Fort Walton Beach, Florida is a small city located between Pensacola and Panama City along North Florida’s Emerald Coast. Visitors there find white sandy beaches, glittering waters, relaxing golf courses, and more.
Fort Walton Beach offers all the fun of big city beach towns in the Florida Panhandle, like Pensacola. But here, there isn’t near as much fuss. Read on and we’ll unpack this laid-back beach town for you.
Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park and Cultural Center
The folks at Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park and Cultural Center preserve and present the prehistory and history of Fort Walton Beach. Also, according to VisitFlorida.com, the center covers the period from 12,000 B.C. through the 1950s.
This park seeks to provide locals and visitors alike with exhibits, educational programs, publications, and special events. The park is located at 139 Miracle Strip Pkwy SE, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and includes numerous exhibits.
These include the Indian Temple Mound Museum, Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum, and Garnier Post Office Museum, to name a few.
Emerald Coast Science Center
The Emerald Coast Science Center is hands-on science learning and discovery center. Also, the Center is located near the leading edge of Fort Walton Beach off Miracle Strip Pkwy (98).
The Center was created in 1989 as the FOCUS Center. However, in 2001, the FOCUS Center changed its name to the Emerald Coast Science Center (ECSC) to better promote the museum as a regional science museum for Northwest Florida in the panhandle.
The Center boasts robotics exhibits, lab-based activities, a local Emerald Coast ecosystems exhibit, and a renovated Reptiles and Amphibians exhibit.
The Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park
The Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park offers up close and personal experiences with some of the ocean’s least and best-known creatures.
But that’s not all. You’ll delight in watching dolphins jump through the air or sea lions play in their habitats with dolphin shows.
Or interact directly with creatures in the park such as stingrays, sharks, and otters with the facility’s new interactive programming, for a nominal fee, of course.
At the Reptile Safari, you’ll follow along with a resident aquarist to discover three different reptile species and get up close and personal!
Your kids can join the stars of the Dolphin Show during a dolphin presentation at Dolphin Theater and train alongside one of the park’s Marine Mammal Trainers. Also, during the experience, they’ll touch, feed, and learn all about the park’s Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins.
Grab your snorkel gear and get up close and personal with the park’s stingrays. You’ll see cow nose rays, southern stingrays, and small sharks while swimming around Stingray Bay.
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