75.
The more expensive charter-fishing boats depart daily from March to November from the marinas mentioned in "Boating," above.
You definitely won’t get seasick casting your line two boardwalks at the M.B. Miller County Pier, 12213 Front Beach Rd. (tel. 850/236-3035), where a fishing pass is $6 and an observer pass is $3, and the pier juts out 1500 feet into the Gulf, or the Russell Fields Pier, 16101 Front Beach Rd. (tel. 850/233-5080), also sitting 1500 feet into the Gulf. Spectators pay $4 and anglers pay $7.
Golf in Panama City Beach
The Bay Point Golf Club, 4701 Bay Point Rd., (tel. 850/235-6950;), is home to the only Nicklaus designed course in Northwest Florida, located on an 1,100-acre nature preserve, with unique water hazards and sand traps carved out of the Florida terrain. Greens fees range from $65 to $130. The flat and forgiving Signal Hill Golf Course, 9615 Thomas Dr., (tel. 850/234-5051), is the area’s oldest course, located across from the beach, and featuring 18 holes and 5,617 yards of golf from the longest tees. Greens fees range from $28 to $55.The course at the semiprivate Legacy Golf Club, 100 Fairway Blvd. (tel. 850/234-1800), sports lake-lined fairways and elevated greens. Greens fees with cart are about $40 to $139. You can play at night on a lighted 9-hole, par-3 executive course.
Scuba Diving & Snorkeling Near Panama Beach City
Although the area is too far north for extensive coral formations, more than 50 artificial reefs and shipwrecks in the Gulf waters off Panama City attract a wide variety of sea life. The marine institute has sent ships, navy scrap metal, pontoons, towers, bridge spans, tanks, hovercraft, and even a Quonset hut to the bottom of the Gulf since the 1970s. Perhaps the most famous wreck is the Empire Mica, a British tanker that was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1942. It now rests 20 miles off Cape San Blas. The largest local operator is Dive Locker, 1010 Thomas Dr. (tel. 850/230-8006). Others include Panama City Dive Center, 4823 Thomas Dr. (tel. 850/235-3390), and Emerald Coast Scuba, 503 Harbor Blvd. (tel. 850/837-0955). These companies lead dives, teach courses, and take snorkelers to the grass flats off Shell Island.
