The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels fly in formation over Pensacola, Florida, home of a Naval Air Station and museum. Historic Pensacola makes a perfect starting point for a road trip along the 1,700-mile-long Gulf Coast. Photo by U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Cody Hendrix

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This blue house in Mobile, Alabama, was the home of Joe Cain, the “patron saint of Mardi Gras in Mobile,” who established its annual parades in 1867. America’s first Mardi Gras took place not in New Orleans but in Mobile in 1703. Photo © Carmen Sisson | Dreamstime.com

Sugar-sand beaches, gentle breezes, warm winters, shrimp and grits and quirky fun — that’s what’s in store on a trip along the coastline from Pensacola, Florida, to Mobile, Alabama, known as “the Mediterranean of the Americas.”  

Exploring this part of the Gulf Coast can be a one-or-more-week meander — a mix of relaxing on beaches, fishing for red snappers, paddling marshes and probing historic forts. 

Start in Pensacola 

Pensacola, on the western end of the Florida panhandle, still has much of “old Florida,” vibe. It has a laid-back, small-town feel, with a huge Navy presence. Its walkable downtown has unique boutiques, fresh seafood restaurants and historic buildings. 

At the Museum of History, visitors learn that the area is a tapestry of cultures. Europeans disembarked in 1559, six years before St. Augustine’s founding and 48 years before the English settled at Jamestown. Since then, Pensacola has been ruled by five flags: Spanish, French, English, Confederate and U.S.  

In Historic Pensacola Village you’ll find a cluster of 18th– and 19th-century homes and museums, like the Lavallet Cottage. Charles Lavallet, who owned a lumberyard, built Creole cottages — duplexes to house two families who shared an outdoor kitchen. Old Christ Church, built in 1832, was a Civil War Union hospital. The Julee Cottage is a saltbox-style home built around 1805 and home to Julee Panton, a free woman of color. 

The 1826 naval yard has mushroomed into the Naval Air Station Pensacola, the “Cradle of Naval Aviation,” where 15,000 service members pass through every year.  

One “bucket-list” destination is the National Museum of Naval Aviation, with more than 900 airplanes. The U.S. Navy has produced more astronauts than other branches of the military, so exhibits chronicle aviation history from seaplanes to propeller-driven airplanes to jet engines. 

Why does the seagoing Navy need aviation? “The Air Force cannot land an airplane on an aircraft carrier,” explained guide Jacob Smither. 

The museum also offers an education in aircraft carriers, vessels that came of age in World War II. One aircraft carrier is 4.5 acres of sovereign U.S. territory, anytime, anywhere. Today’s aircraft carrier is a city at sea, with up to 5,000 residents. A carrier’s nuclear power system can power a city of 100,000 people and can run for 20 years.  

The Blue Angels’ shows should be at the top of every travel to-do list, in Pensacola from March to November, then around the country. These tough combat aviators perform breathtaking formations and maneuvers: turns, rolls, steep ascents and loops, some with 18 inches of separation at 700 miles per hour.  

After gripping your seat watching these amazing aviators, if your stomach can take it, try the museum’s Cubi Officers Quarters café, a replica of a former Naval Air Station officers’ club in the Philippines. 

Continue west, to Alabama 

For the transition from Florida to Alabama, don’t miss a 60-year-old hangout on the state line, Flora-Bama, for music, oysters and boozy milkshakes. April brings a three-day beach party and the Interstate Mullet Toss, where people compete to hurl a dead mullet across the state line to see who can throw it the longest distance. Lucky alligators scarf up the mullets after the contest, while winners and losers sip their libations. 

For a respite from roaring jets and raucous bars, the Alabama Gulf Coast towns of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores await. 

“Life is better here,” brag Alabamians who live just west of the Florida panhandle. Not generally known as a beach-bunny destination, the state has 52 miles of beaches and coastline. 

Gulf State Park is a 6,000-acre expanse of nine ecosystems, including sand dunes, pine and palmetto forests and uncrowded beaches — just you and the shorebirds. A 28-mile trail system winds through several different ecosystems. The 350-room eco-conscious Gulf State Park Lodge is actually a Hilton that replaced the original lodge lost to Hurricane Ivan in 2018.   

On an excursion out to the Gulf Islands National Seashore’s 150 miles of barrier islands, you can spot dolphins, sea turtles, oystercatchers and alligators, plus get a history lesson about the defense fortifications at Fort Morgan which protected Mobile Bay from 1834 to World War II. 

The Tensaw Delta is called “America’s Amazon” because five rivers flow into Mobile Bay; it teems with 280 bird species, along with shrimp, anchovies, crayfish, mussels, turtles and alligators. Five Rivers Delta Resource Center runs pontoon tours through this watery wonderland.  

Mobile, a ‘mini-New Orleans’ 

 Mobile, a port city with cast-iron balconies and eclectic cuisine, feels like a “mini-New Orleans,” Alabamian Shane Riley said. 

Mobilians claim that their town is the birthplace of the original Mardi Gras in 1703. Its Dauphin Street is a tamer Bourbon Street. Still, locals go all out each winter with a multi-week festival of bands, “krewe parties,” grand balls, debuts and parades, where revelers in colorful, sparkly costumes throw moonpies off elaborately decorated floats.  

 The Carnival Museum, housed in a historic mansion, showcases these customs with lavish, glittery attire, royal regalia and other memorabilia. 

At the History Museum of Mobile, docents cite Civil War claims to fame. The Civil War submarine, the Hunley, built in Mobile, was the first sub to sink a vessel. Another bragging point: The 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay “turned the Navy toward the Union’s favor.”  

Other city sites sing the praises of hometown greats, including musician Jimmy Buffet and baseball’s Hank Aaron.  

Dining means indulging in this town — on scrumptious dishes like shrimp over fried green tomatoes, spicy chicken and grits, black-eyed pea skillet dinners, sheepsheads, fried alligator, eggs cochon, shrimp Benedict, bacon praline French toast and banana pudding. 

If you time your visit to Mobile for New Year’s Eve, you can toast the lowering of a 40-foot moonpie. Or you can throw moonpies yourself during Mardi Gras in this vibrant city on the world’s largest gulf. 

If you go 

Fly into Pensacola or Mobile and rent a car to explore the coastal sites and towns. Round-trip, nonstop flights start at $205 from Dulles. Mobile’s Mardi Gras celebration takes place from mid-February to early March. Use caution during hurricane season. 

For information on lodging, itineraries and events, go to visitpensacola.com, mobile.org or gulfshores.com.