Discover the Best Things to Do on 30A – Your Ultimate Guide

Hidden Gems & Outdoor Adventures on 30A

The beach is the headline. These are the things to do on 30A that most visitors drive right past — and the ones we point friends toward first.

1. 🖼️ The Underwater Museum of Art — Grayton Beach. The first permanent underwater sculpture garden in the United States, sitting 0.93 miles offshore from Grayton Beach State Park in 58 feet of water. That’s a scuba depth, not a snorkel stop, so you’re going with a dive charter. A juried group of new sculptures goes down every year, and the older ones have already turned into living reef.
2. 🛶 The coastal dune lakes. Walton County has 15 named coastal dune lakes along 26 miles of coast. Outside of here, they exist in four other places on the planet — Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, and Oregon. When the water rises high enough, a lake cuts an “outfall” through the sand and drains straight into the Gulf, tea-colored freshwater running into emerald saltwater, then the tide pushes salt water and fish back in. It’s the strangest thing on 30A and it costs nothing to walk up and watch.
3. 🏞️ Topsail Hill Preserve State Park. $6 per vehicle, 8 a.m. to sunset. Three miles of undeveloped beach, distinctive tall sand dunes, more than 10 miles of trails, and Campbell Lake sitting behind the dunes. There’s a shuttle down to the beach but it is a long walk otherwise. 7525 W. County Highway 30A. See our guide **coming soon**.
4. 🛶 Grayton Beach State Park. $5 per vehicle, 8 a.m. to sunset, 365 days a year. Nearly 2,000 acres holding three coastal dune lakes, four miles of trail through coastal forest, and a mile of sugar-white beach that lands on “best in America” lists year after year. The centerpiece is Western Lake — 100 acres of tea-dark dune lake tucked behind the dunes, and the easiest one on 30A to actually get on. Friends of Grayton rents kayaks and paddleboards right on the lake, seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and you can book ahead online.
5. 🚵Bike the Timpoochee Trail – a 19 mile paved biking and hiking path that runs all along Highway 30A.
6. 🌅 Deer Lake State Park. $3 per vehicle, honor box, exact change. A boardwalk climbs over the dunes with a coastal dune lake on one side and the Gulf on the other. The lot is small and the park closes when it fills, so go early or go late. 6350 E. County Road 30A.
7. 🌳 Eden Gardens State Park. $4 per vehicle. 163 acres of moss-draped live oaks around the 1897 Wesley House, with a rose garden and a camellia-filled secret garden that blooms through winter — one of the few things to do on 30A that’s genuinely better in January.
8. 🥾 Eastern Lake Trails, Point Washington State Forest. Fifteen thousand acres and 20+ miles of trail a few minutes off 30A, and almost no visitor knows it’s there. Three stacked loops — 3.6, 5.9, and 10.9 miles — through pine flatwoods, sand pine scrub, and pitcher-plant bogs. $2 per person, self-pay. Seasonal hunting is allowed in Point Washington, so be aware when you visit.
9. 🔥 Beach bonfires. Legal, but permitted —A one-night temporary permit on Gulf-front property runs $150 for wood or $100 for propane, approved by South Walton Fire District. Plenty of local companies will handle the permit, setup and teardown as a package, which is the right call for most visitors. Book ahead in season.