WATER & COAST
Panama City Beach
Bay County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast
A beach city on the Gulf west of Panama City, formed in 1970 when several separate beach communities agreed to become one town.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The Hathaway Bridge opened in 1929 and put the sand within reach of Panama City, and Gideon Thomas founded the first resort area on the strength of it. Others followed, and for forty years the coast here was a string of small separate places with names like Edgewater Gulf Beach, Laguna Beach, West Panama City Beach, Dutchville, Playville and Julia. In 1970 they merged and incorporated as Panama City Beach. The growth since has been steep: 36 residents in 1960, 12,018 in 2010, and 18,094 at the 2020 census, with a great many more people present at any given moment than that suggests. The city fronts about nine miles of Gulf shoreline, and the sand is the fine pale kind that runs along the whole panhandle. Front Beach Road, which is State Road 30, runs the length of it. High-rise condominiums replaced much of the older low-rise building through the 2000s. Hurricane Michael came ashore as a category five storm near Mexico Beach on October 10, 2018, and did heavy damage across Bay County
Not identified in this guide as an officially clothing-optional beach. This is a visit category, not a safety rating—check surf, lifeguards, water quality and posted rules.
BEACH CONDITIONS
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