St. George Island: Landing on the forgotten coast
The Forgotten Coast
A 90-minute drive from Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP), St. George Island is a thin, 28-mile fingerling of land wrapped around an estuary as exotic and unspoiled as anywhere on Earth. The closer you get, the more it seems like you’ve entered a time warp. So many of the most popular destinations in Florida are wonderfully shiny and new, but they also feel largely devoid of any specific regional quality. Partly due to a flood of new residents from northern cities and other countries, much of Florida feels culturally homogeneous. But Franklin County truly feels and sounds like the South. There is lilt and musicality in the accents. The turns of phrase are more interesting. Smiles come easy, strangers are open and friendly, and the pace of life feels slower and more considered than in more bustling parts of the Sunshine State.
St. George Island celebrates subtle pleasures. There are no nightclubs here; no places to see and be seen. Celebrities like Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have vacation homes here, but they eat at the same restaurants as everyone else, and you can practically count those restaurants on one hand.




