Your entire family will have fun during the day. The beach buzzes with activity, from lively volleyball games on the beach to Jet-Skiing, windsurfing, and boating on the water. You'll find lots of opportunities for fun in the sun. And at the end of the day, you'll join others in marveling at breathtaking sunsets, as the sun dips into the emerald sea.

On the Beach

The sand on Panama City Beach is fluffy and powdery like confectioner's sugar, its oval-shaped grains squeak beneath your feet. Over the centuries, it washed down from the Appalachian Mountains, became bleached, ground, smoothed, and polished until being washed up on shore. Since the whiteness of the sand reflects the heat of the sun, it stays cool even on hot days making walking without shoes a dream. As you walk along the shore, shore birds dart into the waves as they scurry to and fro along the water's edge. The clarity and the blue-green color of the warm water is irresistible, and you can't wait to try it yourself. Around you sun worshipers lie in low-rise beach chairs, reading books and chatting, while others bob in the waves.

While on the beach, you float high above the sea suspended from a parachute with Coastal Parasailing (850-233-0914). Or you can rent WaveRunners from the Original Island Wave Runner Tours (850-234-7245). Hydrotherapy Kiteboarding and Windsurfing offers rentals and lessons to get you out on the waves (850-236-1800). You'll find Jet Ski rentals available all along Front Beach Road.

When you get overloaded from typical seashore activities, you can find peace and contentment on the snow-like sand of Saint Andrews State Recreation Area — 1,062 acres of rolling sand dunes covered in sea oats and wide beaches, marshes, pinewood, and the wildlife that inhabits them. Bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Grand Lagoon, and the ship channel, it offers a variety of water sports. To provide some variation on lying in the sun or swimming in the ultraclear warm waters, bring along a bucket to collect scallops from the grass flats on the bay side of the park. Or, using a net, walk out into the bay and scoop up the blue crabs running through the grassy flats. If you seek shade, follow the nature trails through the park, but keep your eyes peeled for sleeping alligators and exotic water birds. Remember to be quiet. Admission is $2 per car (open daily 8 A.M.–sunset).

If you like to fish, the park offers freshwater Gator Lake and the saltwater bay. During spring, you can reel in speckled trout, flounder, redfish, bluefish, pompano, and Spanish and king mackerel. Later, during the summer and autumn months, bonito and schoolie, as well as both mackerels, trout, and flounder, are plentiful. There's also a restored old-time “Cracker” turpentine still, plus picnicking, swimming, and scuba-diving facilities for your family to enjoy (850-234-2522).

On the Boat

Take a glass-bottom boat tour with The Glass Bottom Boat. While on board you can learn to bait crab traps, feed dolphins, and observe how a shrimp net is reeled in. Special shelling trips to the best spots on Shell Island are popular (850-234-7245). Or you can take a snorkel and narrated sightseeing trip of Saint Andrews Bay with Island Star Cruises (850-235-2809). Or perhaps you'd rather take a four-hour narrated harbor cruise aboard the Ashley Gorman, passing Audubon Island where you can observe pelicans (850-785-4878).

Whether you choose to fish from Panama City's 1,642-foot pier, the longest in Florida, or two other piers, or from a bridge or jetty, or from the back of a charter fishing boat, you'll find the Gulf waters offer as much as you can handle.

From March to November, fishermen from around the world troll the bay off the beach for barracuda, bonito, king and Spanish mackerel, and dolphinfish. Some try fly-fishing for redfish in Saint Andrews Bay. Or you may wish to join a party boat with a larger group of people, trying to reel in grouper, red snapper, or amberjack. Choose from any of the following to make arrangements:

• Captain Anderson's Marina: 850-234-3435

• Captain Blood Light Tackle Fishing: 850-785-6216

• Osprey Charters: 850-233-1959

• Pirate's Cove Marina: 850-234-3939

• Treasure Island Marina: 850-234-8533

Under the Water

Whether you enjoy snorkeling or diving, you'll find some good spots here. A favorite snorkeling spot is the jetties at Saint Andrews State Recreation Area. Divers prefer either the wreck of the tugboat Grey Ghost, lying on its side 100 feet below the surface, or by the old spans of the Hathaway Bridge. While not as popular a diving destination as some coastal spots farther south, you'll find what you need at the following dive shops:

• Hydrospace Dive Shop: 850-234-3063

• Dive Locker: 850-230-8006

• Diver's Den: 850-234-8717

• Panama City Dive Center: 850-235-3390

On the Links and on the Courts

Even though Panama City Beach is a honky-tonk kind of place, you'll find five good golf courses to play in the area. With moderate year-round temperatures and lots of sunshine, there's never a bad time to play golf. Reservations for tee times, up to seven days in advance, are a necessity as slots fill quickly.

The Bay Point Resort: One of Florida's top golfing destinations, this resort offers two courses — an eighteen-hole championship course designed by Jack Nicklaus and a nine-hole resort course — plus pro shop, practice range, and restaurant. (850-236-6950)

Holiday Gold Club: An eighteen-hole championship course with newly installed greens, offering challenging play. (850-234-1800)

Hombre Golf Club: A twenty-seven-hole course, designed by Wes Burnham, with challenges on each set of nine named The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. You can take half-day, two-, three-, and five-day golf lessons at the Martin Green Golf Academy on site. (www.hombregolfclub.com)

Signal Hill Golf Course: As the original course on Panama City Beach, it features well-groomed fairways and large manicured greens set atop white sand dunes. (850-234-3218)

Shopping

Panama City Beach has all the types of stores to keep teens occupied for hours. If they can't find just the right seashore souvenir or swimsuit, then it just isn't made. One shop carries over 25,000 swimsuits. Shops by the dozens sell everything from designer sunglasses to beach toys, hats, bikinis, and, of course, silk-screened and airbrushed T-shirts. One of the most popular shopping places is the Promenade Mall. And there's also the Panama City Mall. If you're a golf enthusiast, you'll find bargains on discounted equipment at outlets here.