The problem with flying close to the speed of sound in a fighter jet is that your body really doesn’t like it — which I discover, to my chagrin, in a vertical roll over Pensacola beach, buckling like a severed marionette as I pass out.
Waking abruptly a few seconds later the first thing I notice is the beach directly beneath me — a floating finger of sugary white sand adrift in the ocean. As the pilot accelerates into another loop I see a group of children on that pristine barrier island waving up in our direction, as though bidding farewell to my consciousness again.
If you ask most people to name the oldest city in America they’ll probably plump for Jamestown (founded by the British in 1607) or St Augustine (founded by the Spanish in 1565) — both are wrong. The oldest European settlement in the US is Pensacola, established by the conquistador Tristan de Luna in 1559.
ALAMY
It seems odd to describe any part of Florida as undiscovered — particularly one of such historical significance — yet there remains a whiff of the secret about Pensacola and its immediate surrounds. Up in the northwest corner of the state, the so-called Panhandle stretches for miles along the Gulf of Mexico, with mild temperatures, white sand beaches and snapper-rich waters. Pensacola stands on the outer limits of this sandy spur, so far from the rest of Florida that it’s in a different time zone — closer to Houston than Miami.
Ask a local what they think of this dislocation and the answer is invariably the same: why do we need the rest of Florida when we have everything here?
They have a point. Pensacola is one of those perfect seaside towns that ticks almost every box. It has the beaches of course — 18 miles of powdery soft sand across a gentle jigsaw of headlands and barrier islands. It has the weather too — an average 343 days of sunshine a year, ensuring that the ocean is delightfully balmy throughout.
So far, so Florida Panhandle. But what sets Pensacola apart from and above its neighbours is its city centre: a handsome, easily walkable downtown area with an intriguing assortment of museums and art galleries, plus an abundance of top-end restaurants.
DAN REYNOLDS/GETTY IMAGES
A new addition to downtown Pensacola, the America’s 1st Settlement Trail is an excellent way to get your bearings. Otherwise known as A1S, the route is modelled after the Freedom Trail in Boston (which marks points relating to revolutionary history) and traces a three-mile loop through the core of Pensacola, following a thick red line down the middle of the pavement. Embedded QR codes along the way allow you to stop, look up and recognise points of interest — particularly in the remarkably intact Historic Pensacola Village, containing lovingly preserved buildings dating from colonial times (£10; historicpensacola.org).
A couple of blocks from here, at the top of South Jefferson Street, you’ll find the Pensacola Museum of Art, housed in the old town jail, with its small but charming roster of revolving exhibits (£10; pensacolamuseum.org). A few minutes’ walk further on you’ll hit Palafox Street, the main drag, with upmarket boutiques and stellar restaurants — if you fancy yourself an oyster aficionado look no further than Pearl & Horn (mains from £10; pearlandhorn.com); meat-lovers will adore Jackson’s Steakhouse, widely regarded as one of the best restaurants in Florida (mains from £19; jacksonsrestaurant.com).
As you wander about the heart of Pensacola, with its raised Creole houses, pocket-sized courtyards and grand cast-iron balconies, the echoes of New Orleans are hard to miss. The Big Easy, the nearest big city to Pensacola, is three hours’ drive away, across a wafer of southern Alabama. As a result there has always been plenty of trade and interaction between the two cities, apparent in everything from the art and architecture in Pensacola to the amount of gumbo and crawfish étouffée on its menus and the New Orleans Saints American football shirts worn by locals.
The proximity of New Orleans to the Panhandle — and specifically its international airport — raises the compelling prospect of an excellent twin-destination trip from the UK. Over the course of a week you could spend a few days letting the good times roll in the City that Care Forgot then make the easy, scenic drive along the Gulf Coast to Pensacola to recover in style on the beach.
ALAMY
And what a beach it is. Unlike the cluttered, oversaturated stretches of coastline you’ll find elsewhere in Florida, the one at Pensacola — a 15-minute drive over two bridges from downtown — has miles of deliciously uncrowded sand and calm turquoise waters. As such it’s a water-sports heaven, from snorkelling and paddleboarding to kayaking and learning to surf in the gentle waves. The scuba diving here is the stuff of legend too, with ridiculously good visibility beneath the surface and more than 100 wrecks to explore off Pensacola and the neighbouring barrier island of Perdido Key — one is the colossal USS Oriskany, a former aircraft carrier that is one of the world’s largest artificial reefs.
For those who prefer their water in frozen cubes in a cocktail, Pensacola beach has a thriving bar scene along a bouncy stretch, from Peg Leg Pete’s to Paradise. The headline act is indubitably the Sandshaker, which has been serving drinks on Pensacola Beach Boulevard for 50 years and claims to have invented the Bushwacker in the early 1970s — the cocktail is a creamy, chocolatey spin on the piña colada and is now ubiquitous up and down the Panhandle (sandshaker.com).
Across on Perdido Key you’ll find another bar: the Flora-Bama. So called because it straddles the border between Florida and Alabama, this legendary spot also hosts the annual Interstate Mullet Toss every April. Now officially one of the biggest beach parties in America, this ridiculous event spurs thousands of fun-seekers to make the pilgrimage to hurl dead fish as far as they can into Alabama. The record is a ludicrous 192ft (I manage a paltry 45ft), but the real winners are the local fishmongers selling mullets by the bucketload — not to mention the barbers cutting mullet hairstyles for the occasion, plus the alligators at the nearby Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo that polish off the carefully collected remains afterwards.
The mullet toss is one of a bevy of annual festivals held in Pensacola, with others including the Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival, the Pensacola Seafood Festival and the beloved Foo Foo Festival, themed on the old maritime tradition of singing and dancing on ships.
If you ask the locals, however, there is one that rises above all others: the Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show. The city is home to the US Navy’s aerobatic display team — an immense source of civic pride — and the air show, on the first weekend of November, attracts up to 180,000 spectators. In the run-up to the event a few lucky civilians get to fly in one of the Angels’ F/A-18 Super Hornets and experience the death-defying manoeuvres (and the G-forces). And so it is that I find myself rolling through the baby-blue skies over Pensacola beach, doing a bad impression of Tom Cruise with the team who trained the actor for Top Gun: Maverick.
John Steinbeck once memorably referred to Texas as “a state of mind”. And so too is Florida. The Sunshine State often gets a bad rap, for everything from its politics to its public transport, but Pensacola feels like Florida in its ideal state of mind. This is flourishing Florida at its affable, easygoing, sun-kissed best. And now that flights have finally returned to pre-pandemic levels, it’s a Florida that British holidaymakers should be making more of an effort to visit.
1. Swim alongside manatees in Crystal RiverManatees thrive in the springs off the cute coastal city of Crystal River in western Florida, partly because of a sea-grass restoration project that has revived 600-acre Kings Bay. Kayak, or swim alongside the “elephants of the sea” with tour operators such as Explorida, which has strict guidelines in place for “minding your manatee manners” (from £53pp; explorida.com). Hot spots include Three Sisters Spring, where 150 manatees congregate in winter.Details Five nights’ room-only in a three or four-star hotel in Tampa and the Plantation in Crystal River from £1,349pp, including flights, car hire and accommodation (trailfinders.com)
Source : The Times