Thanksgiving Beach Trip (Destin)

It’s great, we went a couple years ago to Destin for Thanksgiving. No crowds at restaurants, easy to get tee times. Much better than the summer, weather was warm enough to hang out on the beach. Renting a place with a heated pool is a good idea.

Will be too cold to swim in ocean. You need to rent a place with a heated pool. If you want true beach weather you gotta head farther south to the keys or Naples/Marco Island areas.

Relatively small crowds and beautiful weather. This will be our 4th strait Christmas in Rosemary Beach and it's the best time of year

If it is too cold to enjoy the beach, I have very little use for Destin.

My family has spent Thanksgiving on 30A since the early 90s. The offseason anywhere in the region is the best IMO.

Back in the day a lot of stuff was closed for the season (and some would close right after Thanksgiving), but not really an issue anymore. Thanksgiving is pretty popular in 30A (although fairly quiet early in the week and after Friday), so I assume the same is true for Destin. We frequently have really nice weather, great sunsets, etc.

This will be our 10th year spending Thanksgiving week in Navarre. As mentioned earlier, it is the best time to be on the beach in Florida.
It will be virtually deserted until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. From Thursday till Sunday it's a little more crowded, but nothing like summer crowded.
Day time temps are usually 70's - low 80's and you can usually expect one or two days of some rain. We use the rain days to hit the Naval Aviation museum or the outlet mall.
I'm the biggest wuss when it comes to cold but I'm able to get in and enjoy the water usually every good weather day there.

We started going to the beach on Fall Break in October instead of the summer. Like the others have said, much less crowded and easier to get around. I really enjoy talking SEC football with all the other fans that are down there that time of year as well.

quote:

---

Great time to visit Destin but the water may be too cold to swim at the beach.

---

It just depends on what type of swimming. As a destin local I can tell you people swim all year. If you don't love cold weather you aren't going to be literally swimming and snorkeling, but kids can still stand in the surf knee deep on a warm day, boogie board to some degree, and otherwise enjoy the water. That's if its a nice warm day.

It could be cold and then yeah, I mean you don't want to go in the water for sure.

Its not an unpopular time of year, Destin and South Walton get reasonably busy for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so don't expect completely winter crowd and rates. But overall prices and occupancy are much lower than the normal beach season and summer all along the gulf coast.

A nice fall day type of weather with the sun out and highs in the 70s is which happens in late Oct, Nov, and february is my favorite time along the gulf coast.