Emerald Coast

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For the area of Mexico's Gulf Coast, see Costa Esmeralda. For the area of Sardinian coast, see Costa Smeralda.

Emerald-green waters in Destin, FL, part of the "Emerald Coast".

Pensacola Beach, part of the "Emerald Coast".

The Emerald Coast is an area in the US state of Florida on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, roughly bounded by Pensacola, Florida on the west and Port St. Joe, Florida on the east.

Popular vacation destinations include Pensacola Beach, Gulf Breeze, Navarre Beach, Fort Walton Beach, WaterColor, Panama City Beach, Destin, and Seaside, a development community whose iconic pastel-paint and tin-roof construction was made famous in the Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show, filmed in the area from 1996-1997. Other communities on the Emerald Coast include Perdido Key, Navarre, Sandestin, Mexico Beach, Grayton Beach, Inlet Beach, Santa Rosa Beach, and Seagrove. Approximately 80% of the Emerald Coast's 4.5 million yearly visitors flock to Destin, FL.

The area is known as a family drive destination, although in the past decade, its popularity has expanded greatly, leading to new construction booms and seemingly overnight changes. Many development communities similar to Seaside have sprung up in Walton County and the west end of Panama City Beach, raising property values.

Deep-sea fishing is a huge draw for the area, with Destin holding the nickname "World's Luckiest Fishing Village" (and several saltwater world records) and Panama City Beach hosting the annual high-dollar Bay Point Billfish Invitational. Eating seafood is perhaps even more popular than catching it, with a seafood restaurant and/or oyster house seemingly on every other corner.

This roughly 100-mile stretch is home to several military bases, with installations including Pensacola Naval Air Station (home of the Navy's famed Blue Angels flying squadron and the initial training site where all naval aviators earn their "wings of gold"), Hurlburt Field, Eglin Air Force Base (one of the largest military bases in America), Tyndall Air Force Base (home to the Air Force's new F-22 Raptor fighter jets), Coastal Systems Station-Naval Surface Warfare Center (home to the Navy Experimental Diving Unit and Naval Diving & Salvage Training Center), and Corry Station Naval Technical Training Center.

In addition to military and related civilian contractors, which are a major presence, tourism, fishing and hospitality industries are also major employers in the area.

[edit] "Redneck Riviera"

The Emerald Coast is known colloquially (albeit erroneously) as the Redneck Riviera, although this term is sometimes applied to a larger region of the coast from Mobile, Alabama to Apalachicola, Florida.

Redneck Riviera is also the title of a song by Tom T. Hall about this region. Lyrics include:

Gulf Shores up through Apalachicola

They got beaches of the whitest sand

Nobody cares if gramma's got a tattoo

Or Bubba's got a hot wing in his hand