By January the heated pools along Thomas Drive steam in the early light. Golf carts sit parked beside rigs on palm-lined concrete pads, and the dune walkovers at the numbered public accesses drop straight onto white-quartz sand, with the Gulf holding its emerald-green on calm days. The snowbirds who arrived in October have the potluck rotation worked out by now. Plenty of them haven't moved their rigs since, because the beach, the pool, and St. Andrews State Park at the end of the road are all within walking or golf-cart range.
St. Andrews is the day people repeat. Thomas Drive runs out at the park gate, and a golf-cart ride at dusk to watch the light go off the jetties and the pass becomes the evening habit on this end of the beach. Summer trades snowbirds for families, and the beach week leans on full hookups because the air conditioning never shuts off. Hurricane season runs through November, so an early-fall week is worth keeping flexible.
The resort belt on Thomas Drive and Allison Avenue
At the far end of Thomas Drive, right at the St. Andrews gate, Panama City Beach RV Resort is gated, with the beach a five-minute walk from the pads. Every site is concrete with full hookups, 30 and 50 amp, and cable. Back-in sites take rigs up to 40 feet, and the pull-throughs take any size.
Campers Inn, also on Thomas Drive, has its own beach path across the road. The main area has water, sewer, and 30 or 50 amp at each site, plus a set of paved pull-throughs, while the unpaved sites are 30-amp only and sized for rigs under 30 feet. Two people who'd fit a shorter site, or anyone after a night inside St. Andrews' own campground, Sand Pond in Pine Log State Forest, or Camp Helen to the west, will find those trips on the Panama City Beach campervan page.
Around on Allison Avenue, Sun Outdoors Panama City Beach stays open year-round, with two heated pools and sites that take big rigs. That makes it the easy pick for a summer family week, and a second option in winter when the resort by the park gate is full.
Lock the pad before the rig. The winter months fill with returning snowbirds, and the site you get, back-in or pull-through, sets how long a motorhome you can rent. Thunder Beach, the motorcycle rally, also comes to town twice a year, in spring and fall, with Frank Brown Park as its main venue. Rally weeks pull on the same rigs and the same pads as the snowbird and family weeks, so book early or plan around them.
Florida Caverns State Park and the cave tour at Marianna
Inland at Marianna, Florida Caverns State Park runs lit tours through cool, dry limestone chambers, past stalactites and walls of flowstone that look poured in place. Most families make the trip once, and it's the one day of the week that isn't about the beach.
Plan it as a day out from the beach and sleep back on your pad. The park has a campground of its own, but check its status and site lengths with Florida State Parks before you count on a night there.
West along the Gulf, the old brick fort and white sand of Santa Rosa Island have their own Fort Pickens RV page. The rest of the state's rig trips are on the Florida RV page.