I drove from New Orleans up route 90 to Bay St. Louis, along the Gulf Coast in Mississippi. The website "Old Town Bay St. Lous" claims, "Our authentic character, historic buildings, and friendly folks are just a few of the reasons why Budget Travel Magazine named us one of the "Coolest Small Towns in America" in April 2013. And Coastal Living Magazine named Bay St. Louis one of the top ten small beach towns in the country in 2010! Explore Old Town using the menu above - or check out quick links to individual merchants below. Come play for a day, you may want to stay!" These are all seriously gross exaggerations. It is a small town of mostly modern, ranch style houses mixed with a few older ones that might qualify as 'historic,' along with a concrete walkway that lines the beaches. These are short beaches that no one seems to swim in - at least not during the day. There are some fishing boats and restaurants. I drove around the streets for a bit, but didn't see anything striking or worth stopping for. I drove on to Long Beach, which is probably almost twice as big as Bay St. Louis. It was nice, but again, nothing worth stopping for though I did stop for lunch at the Harbor View Cafe. It was in a big, old house that had been converted to a restaurant. The green salad I had was very good. I didn't realize until later, when I looked the restaurant up on the Internet, that the family that owns it used to own Ozzies in Longport, NJ! (I grew up in the next town up from Longport, NJ.) The beaches had no lifeguards and were not long or wide.
Gulfport and Biloxi run into each other. Gulfport is more of a quiet beach town geared more toward the military than tourists. There are a number of military installations there, as well as a large military retirement home there that looks out over the Gulf. There is also an air force base in Biloxi, which is a big resort town. There are many casinos there, including the big ones like the Golden Nugget and a fair number of smaller, local ones. There are also resorts, like the Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Casino and Restaurant. The few campgrounds in the area were really RV parks and they were all full. I managed to get a room on July 3rd at the Quality Inn for a decent price (it was a nice hotel for that kind of budget hotel). However, I could NOT get a room for the next night. In fact, everywhere I looked (though, to be fair, I didn't even try the high end resorts) the hotels and campgrounds in the entire Gulf Coast were booked solid through the 6th. To get a room for the rest of the weekend, I would need to get off the Gulf Coast and go north.
I spent July 3rd walking on the beach and trying to swim in the water. The water was very warm, in the upper 80's, and completely flat - without any waves or even ripples - and also very shallow. I walked out past the end of the long fishing pier and the water was still only up to my knees. There was no real swimming possible in it. It was also very muddy - I could not see past about an inch below my knees, and my skin felt itchy and slightly burned when I first got out of the water. The sand was a fairly fine white sand, but there were patches of sargassum algae/seaweed scattered along it, as well as a fair amount of trash. The beach was not very wide. It is bordered by a concrete walkway and then the highway, which I had to cross to get to the hotel. I went back to the hotel and swam in the pool for awhile, which was cleaner and cooler.
The beach had been fairly empty of people for the whole day - I made the mistake of believing the resort towns I passed through were empty of tourists because no one was using the beaches during the day as I drove through them. Oh how wrong I was. That evening people began descending on the towns. The beaches were full of people playing on the beaches and walking through or sitting in the water all evening and into the night. Some people set off firecrackers that night. I had to leave the Gulf Coast the next day in order to find somewhere else to stay, but it was nice to see that the area is actually pretty popular. I drove on to Florida and spent the Fourth of July at a KOA campground just outside the city of Tallahassee, Florida. More about that later.
Gulfport and Biloxi run into each other. Gulfport is more of a quiet beach town geared more toward the military than tourists. There are a number of military installations there, as well as a large military retirement home there that looks out over the Gulf. There is also an air force base in Biloxi, which is a big resort town. There are many casinos there, including the big ones like the Golden Nugget and a fair number of smaller, local ones. There are also resorts, like the Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Casino and Restaurant. The few campgrounds in the area were really RV parks and they were all full. I managed to get a room on July 3rd at the Quality Inn for a decent price (it was a nice hotel for that kind of budget hotel). However, I could NOT get a room for the next night. In fact, everywhere I looked (though, to be fair, I didn't even try the high end resorts) the hotels and campgrounds in the entire Gulf Coast were booked solid through the 6th. To get a room for the rest of the weekend, I would need to get off the Gulf Coast and go north.
I spent July 3rd walking on the beach and trying to swim in the water. The water was very warm, in the upper 80's, and completely flat - without any waves or even ripples - and also very shallow. I walked out past the end of the long fishing pier and the water was still only up to my knees. There was no real swimming possible in it. It was also very muddy - I could not see past about an inch below my knees, and my skin felt itchy and slightly burned when I first got out of the water. The sand was a fairly fine white sand, but there were patches of sargassum algae/seaweed scattered along it, as well as a fair amount of trash. The beach was not very wide. It is bordered by a concrete walkway and then the highway, which I had to cross to get to the hotel. I went back to the hotel and swam in the pool for awhile, which was cleaner and cooler.
The beach had been fairly empty of people for the whole day - I made the mistake of believing the resort towns I passed through were empty of tourists because no one was using the beaches during the day as I drove through them. Oh how wrong I was. That evening people began descending on the towns. The beaches were full of people playing on the beaches and walking through or sitting in the water all evening and into the night. Some people set off firecrackers that night. I had to leave the Gulf Coast the next day in order to find somewhere else to stay, but it was nice to see that the area is actually pretty popular. I drove on to Florida and spent the Fourth of July at a KOA campground just outside the city of Tallahassee, Florida. More about that later.