Panama City

Panama City does not offer many private country club properties to choose from for social, golf, fitness, tennis, and other activities. However, just outside the northern reaches of Panama City you will find one country club with minimal amenities.

Panama Country Club

Panama Country Club offers a golf course built in 1927 by W.C. Sherman and famed designer Donald J. Ross. This Country Club hosts the annual Sherman Invitational Golf Tournament for some of the best amateur players in the area. Class A membership to the club includes unlimited golf with no green fees, practice facility, swimming pool, clubhouse, along with access to all events and activities at the Panama Country Club.

Visiting Panama City you will quickly realize why it’s known as the seafood capital of the south. Many restaurants offer the freshest local seafood you can expect to find in this Gulf Coast haven. Along with seafood, Panama City’s location in the American South makes it a great place to sample the area’s barbecue, Cajun food, and traditional southern delicacies.

Panama City lacks any true indoor shopping malls after the closure of it’s Panama City Mall property. There are quite a few options centered around tourists but not much for residents, especially if looking for designer brand or other high end offerings. The city does have some small boutiques, beach accessory stores, gift shops, and souvenir stores, but really lacks a top notch shopping destination. The next best thing the Panama City area has to that is Pier Park. Although a bit touristy, it is a large simon mall property with some popular retailers.

Pier Park is a large outdoor shopping mall consisting of over 1.1 million square feet of specialty shops, retailers, and restaurants. Popular retailers include American Eagle, Bath and Body Works, Dillards, JCPenny, Nike Factory Store, Old Navy, and Victoria’s Secret.

Little Village is a waterfront shopping and entertainment venue where you can find items from all over the globe as well as from local artists. Many of the items found here are sourced from fair trade companies which pay above average wages and give back the communities these craftsman call home.

The number one attraction in Panama City is, of course, it’s amazing beaches. It is why tens of thousands of spring breakers once flocked to these shores for so many years and how it became known as the “Spring Break Capital of the World”. With 27 miles of sugar white sand beaches and some of the best in nightlife and events, these beaches were such a draw the city recently enacted new laws to curb some of the party atmosphere that takes over the town every spring.

Between Panama City Beach and the St. Andrews Inlet is St. Andrews State Park. This unique park features five distinct ecological landscapes all in one stunning location. Visitors enjoy swimming and snorkeling in the emerald green waters of the Gulf of Mexico, fishing off the deep sea jetty, hiking the area’s nature trails, camping, and observing the parks numerous bird and butterfly species.

Surrounded by water on three sides, Panama City has fantastic boating opportunities. The large bay and lagoon waters surrounding the city are mostly undeveloped and consist of marshy shoreline or white sandy beaches. There is a wide, deep inlet for Gulf of Mexico access and the sandbars around Shell Island are a popular spot to anchor up with fellow boaters and enjoy the clear waters that flow through the pass.

Just like other Gulf Coast hotspots, Panama City enjoys world class fishing opportunities. A fleet of charter captains can put you on the fish or you can take your own boat out of the inlet and fish, dive, or snorkel the day away. Guided daytrips are also available for dolphin watching and shelling on uninhabited islands. Popular inshore fish species include redfish and spotted seatrout. Just off the beaches in the Gulf of Mexico this area is famous for it’s springtime cobia migration while further offshore you will find red snapper, grouper, and king mackerel to name a few.

The Martin Theatre, originally built in 1936, hosts a number of plays, musical performances, and movies throughout the year.

Panama City schools are controlled by Bay District Schools. The district administers 18 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, and 5 high schools. Bay District Schools has 28,024 students in grades PK, K-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 16 to 1. According to state test scores, 57% of students are at least proficient in math and 53% in reading. Niche.com gives the school district a B rating and has it as the 27th best school district in the state. Private schools of note include Covenant Christian School (Presbyterian), Holy Nativity Episcopal School (Episcopal), and St. John Catholic School (Roman Catholic). It is also home to Gulf Coast State College, and a regional campus for Florida State University.

People say the Gulf Coast is a fitting name for a region that enjoys the game of golf so passionately. Panama City has a total of 3 golf courses with Panama City Beach providing another 5 courses to choose from.

Perhaps the finest course in the area belongs to Camp Creek Golf Club. Tom Fazio designed the 7,200 yard course to have undulating fairways and drivable bunkers. Camp Creek has been the site of multiple US Open Qualifiers and has won numerous awards.

Another top course in Panama City Beach is located at Sharks Tooth Golf Club. Designed by Greg Norman, the course stretches 7,209 yards from the back tees and winds through protected wetlands and uplands.

At Signal Hill Golf Course they like to brag that they are “across from the world’s most beautiful beach.” Designed by John Henry Sherman, the course has been designed to make golfers feel really good about their game. It is a user friendly course perfect for multiple generations of family members to play together.

Holiday Golf Club is also located in Panama City Beach and underwent a million dollar renovation in 2014. Today they claim “the best greens on the beach” and one will experience superb speeds and excellent consistency on them. They offer a championship course as well as a par 3 course that is great for juniors or beginners.

Bay Point Golf and Tennis Club houses two championship golf courses including the only Nicklaus Design course in Northwest Florida. It is a beautiful course that is located in a 1,100 acre nature preserve surrounded on three sides by St. Andrew Bay waters.

The course at Panama Country Club was built in 1927 by famed architect Donald J. Ross. Just under 6,700 yards, the golf course features slight contours and narrow fairways. A sanctuary for wildlife, it is not uncommon to see eagles, herons, egrets, and the clubs mascot, the fox squirrel.