We stayed at Port St. Joe for the week of Christmas 2014. We wanted to go back again in March 2015, but could not get a reservation for our week and ended up at St. Andrews State Park at Panama City. Both parks were great in their own way. We did not have an opportunity to see St. George. I wish we could have.
Of the 2 we visited so for (well, add Falling Waters State Park Christmas week of 2013), we enjoyed Port St. Joe the most.
The park as at the end of the peninsula but you also have 6 - 7 miles of beach on both sides of the peninsula to explore. The bay side is tame, peaceful, and very relaxing and serene. The Gulf side is like an ocean, with waves and sandy beach. The campground is just over the dunes from the beach.
Sorry, no dogs on the beach, but we had no problems at all with our dog in the park. If there were any rules about dogs inside the park, we didn't know of any and not a single person said anything about our dog either.
Because the parks is at the end of the peninsula, it is a little drive to get to the mainland. There are a couple small town (vilages) on the peninsula that have a few restaurants, a gas station, shops and what not. But if you're looking for "hamburger alley" there, you won't find it! Port St. Joseph (the town) is a little larger town with everything you want, but it's also a little drive to get there.
We prefer St. Joe park because it is more isolated from all the commercialism. Actually, we learned when Wall Mart wanted to move into that area, the community fought it vigorously and won. I am glad they did, because he difference between Panama City and the industrial, commercialism that happened there, and the quaint "Florida" on the Port St. Joseph side with the little local shops and down-home feel is a different as day and night! If you want the commercialism go to Panama City and the surrounding area. If you want the old style feel of Florida, the country feel, the true lifestyle flavor, go to Port St. Joseph area and South.
We took 3 days to drive from Indiana to Port St. Joe. We stayed in a motel the first night since we were still in the freeze belt part of the country. Second night at a KOA in Alabama. Third night at the park. Returning home, we kind of did the same thing, only in reverse.
Here's a slide show of our 2014 Christmas trip. 130 slides, so will take a few minutes to get through them. While we were there, we had a tornado watch and a tornado indeed came through the area. The rains were heavy, but because of the sand dunes, we had virtually no wind. The tornado passed by, but the next day, many parts of the campground were flooded. You'll see some of those shots.
FYI, our son went with us as did his cat. So we had 2 cats and 1 dog and one son with us. We did have a really great time. Nothing fancy, just a great time to get warmed up from the cold Indiana winter for a week.
Enjoy the slides:
Click here.Edit: My impressions of St. Andrews from a previous post:
Click here and enjoy.My comments about Falling Waters:
Falling Waters, click here - couple photos attached on post.
