Rosemary Beach Bachelorette Party

I mentioned in Friday’s blog post that I was in Rosemary Beach for my bachelorette party weekend. We had the BEST time! I wanted to share a little recap in case you’re planning a bachelorette party of your own (or for a friend). Rosemary Beach was the PERFECT place for the type of bachelorette weekend I was looking to have with my best girl friends!

As a little background on why I chose Rosemary Beach, I grew up going to the Florida Gulf Coast with my family. Out of all the places that I’ve traveled all over the world, the Florida panhandle holds a special place in my heart. I especially love the small towns of Seaside, Grayton, Alys Beach, Seacrest, and Rosemary. Rosemary Beach is in driving distance to a lot of my close friends and family, which played a big part in why I chose the destination. It’s also still warm during this time of year (but not scorching hot).

Getting There

Rosemary Beach is located in the panhandle of Florida. It’s roughly a 4 hour drive from New Orleans, a 5 hour drive from Birmingham, and a two-hop flight from DC (where I flew from). If you’re flying, there are a few options. There are three airports nearby … Destin-Fort Walton airport (VPS), Pensacola airport (PNS), and Panama City Beach airport (ECP). Panama City is the closest airport. It’s only a 20 minute Lyft/Uber/Taxi ride from the airport to Rosemary. A few people from our group flew into Panama City and caught a cab to our Airbnb in Rosemary. I chose to fly into Pensacola because of the flight time options and make the 1.5 hour drive to Rosemary Beach. It’s not a bad drive at all.

There were three of us that flew into Pensacola. My friends at Toyota lent us the PERFECT car for our girls weekend! We picked up a Toyota Sequoia at the airport, put down the third row of seats, threw all of our luggage in the back, and we were on our way! The Sequoia was so spacious up front and had captain seats in the middle row, which made for a comfortable ride for everyone on our way to the beach!

Where to Stay

We stayed in the heart of Rosemary Beach in this Airbnb, fondly referred to as Coconut Castle. Use my link for $40 off of your first Airbnb stay! It was the perfect spot for our group of eleven. The house itself had 6 bedrooms (5 with king beds and 1 with full size bunk beds), a giant living area, a nice open kitchen, a laundry area, front porch, balcony, and a pool!

The location was PERFECT. The house is beach side and only a two minute walk to the boardwalk that leads down to the beach. It is located right across the street from one of the main villages in Rosemary Beach and a 5 minute walk to the village that houses The Pearl, among lots of other restaurants, bars, and shops. It’s also within walking distance to neighboring Alys Beach.

Where to Eat

We made a big grocery store run when we arrived into town. There’s a nice Publix near the Airbnb. We cooked breakfast at our house and walked across the street to Seacrest Sundries Market & Cafe for iced coffee every morning. They also had tons of groceries, wine and beer included, which was nice to have right across the street! We mostly snacked at home for lunch, but we did walk down to a little beach restaurant one afternoon for frozen cocktails and food – Crabby Steves.

For dinner, our situation was a little different than most other times that you’ll likely visit Rosemary. Because of Hurricane Michael (it hit the neighboring town of Panama City two weeks before our trip), all of the restaurants in Rosemary and Alys Beach closed around 8/8:30pm in order for their employees, most of whom live in Panama City, to get home by the still-in-effect dusk to dawn curfew.

We had such a fun time at NEAT Tasting Room & Bottle Shop. It’s a great place for tapas style snacks and amazing wine. We snacked on charcuterie plates and small appetizers and enjoyed endless amounts of champagne and wine. The perfect spot for a girls’ night!

Another fantastic option is Havana Beach Bar & Grill located inside of The Pearl hotel. Everything about this spot is top notch! The service, the atmosphere, the cocktails, and the food! There’s also a beautiful bar in the restaurant too! An added bonus, there was a live pianist there when we were dining. I recommend grabbing a reservation here ahead of time, especially for larger groups.

A few other restaurant recommendations: Donut Hole for breakfast, George’s at Alys Beach and Edward’s in Rosemary for dinner.

What to Do

The beauty of having a bachelorette party in Rosemary is that you don’t have to make plans outside of hanging out at the beach! We lucked out and had beautiful weather! The highs were in the low 80s every afternoon and the lows were in the 60s at night. Perfect beach weather! We spent Thursday afternoon and evening on the beach, went for a long walk Friday morning along the walking paths that connect Rosemary and Alys before spending the entire day on the beach, and had a repeat beach day on Saturday!

Party Favor Gift Ideas

My sister killed it on the bachelorette party favors! She sourced everything from Etsy, including these cute beach stake cupholders with everyone’s name on them, these adorable koozies, “team bride” sunglasses, and “I do crew” stirs. She put together cute little hangover kit bags that included things like Emergency-C, Advil, chapstick, bandaids, and gum. She also grabbed these bride tribe cups that we used all weekend.

I put together a Turkish towel (the quality of these is great!), a face mask, and tube of sunscreen as an added little favor with a personalized card attached to each. See the photo below!

We had the best time in Rosemary Beach! I can’t recommend it as a bachelorette spot enough!