Gulf Shores, Alabama: Last-Minute Spring Break

 James and I have always talked about someday going on vacation together over my school's spring break. We talked about it as a "someday" and "in the future". But, when spring break rolled around and with James working from home, we looked at each other, looked outside at the cold rainy weather, and then started Googling the fastest way to the Gulf.

After a couple of hours of research and a lot of debating whether this was a good financial decision or not, we found out that Alabama had a coast! AND it was affordable, which is the only way we travel. For a little over $100 a night (being close enough to the "off" season), here is where we drove 18 hours and stayed: https://www.vrbo.com/2637892?noDates=true&unitId=3208495

And let me tell you, being out of college with a bedtime of 9:30 pm, we were not looking for a young spring break experience. This condo was far enough down the little coast that we avoided all the college typical spring break shenanigans. It was quiet, the beach was beautiful, and there were no businesses on our side (meaning little traffic). Just a short drive down the road was where the true party was at. If you know us, you know we were very happy to be away from it all and enjoying the peaceful balcony.

After our move from Minnesota to North Carolina, we truly learned how to prioritize travel and budget for it. When deciding where to stay, we tend to look for the bare minimum. We look if the area is safe and if it's within close distance of any parks. These locations are so much more important to us than where we sleep. Oftentimes, we disregard the actual presentation of the unit and focus more so on it being smoke and pet free. Usually, we are pleasantly surprised when we arrive at our locations to find more amenities than we hope for -- sometimes this is not the case but we will save that story for another day, ha! This was one of those pleasantly surprising times. We loved having the private pool and spa area and laughed that most of the cars in the parking lot were Wisconsin and Minnesota license plates. Directly across the parking lot (which you can see in the above photos) was a boardwalk for the Surf and Racquet Club guests to use for direct beach access. My favorite part though was that our particular unit's balcony was facing the Gulf. The morning sunshine while drinking coffee and smelling the fresh salt air is unmatched regardless if your place looks fancy on the inside or not. Right away, we knew this spontaneous trip to Alabama was a good decision for us.

We vacationed for one full week, and during this time we went on daily morning beach walks, which is way harder on your calves than you think it would be, ate delicious food, and did lots of relaxing. These delicious-looking drinks are nonalcoholic and actually come from mango juice from a nearby dollar tree. I have to give credit to James for this one, buying an unknown brand of juice from a random dollar tree is not quite my style but he proved me wrong here (don't tell him I said he was right).

Besides yummy drinks, we also ate delicious food at the Original Oyster House Boardwalk restaurant in Gulf Shores. And let me tell you, at LEAST twice a week we talk about the food we ate and how we wish for more. Now, if you are familiar with New Prague, Minnesota, think of this restaurant as our local Fish Tale. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then just know it was GOOOOOOD! Sitting on a bayou with home-style, homemade cooking, and the friendliest atmosphere, we ate so. much. food. and I kid you not when I say we went back and bought another pie.

We ate:

  • alligator

  • shrimp po'boy

  • oysters

  • shrimp

  • crawfish

  • flounder

  • cheese grits

  • house fries

  • seafood gumbo

After proceeding to take home zero leftovers from our delicious meal, we then bought two pies to take home instead. One was a homemade key lime pie and the second was a homemade peanut butter chocolate chip pie. You know we cleared those out within a couple of days, too. Would I recommend this? Ha, probably not unless you're trying to purposely gain weight but we clearly don't go out often unless we are on vacation. Do I regret it? Absolutely not and I would do it again.

But just wait, before we took home those pies we walked out of the restaurant like happily stuffed clams, and behold right next to us on that boardwalk was Matt's homemade ice cream shop. You know our 6-month pregnant-looking happy selves waddled right over to share a delicious banana split. I 100% would do it again.

Before I go into talking about the park we went to, because you know we found a state park, I want to talk about the beach since that is what drew us (me) to the location in the first place. During our stay in early March, it was quite windy. The water was also cold and there were riptide warnings out every day. This was fine for us because we are chickens anyway when it comes to swimming in oceans, now we just had an excuse. Either way, the beach was still beautiful and we found interesting shells that I had never seen before. For background, the Gulf beaches I have been on are those in Sanibel, Fort Meyers, and Marco. Two of the seven days we vacationed were designated beach days for us. The rest of the days were chillier. We were thankful to have beach time in but I know one of us (*cough* not me) was not too sad about it.

From our balcony, we were able to see dolphins swimming near evening and there were rumors that further down had sharks by the pier. The sand was home to little speedy sand crabs no bigger than the small shells we found. The beach was sprinkled with sand dollar remains and my favorite, little coquinas burrowing after the receding waves. If you find yourself along the Gulf Shores or nearby Florida, be careful of the jellies every 20 feet or so washed up from last night's storm and hard to spot until too late.

The brownish-white sand is soft and during our time, there was not a single bug to be seen. Although it was not my favorite beach I have ever been to, I would put it above Sanibel on the list.

Not too far down the road, we found Gulf Shores, State Park. Here, you will find animals ranging from birds, alligators, turtles, and even an armadillo if you're lucky! The paved paths and boardwalks are wonderful for hiking with swings and benches along the way to rest. There is a campground at this park which we discussed would be fun until later we saw a few snakes that we could not identify as poison or not. Then, the tent idea did not sound too fun anymore.

A cool feature of the park (which is free to get into by the way) is the availability of bikes. Whether driving or flying into the tiny Gulf Shores airport, you can enjoy all the park has to offer via free bike rental. You will need to bring a helmet, especially for those little ones though. Stationed throughout and oftentimes found at trailheads, the bikes are parked with instructions on how to rent and unlock them. You can use them for an unlimited amount of time and return them to any bike rack location within the park. All you need is to download the rental app on your phone. This was our first time experiencing free bike rentals at a park and it needs to be advertised more! We loved this feature and with more time, would have taken more advantage of it.

The park is worth the stop if you are visiting Gulf Shores. It wraps around a lake, has a picnic area, has a protected private beach area and dunes, goes through a forest, and even tells about the history of the coastline. The upkeep of the park is wonderful and it is extremely accessible for any age. We did not venture to the park's pier or use their beach since we had our own at our Airbnb, but from what we saw it looked equally as nice. Take a look through the photos to find all the beautiful landscapes that the park has to offer.

Heading to Gulf Shores, Alabama was a wonderful trip for us. We went in with no expectations,  neither of us having been to Alabama before, and loved what it had to offer. Because we drove, we wanted to stop in Birmingham and Montgomery among other places for the history of the state but did not make it there this time around. I know those would be separate trips on their own. If you have traveled to or live in Alabama, let us know in the comments what and where we should visit!

If you want to see more of Alabama, here are the Tiktoks from our trip:

Pies: 

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