Gulf Shores Travel Guide

The Gulf Shores area includes both the towns of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. The town of Orange Beach extends to the Florida state line.

Most people do not realize it but the state of Alabama fronts on the Gulf of Mexico and has lovely sandy beaches in the Gulf Shores area. The only drawback to this area is the frequency of hurricanes where they have had several severe ones in the past 10 years.    

Alabama beaches are the poor white trash second cousins to the pristine Florida beaches.     Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are less expensive and significantly less pristine or serene than the beaches in the Destin area beaches.      While the entire gulf coast is referred to as the "red neck Rivera" this area appears to attract more than it's fair share of blue collar beach seekers.      

The majority of the people who vacation here seem to lack any beach etiquette.   In many areas the LSU, Red Tide and inexpensive blue and white tents line the beach with huge herds of families squatting like tacky Moroccan caravans in the sand.      Toys, rafts, inner tubes, flimsy chairs and tattered umbrellas are left on the beach overnight scattered helter skelter around the tacky tents.      

In the early morning light the horizon is dotted with florescent pink and green rafts marring not only the beauty of the horizon but also creating an obvious environmental issue.     On well kept beaches like the beaches in Florida the sand is swept, trash is picked up and the long rows of rental beach chairs are neatly lined up by pleasant conscientious beach personnel who ensure the rules of the beach are maintained.    In the low class beaches of Gulf Shores and Orange beach surly and lazy beach personnel cruise the beach on green poorly maintained jeeps with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and shrugging in response to questions or requests