In my mind, U.S. beaches are on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts and in Florida, period. But I’ve been to Gulf Shores, Alabama twice now. And I can tell you I absolutely recommend it for a beach vacation with kids.
Gulf Shores and Orange beach sit side-by-side on the Gulf of Mexico, just over the state line from Pensacola, Florida. Upscale vacation rentals and a range of hotels and restaurants are strung along 38n miles of a wide and lovely beach with soft white sand and the Gulf.
There’s an enormous state park for biking and walking, a cool zoo and fun activities on the water. And I found plenty of wonderful local seafood and fun cocktails in laid-back kid-friendly restaurants.
Really, what more do you need?
Here are my recommendations for fun things to do with kids on and away from the water, top places to eat and lovely places to stay. It’s everything you need to know to plan your Gulf Shore, Alabama beach vacation.
Gulf Shores Vacation Cheat Sheet
• Shop for the Best Rates on Hotels and packages to in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach
• Book spacious Orange Beach and Gulf Shores vacation rentals on the beach.
Can’t Miss Meal: Seafood Dinner at Zeke’s Restaurant.
Thrilling outdoor activity: The Blue Angels Practicing over Pensacola’s coast.
Plan: a guys’ fishing day and girls’ DIY Spa Day at High Cotton.
Great Gulf Shores Hotels & Vacation Rentals For Families
Beachfront hotel rooms range from a little over $100 in the shoulder season to $250 and up during peak school-break weeks.
The large rental market ranges from individual homes to condominiums with resort amenities, and prices range accordingly, from under $200 to more than $800 a night depending on the type and size of the property, how close it is to the beach and the time of year.
Gulf Shores’ Stand-Out Hotel: The Lodge at Gulf State Park
On my last visit I had a chance to stay at the modern, airy, LEED-gold-certified sustainable Lodge at Gulf State Park, which that has been on my list of hotels I want to try. Managed by Hilton, it successfully walks the line between stylish and comfortable.
It’s my ideal family beach hotel because you feel like you’re treating yourself to a stay at a stylish hotel. But it’s relaxed and casual enough that you aren’t self-conscious when your kids splash in the pool or walk into the elevators with sand-covered feet.
And you’re in Gulf State Park, with all of its resources at your disposal. These include walking trails, bike rentals, a nature center, picnic area and playground, plush a fishing pier on the beach and freshwater fishing at an inland lake, all a short walk or quick drive from the hotel.
Two long boardwalks connect the hotel to the beach (one has a ramp). There’s a nice pool and outdoor common lounges with bigger Adirondack chairs, couches and tables on each floor. They’re nice places to read or linger over morning coffee.
The large main lobby is also very comfortable. It’s the sort of place where you your family can play a board game in the evening or just hang out and talk. I’m not sure if you can get drinks from the restaurant to bring into the lounge, but the coffee bar stays open in the evening for tea and hot cocoa.
All the rooms facing the water have Adirondack chairs on their balconies.
My family room had a set of bunk beds, a small table, lots of clothing hooks, which is very handy at the beach, and some room to spread your stuff out.
The bathroom has both a tub and shower — unusual today and handy with kids — more hooks and a long vanity with room for everyone’s toiletry bags.
There are lots of opportunities for outdoor dining when it’s warm enough, and to dine inside or gather around a fire pit when it’s chilly.
Food Craft is the main breakfast spot. It had a nice buffet breakfast with lots of fruit, yogurt and granola as well as biscuits and gravy and egg dishes. The lunch and dinner menus looked fun, but I didn’t get a chance to get there later in the day.
DragonFly is the poolside grill and has another tempting menu. But both of my visits were off-season and it wasn’t open.
The resort uses about one-third less energy and water than other hotels of its size. They achieve this with tricks like using passive cooling and natural ventilation to reduce air conditioning and recycling HVAC condensation into pool water.
Outside, lights point away from turtle nesting areas and a large portion of the property grows native plants and grass that are a habitat for native birds.
A Great Value Option: The Cabins at Gulf State Park
The state park also has cabins and cottages inland, which are perfect if you have bigger groups or want more privacy.
The Eagle Cottages are three-bedroom luxury rentals with open-air and screened decks and ample living and kitchen space. They are lakeside and have stellar views of the sunset.
Thanks to a partnership with National Geographic the room rate comes with perks like a guided park tour, a library of guidebooks and nature documentaries to borrow from and complimentary bike rentals.
They are priced in line with other upscale vacation rentals in the area.
The mid-range Lakeside and trail-side cabins don’t look as impressive from the outside but they all have two or three bedrooms, a kitchen and outdoor space and some have been recently renovated.
The Lakeside ones come with a view and cost a bit more. The trail-side ones are the least expensive but I imagine they could be mosquito-friendly in summer.
Turquoise Place
On my first visit, I had the good fortune to stay at Turquoise Place, possibly the most high-end of vacation condos in Orange Beach. The apartments have three, four or five bedrooms and three or four baths with a whirlpool bath and television in the master bath.
The open kitchen-dining-living-room area is spacious and has a gas fireplace. The balcony is a second, outdoor living room with a sectional, gas grill and a two-to-three-person hot tub.
The three-bedroom will sleep at least six. More if you put a crib or toddler bed in the master bedroom or let people sleep in the living area, where the couches are often convertibles.
The property is on the beach and has both an outdoor pool and lazy river. It also has an indoor pool, hot tub and a nice sauna for those rare cold or rainy days. It has a small outdoor playground, too.
It was a gorgeous property and apartments are easily shared by multiple families. I’ve been longing to go back and stay with a group.
The quibbles I have are mostly small. For one, I wish the property had a small deli or convenience store for picking up items like milk, tea and juice. There isn’t any place to shop without getting in the car and driving.
Second, I needed a maintenance person to look at the air conditioning and was supposed to call a central number for several area condos. When they didn’t return my call, I called the front desk and they sent someone up within a half hour. But the front desk isn’t manned 24/7 and there’s no concierge, bellhop or doorman, which a hotel with comparable rates would have.
Rates range from less than $300 to more than $700 a night depending on the unit and time of year. Because a lot of the units are rented by owners you can find very different prices for similar apartments. Shop around.
Here Are The Best Things to Do On Your Gulf Shores Beach Vacation With Kids
Outdoor Family Fun
The Beach
Much of the beach is behind hotels and large vacation condo properties. But two miles of it are state park land and there are ten public beach access points. These beach areas have free parking and some have picnic areas and facilities.
The sand is soft, and near shore the rolling surf seemed manageable when I was there. I saw a fair number of surfers hanging out where the waves were breaking, which was fairly far from shore.
It’s a great beach for walking, playing beach games and wading into the surf. The scene is pretty mellow and family oriented.
There’s a fee to use the state park’s fishing pier, and you need a fishing license which you can buy ahead of time online or at the pier’s bait and tackle shop.
Tip: The surf was calm on my first visit but the Gulf does have riptides and the local tourism agency is encouraging people to be aware of the weather, water conditions and swimming safety. You can text “ALBEACHES” to 888-777 to get daily surf reports while you’re visiting.
More To Do in Gulf Shores State Park
The state park has 28 miles of bike trails that are a mix of pavement, packed dirt and boardwalk.
They stretch from the waterfront inland through forest and around a lake where you can spot water birds and alligators from the boardwalks. Most of the paths are pretty flat and easy for kids.
The park has a bike share program with 200 bicycles stationed in several places, including by the Lodge.
I tried the system when it was new. The bikes were comfortable and easy to handle. It’s a handy way to get around the park if you’re staying at its lodge, cabins, cottages or campground. it’s also great for spontaneous ride through the park with tweens and teens (all the bikes are adult-size).
They don’t have helmets (I didn’t feel like I needed on the car-free park trails, but anyone under 16YO has to have one).
There are plenty of places around town to rent bicycles. As well as standard adult bikes you can easily find peddle-assisted e-bikes, kids’ bikes, tandems and trailers for tots or pets.
On my last visit I was one of a group that rented e-bikes from Beach Bike Rentals, which is a short ride to both the beach and the state park’s bike trails. You can also hire a guide to take you on a ride through the park.
I love my old-trusty 21-speed foot-powered bicycle and was skeptical of using e-bikes. But the people at the store reminded me how extensive the trail system is. The pedal-assist got my bike up to 20 mph, where I would normally pedal maybe 5 mph. So the e-bike allowed me to expend the same amount of energy while exploring much more of the park.
The state park’s trails are largely flat, but there are a lot of overpasses with short and surprisingly steep inclines. Without the e-bike’s boost I admit I might have walked up a few of these.
My New-Zoo Review
The new and quite impressive Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo opened just after Covid-19 receded. I recommend a visit, ideally on a cloudy or cool day; zoos are hot.
The zoo, which is triple the size of the one it replaced, has been thoughtfully designed with both animals and visitors in mind. For example, viewing platforms for the giraffes are up high, so visitors can see eye-to-eye with them.
The monkeys live on an island protected by a pond. Visitors can observe them from shore or rent rowboats for a closer (but not too close!) look.
The zoo has nice playgrounds, a small carousel and a very alluring gift shop.
The best thing about the zoo might just be its Savannah restaurant and bar, which has a subdued safari aesthetic, upscale casual food and happy hour from 2:00 to 5:00 six days a week. It’s a very nice way to reward yourself for a day a the zoo,
But I would recommend visiting it even if you aren’t checking out the animals and even if you don’t have kids with you.
See the Blue Angels practice
On select days from late May to late September, the navy’s Blue Angels take off to practice their daredevil routines from the naval base in Pensacola. You can see them for free on the naval base and from other points around Pensacola.
Performances last for nearly an hour. Bring hats, sunglasses and sunscreen. Kids and anyone sensitive to loud noise will want ear protection.
For a full day out, you can catch a ride with one of several pleasure-boating companies that offer cruises to see the Blue Angel shows from the water. They are pricey boat rides but it’s unique and really memorable experience.
Sail Wild Hearts has a Dolphins & Angels Adventure cruise on a catamaran. You can enjoy a light lunch, look for dolphins and have a front-row seat for the Angels’ dives and spins.
After the show the sailboat stops in a calm cove where you can snorkel, paddle board or kayak.
Unfortunately, it poured rain the day I was planning to sail with them, and it was the last day of the Blue Angels’ practice season, so this is my biggest reason to go back.
Rainy Day Indoor Fun
A Cool Aviation Museum
The good thing about having a very rainy day was that I got to explore some of the area’s indoor things to do with kids.
My consolation for missing the catamaran ride and Angels show was a visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum back across the state line in Pensacola.
I was imagining a collection of dusty warplanes and could not have been more wrong. This huge, high-tech museum has something for everyone, and is actually a great multi-generation activity.
The Apollo 11 moon-landing VR experience was easily one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. You take off from Cape Kennedy, look down at earth from space and step onto the moon’s surface. It’s very immersive and the one simulation adults might appreciate more than kids.
If you also missed the real Blue Angels or can’t get enough of them, the museum has a 4-D blue angels film, which is a lark. There is also a Blue Angels flight simulator, which I didn’t quite have the nerve to climb into.
If you have real aircraft or naval history aficionados in your group, just let them loose with plans to meet up later. They’ll enjoy the daily tour that starts from the front desk.
More casual visitors will like climbing aboard a real Air Force 1 Plane, and the small but nicely done feature on women in naval aviation.
Tip: The museum is on an active naval base. Every adult visiting will have to show an I.D. to get onto the base.
Rainy Day Activity: Make-Your-Own Bath Products
High Cotton, a fun bath products store at the Wharf outdoor mall, offers a DIY activity I haven’t seen in other places, where you get to experiment with scents and create your own bath products. It’s a great way for tweens, teens and moms to have a really fun girls’ day out.
The afternoon starts with a visit to the fragrance bar where each customer has up to 250 essential oils and fragrances in front of him or her.
My group spent a good amount of time sampling the different aromas and mixing and matching them to come up custom scents of our own.
I started off mixing scents I usually like, mostly citrus oils and calming scents like vanilla. To my surprise that’s not where I wound up. My winning combination was red currant, clove and cinnamon, which I used to make an uplifting sugar scrub body spray.
You can have the staff mix your scent into most of the bath products High Cotton makes, including bath gel, bubble bath, scrubs, moisturizers and lotions, body sprays and shaving products.
They do have men’s products (body spray, shaving cream, beard oil) and essential oils like sandalwood if you want a co-ed afternoon or you want to bring a present home to someone.
They’re fine with younger kids coming to make bubble bath or shampoo, but you really have to supervise them so they don’t spill or go crazy with the essential oils. I wouldn’t bring anyone younger than 8YO.
Practical Details: Prices start at eight people to make one product each. You can bring more than eight people, but you’ll have to take turns at the fragrance-making. Additional products costs more.
You absolutely want to call ahead. They offered us complementary sparkling wine before we began the fragrance fun. You can bring your own drinks and snacks, too, if you arrange it with them beforehand.
The Wharf serves a bit as Gulf Shores’s town center. It’s likely you’ll find yourself there at least once during your visit. There’s a mix of shopping and some good local restaurants.
Other rainy-day activities include a day spa, distillery tasting room, VR salon, escape room and movie theater.
On sunny days there’s a zip-line, Ferris wheel and mini-golf, as well as an outdoor amphitheater for summer concerts. Fishing boats and sunset cruises leave from the marina.
Tip: Discount passes to the Ferris Wheel, the Zoo and three other popular activities are included in the Gulf Shores Area Attractions Pass. It has a good balance of outdoor and indoor activities to ensure you have fun regardless of what the weather brings.
More Great Resources
• Beach House Planning & Packing List
Some of the best Gulf Shores restaurants With Kids
It’s not hard to find good food, and particularly good seafood, at restaurants that are casual and kid-friendly.
In general, restaurants in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach don’t take reservations unless you’re a large group. To avoid waiting, especially during peak weeks, eat breakfast early and try to time lunch and dinner for off-peak hours.
Zeke’s Restaurant at Zeke’s Landing
My favorite meal on my most recent trip was dinner at Zeke’s The place is stylish but laid back. It’s relatively inexpensive for a seafood place near the beach and the food is wonderful.
My companions and I started with fresh local oysters that were perfectly briny and came with mignonette, cocktail sauce and horseradish, which I love.
We had fried oysters on top of a cabbage slaw, too. The cabbage slaw was crunchy & tangy, and the fried oysters were crisp and freshly fried and just the right size to eat in one bite. The tuna poke and white bean hummus are other shared starters we liked.
I has scampi and pasta. It was a reasonable portion, not too huge, which I appreciate. The shrimp were plump and fresh and there was lots of garlic and olive oil, which made it that rare dinner that’s indulgent but still pretty healthy.
Several people at the table ordered grouper and fries: The fish, also local, was fresh and perfectly Fried in a light coating of breadcrumbs. The fries had a little zing to them, too, but I’m not sure what the seasoning was.
A few people opted for the hamburger, which is big, hand packed and everything you would want if you’re in the mood for a burger.
Don’t skip dessert! The skillet brownie dessert comes with caramel ice cream and is meant to be shared (I hope!). We had five people digging into ours and couldn’t finish it.
The Gulf at Orange Beach
The Gulf was my top pick on my first visit. This fish shack made from shipping containers is exactly the kind of place I love to find when I’m on vacation with my family: quirky and casual with interesting food.
You order at a window and eat at picnic tables. You’re right on a beach with room for kids to play while you wait for your lunch and dinner.
The food is a few steps up from your average shrimp shack. There’s a smoked tuna dip appetizer. The poké bowl is a very pretty mix of pineapple, veggies and tuna.
My fish tacos came in a bowl with brown rice, black beans, purple cabbage and salsa verde. The daily special was grilled scallops on cauliflower puree.
If the kids menu chicken tenders and grilled cheese don’t suit you, you can order hummus or rice and beans from the regular menu.
Everything is served on compostable plates. And the fresh lemonade is really good, especially if you mix it with the unsweetened iced tea.
Perch At Gulf State Park
Make a point of having a meal or at least a drink at Perch, the Lodge’s main restaurant, even if you stay elsewhere.
Perch has a stylish bar and large deck. and the food emphasizes local, seasonal ingredients alongside craft cocktails. I just had time to stop in for drinks and appetizers but could easily have stayed all night.
My blind tiger cocktail was a sprightly mix sparkling wine with ginger and cherry liqueurs. Another cocktail mixes elderberry and cucumber flavors, which sounds odd, but it’s subtle and refreshing in the Alabama heat.
Share a plate of deviled eggs if they have them. They involve pimento cheese and pork rinds (‘nuff said).
The supporting ingredients in the dishes we tried were often surprising, like fried Brussels sprouts accented with horseradish cream or warm pretzels served with charcuterie.
Sunliner Diner
The retro-style Sunliner Diner is the place to spend a rainy morning if you’re unlucky enough to have one.
Grilled cheese, burgers and shakes are de rigueur if you arrive after noon. The fried pickles and onion rings are top-notch; get an order of each to share.
If you come for breakfast, don’t plan to eat for a few days afterward. The biscuits are light, fluffy and so good. They come alongside almost any egg dish. The pancakes are large and tangy with buttermilk. The eggs are all cooked to order.
If you’re lucky, you might snag the booth that’s inside a bright red convertible.
Southern Grind Coffee House
The Southern Gride, a cafe and shop at the Wharf, has very good coffee drinks. We had breakfast there before our morning at High Cotton.
It’s a good spot for a family with divergent eating styles. You can go healthy with oatmeal and fruit, have a simple egg sandwich or tuck into elaborate waffles and omelets.
In addition to breakfast, it’s a great spot if you need an afternoon cuppa. Have a cold nitro, white mocha or honeybee latté, while your kids choose between gelato and baked goods, including sugar cookies with blue buttercream icing and fondant whale tails.
Brick & Spoon lunch or brunch
Brick & Spoon is a popular place for breakfast, but I would caution against arriving at this regional chain restaurant too early in the morning. Because the bloody Marys have their own menu. You have to have one.
Pick one of ten vodkas, choose your level of heat, then add pickled vegetables, seasonings, a salt or pepper-rimmed glass and a lemon or lime wedge.
If you want to eat your morning cocktail instead of drinking it, you can add Tasso ham, bacon, cocktail shrimp, cheese cubes or even a deviled egg.
The large menu has omelets, several kinds of eggs Benedict, tacos, a few pancake and French toast options and lighter items like avocado toast and salads. They encourage making a breakfast of sides, which I did by topping grits with an egg and avocado.
The toughest thing here is choosing your carbohydrate. The beignets, fresh fluffy biscuits and grits are all a tasty start to your day.
YoHo Rum & Tacos
YoHo Rum & Tacos, a lunch spot at the Wharf, very handy for grabbing a bite before or after the activities that bring you here.
It’s another place where you can easily make a meal of appetizers. The lobster quesadilla had plenty of the main ingredient and was outstanding.
The tacos all have fresh ingredients, great flavor combinations and vegetarian options. The wings were solid. The only thing I would take a pass on are the hushpuppies, which were dry.
There are tacos and quesadillas on the kids’s menu, which gives them extra points in my book.
Yup, they have rum and rum cocktails. They take their rum seriously, offer several different styles and encourage sipping rather than mixing. You can order flights to compare a few, which I recommend if you have the time.
The Hangout
On my last visit I had lunch at the Hangout, a huge, open-air restaurant that’s right on the beach. It wasn’t my kind of scene, but the food was absolutely worth going.
I loved my shrimp and grits. Blackened shrimp sat in a rich cream sauce flavored with local Conecuh sausage. It was a big portion for lunch and I could easily have shared it, especially after sharing a few appetizers.
We started with crisp calamari that came with an addictive house dipping sauce. Steamed shrimp was huge, fresh and great to have as an afternoon snack with a beer. The pulled pork nachos were a little too sweet for me.
You ought to have a shrimp boil at some point on your Gulf Shores Vacation. The Hangout serves a respectable seafood boil for one. plump, local shrimp, crab legs, mussels, corn on the cob, potatoes and Conecuh sausage are served up in small bag with ’s seasoned butter on the side for dipping.
Conecuh sausage is highly seasoned and probably closest to andouille, if anything. It’s its own thing and I really liked it.
The hangout has a DJ all day. Servers periodically pause in their jobs to dance to Cotton-Eye Joe. An MC invites people celebrating birthdays to dance on their tables. And the signature drink comes with a plastic shark full of grenadine that you dump into a blue cocktail to conjure up the image of a shark bite.
The restaurant, and the Shark Bite cocktail, are hugely popular. And it could be a good place to take kids because there is more than enough to keep them entertained and no one will care if they’re a little boisterous.
But if it’s not your family’s scene, there are outdoor table where you can enjoy the food and skip the party. Or you can get lunch to go and head to the beach. The po’boys on the menu are ideal for a picnic.
GTs on the Bay
The thing to do at GTs on the Bay is to grab an outside table and settle in for drinks and shared plates while your kids run loose in the large play area that includes a playhouse and sandbox.
Fried platters of shrimp, oysters and fish come with tater tots (kids who don’t eat seafood can have chicken fingers). Can’t-miss appetizers include fried crab claws and firecracker shrimp and totchos (tater tot nachos) with pulled pork. Key-lime and coconut pies were very good and were the least heavy desserts.
GTs didn’t blow my mind but the apps, fried-fish platters and desserts are good, the atmosphere is fun and it won’t blow your budget. On a family vacation this can often be just what you need.
Essential information
Gulf Shores Weather
Spring or late fall are the best times to visit. It’s warm enough to swim but not hot and you get off-season rates. It’s not quite warm enough to swim in February and temperatures climb into the 70s in March and April. June, July and August are the hottest months, with the most rain (nine to 12 days a month). But it’s still peak season in terms of rates.
Spring Break for Families
Gulf Shores and Orange Beach go out of their way to discourage partying college students on their beaches. Alcohol is prohibited on the beach they they enforce this with extra vigor during spring-break season.
Additionally, you have to be 21 or older to check in to the hotels, condos and rental properties without a chaperoning adult. Many properties require the guest holding the reservation to be at least 25. Particularly during spring break, they will ask for I.D. and proof-of-age at check-in.
Airport
The closest Airport to Gulf Shores is Pensacola International, about 45 minutes from the Alabama state line. Plan to rent a car at the airport, there’s absolutely no getting around Gulf Shores without one.
When I flew down off-season, I had to connect through Charlotte or Washington, DC., but Boston, NYC and Philadelphia have direct flights from mid-spring to early fall.
Shopping For Groceries & Beach Items
If you want to stock up on groceries before you arrive you can call a concierge service or stop at one of a few Rouses and Publix supermarkets in the area. There are two Dollar Generals and a Target if you need sand toys, beach chairs and the like.
You can buy beer, wine and hard seltzer drinks at supermarkets or local wine shops. For liquor, head to a state-run package store. Liquor is sold on Sunday.
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* I was a guest of Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism for my first trip. I was paid to attend a conference for the second visit. I received a conference discount for my hotel room. GSOBT supplemented some of the conference activities. I did not agree to any particular coverage in exchange for the trip. My opinions are always my own. I focused on the activites, hotels and lodging that I thought were the best fit for families.
* Photos by FamiliesGo!© except the zoo’s giraffe and monkeys (AGCZ), the Blue Angels flying (US Navy), and the lobby and deck at The Lodge and the Eagles Cottages (GSP).