Orange Beach, Alabama / bike trails, restaurants and happy hours, boating, beaches

November 2017 - December 2017

Lakeshore Trail ~ One of the prettiest loops in Gulf State Park!

Gulf State Park bicycle trails and Beach Bike Rentals

We had taken our own bikes with us to Orange Beach; however, our son visited for a couple of days via plane, so he rented a bicycle one day when he was there. Beach Bike Rentals is located on Perdido Beach Blvd. next to the Hotel Indigo and Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail - Rosemary Dunes Trailhead. It was $25 to rent a 3-speed cruiser for the day. A bicycle lock and helmet is included with the rental. Another bike rental store is located inside Gulf State Park in the picnic area of Lake Shelby. I do not know the details of their rentals, as we did not compare costs.

Inside Gulf State Park next to trail

We bicycled through the park on two different days, and we walked inside the park one day. We saw alligators, an armadillo, tortoise, snakes, a bald eagle, other birds, and butterflies. I am sharing a few photos we took, although I do not have room to include them all.

Gulf State Park
Click on photo to enlarge it; bald eagle in tree

There are miles of paved trails inside Gulf State Park, and there are several parking lots with access to the trails. Some of the new wooden overpasses were still being built at the time of our visit. Benches and points of interest are plentiful along the trails, so it is easy to make biking or walking in the park an entire day trip. There are several nice campsites in the campground along Middle Lake.

My foot 5 days after I was bitten/stung by red fire ants.

Be aware of the red fire ants, if you stop at the beach on Lake Shelby. We stopped in the picnic area, and I got bit twice on the foot by red ants. I was wearing sandals, and I was only standing in/on the sand for a few seconds. The ants were barely visible, and crawled right up my sandal to the top of my foot before I felt them. The photo above was taken five days after I was bitten!

One portion of map we were given showing the shallow areas.

Boating Perdido Pass

We rented a 19' skiff from Caribe Marina for half a day. Other marinas we checked had only pontoon boats available, and the costs were similar. When I made the reservation at Caribe Marina over the telephone, I was told we could not use a coupon because they were already giving a discounted rate for off-season. The person working at the desk the day we picked the boat up, gave us a 10% discount, so we were quite happy about that! Our boat had no depth finder, and the gas gauge did not work. We had to pay for a tank of gas in addition to the rental cost. The tank was more than enough for half a day. The tank was see through, and we did not use even half of it. Not having a depth finder was a bit of an inconvenience, as the water is quite shallow at the east end by Rabbit Island and Holiday Harbor. There are no markers in the water as you approach the corner by Rabbit Island, so the only navigation we had to go by was the map above. When we returned the boat, they lifted up the motor to check for damage, and no one had done this before we left with the boat. Good thing we had not dinged the prop, and that it had not been dinged before our trip!

Perdido Key Drive bridge in Florida just past Holiday Harbor

I assume there is required equipment and/or licensing that boats need to have in order to venture into the gulf, and the boat we rented must not have had the required items. We were told that we could not go under any of the high bridges where the water leads into the waters outside of the pass, as there is a $200 fine.

View of The Wharf from the water. We bicycled to The Wharf a different day.

It was chilly the day we took the boat out, so we did not go as far into Perdido Bay, as we would have liked. We went as far to the east and west ends, as allowed. This took us just under 4 hours with no stops. Sometimes we idled, and other times we want as fast as the boat would go. There are several businesses along the waterways where we could have stopped for something to eat or drink; however, there are no parks or beaches to stop at. Before we left with the boat, the employee at Caribe Marina had told us that the island beach directly across from their marina is the only beach spot.

Dining and Happy Hours

It was difficult to find information about happy hours in Orange Beach. Just about every restaurant and bar advertises happy hour, although most places do not list any details of what beverages or food is on special. One commonality we found - Tuesday is taco day with taco and margarita specials at just about every Mexican restaurant. Following is information about some of the places we visited.

Perdido Beach Resort Happy Hour menu

• Perdido Beach Resort. This resort is located almost next door to Grand Pointe Condos, which is where we were staying. There is one small property, Summer Breeze, in between the two. Perdido Beach was one of our favorite finds! They have lunch specials and happy hour daily, along with great service, and a piano player in the lobby most evenings. They have several local craft brews with happy hour beers on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We also had margaritas, tacos, and a burger from the evening specials menu. Everything was great, although the margaritas and tacos we had at The Wharf (details below) were even better. 

San Roc Cay; band on the other side of tree.

• San Roc Cay. This is located across the street from Grand Pointe Condos. I could not find any information about their happy hour, and we did not visit during happy hour. Their regular prices are outrageous! A band often plays in the courtyard, and they have a fire on cold evenings. We observed locals with their own drink glasses, so I suggest bringing your own beverage to sit in the courtyard and enjoy the music.
• The Wharf Orange Beach. We enjoyed Ginny Lane and Sol Y Mar Mexican Grill and Cantina. The penny cocktails are real (full-size), and they were delicious. Everything at Sol Y Mar was excellent. We had margaritas and 99 tacos (beef and chicken). We also had a daiquiri coupon for The Wharf, but Island Daiquiris was not open when we arrived. We did not return to check it later because it had looked pretty dirty when we looked in from the outside.

Firecracker Shrimp at Cobalt

• Cobalt the Restaurant. The outside seating area is super! There are seats at tables, a bar, and around fire pits. And, there is a view of the water and sunset. Other than that, I was not as impressed with this location, as I expected. My husband liked the $1.50 Yeungling drafts during happy hour, although I could only drink that once. I also tried the house red wine, which was merely okay. We had the Firecracker Shrimp, and I think the Bang Bang Shrimp at Bonefish Grill is better. Additionally, we fell through the server cracks two of the three times we visited. The first time, we had been seated at a table in the bar for over five minutes when a manager walking by stopped to ask if anyone had greeted us yet. Patrons who had been seated after us already had their drinks (we did not mention this to him). The same thing happened to us the day we were seated outside on the patio. The second time this happened, my husband stopped a server nearby to request assistance. We had again been seated over five minutes, and had not been acknowledged by anyone.  
• Tacky Jacks. We did not make it to Tacky Jacks, and we are hoping to make it there next time we are in Orange Beach. It is just under four miles from Grand Pointe Condos, and they have a dock we should have pulled up to when we were out in the boat. Their web page says they have happy hour Monday through Friday from 2PM to 6PM; however, I could not find any details. I called them one day (Wednesday, I think) to ask about their Bushwacker special because a friend of mine had told me they are fabulous. The Bushwacker had been on special the day before, so we missed that special.

There are a few more restaurants across the street from Grand Pointe Condos in San Roc Cay, although we did not visit any of them. We shopped at Publix, less than two miles away from the condo. You can find information about our stay at Grand Pointe in my previous blog post.

We loved the Orange Beach area, and hope to visit there again next year! Let me know if you have any questions.