I recently went to Seaside, Florida with some friends and we had the best time eating delicious food, seeing the sights, and hanging out at our gorgeous rental cottage. Here is all the information you need to plan your next trip to Seaside!
Maria, Ali, Shelly, Heidi, Jenny, Amanda, Gina
Seaside Florida Is Perfect For A Quick Weekend Trip
Hi friends! I am interrupting the Scotland / London / Paris posts really quick to bring you some fun photos from the beach! :) A few weekends ago I met up with some girlfriends in Seaside, Florida for a quick girlfriend getaway.
I drove down from Alabama, and Ali, Shelly, Jenny, and Heidi all came in on the same flight. Blogger party in the ATL airport! ;) Maria and Gina flew in and met up with us later. :)
This Gorgeous Rental Cottage Is Right On The Beach
We all stayed together in a gorgeous 5-bedroom cottage right on the beach. The name of the rental was the See Ya Cottage from Cottage Rental Agency in Seaside. In the photo above is the living room right as you walk in the front door. To the left is a bedroom with 2 sets of bunkbeds, full bath, a butler’s pantry with mini fridge, and a laundry room. To the right is a bedroom with 2 double beds, en suite bath, and the staircase to the second floor.
The Rental Cottage Was Huge And Has The Best Views
I had seen pictures of the cottage on their website, but I had no idea what a treat we were in for until we got there. There were 3 floors, 5 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, and a small kitchenette with fridge on every floor. There was even an elevator! Each floor also had it’s own large private balcony with a seating area facing the ocean. We were in hog heaven running up and down the stairs oohing and ahhing over every room! Each floor had high ceilings for days and tons of natural light. The only time I have ever been in a house this big was our cottage last year at Seaside and at the Better Blog Retreat in Park City.
Here’s a view of the second floor. Behind me is a king bedroom with en suite bath. To the left and right are outdoor balconies with seating areas. Beyond this room is the ginormous kitchen and a half bath.
Loved this huge kitchen! How fun is that window seat? :)
We took the stairs one more time up to the third floor…
The third floor living room is where we hung out most of the time, curled up on the couch and chit-chatting by the fire at night in our PJs.
On this floor were two more bedrooms with their own private baths — a king room and a queen room. Jenny, Maria and I all stayed up here.
Our gorgeous view of the crystal blue ocean from the third floor balcony.
These Vacation Rentals Even Have Housekeeping Services
Here’s a peek at the king bedroom on the third floor. Cottage Rental Agency offers housekeeping services, so they will come in and replace your towels, standard toiletries, and make the bed every day for you, just like a hotel. Loved not having to worry about bringing our own towels to the beach!
These Are Were Some Of Our Favorite Places To Eat In Seaside
As soon as we arrived, we were all starving. So the first thing we did was head for Seaside’s famous Airstream Row — a colorful line of delicious food carts all along the main drag facing the beach. We immediately set our eyes on the gourmet grilled cheese food truck, The Melt Down.
The Melt Down has so many decadent varieties of gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. We got one of each and shared so we could try them all. My favorites were the Three Cheese, the Smokin’ Turkey (with bacon, avocado, and jack cheese), and the Strawberry Goat Cheese. Seriously need to recreate that last one at home! I am still dreaming about it! :)
One of the other food trucks is Raw & Juicy, a raw vegan food cart. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a raw vegan restaurant before, but that night we were treated to a private dinner at the Raw & Juicy kitchen for a full raw vegan dinner and dessert. I was a huge, huge fan of this chocolate raspberry parfait we had for dessert!! I have never had chocolate like that before — so rich and decadent — and I am still dreaming about that vanilla bean cream!! Unfortunately I don’t think this is an item on the menu at the food truck, but everyone should start requesting it immediately so they’ll add it to the menu. And so I can have another one. ;)
The good thing about having a raw vegan dinner? You totally don’t feel guilty about splurging on dessert! ;) Earlier in the day we hit up Seaside’s charming Modica Market for a slice of their legendary chocolate cake. We stashed it back at the cottage for a midnight snack after dinner.
Of course we couldn’t decide on just one cake, so we also got the Rainbow Cake…
And a Milky Way cake! ;) We all grabbed a fork, gathered around the kitchen island, and totally destroyed these cakes. ;) The chocolate was our favorite!!
The next morning we walked down to Fired Up, Seaside’s paint-your-own pottery establishment. We all picked out our own piece from a wide variety of choices and set to work creating and painting.
I chose this little oval baking dish and attempted a colorful ombre finish. There were so many different techniques and colors to choose from!
And here we are with our finished projects! Such a fun morning with friends!
That day was Ali’s birthday, so we celebrated our sweet friend with champagne at CRUSH for lunch.
I Love That Everything In Seaside Is Easy To Get To
What I love about Seaside is that everything is within walking distance. We walked from our cottage that morning to the coffee shop next door for breakfast. Then we walked over to Fired Up. Then we walked to lunch, where we had this dreamy applewood smoked bacon guacamole.
All the walking makes up for this decadent mac and cheese, right?? ;)
Loved these fresh shrimp tacos!
We couldn’t pass up the brownie for dessert. ;) It had had a very distinct smoked flavor, like bacon, and we all keep trying to decide if it had bacon in it or not. If you like smokey / bacon desserts, you will love this brownie!
After a quiet afternoon taking it easy and doing nothing but laying out at the beach, we had dinner beachside at The Shrimp Shack.
Our dreamy dinner view!
Photo via Ali
The owner of The Shrimp Shack, Heavenly Dawson (yes, that’s her real name! And she truly lives up to her name. She is heaven-sent!) knew it was Ali’s birthday and prepared a special birthday treat just for her. She went to Ali’s blog, looked at all her favorite things, and created a Strawberry Margarita Shortcake based on Ali’s love for Strawberry Margaritas. :) It was such a special dinner for us all, so thrilled we could be a part of Ali’s day.
As we feasted, chatted, and celebrated, we had a perfect view of the sunset over the beach.
Photo via Ali
Loved these golden rays sparking over the water, marking the end of our second day at the beach together.
What a great article on 30A! We absolutely LOVE IT here!
Thanks for giving us a peek into one of the larger condos on the beach. Always wondered what they looked like when driving by.
We just got back from a trip to Destin, FL and after seeing this blog post I knew we HAD to stop by Seaside. We had several hours to kill before catching our flight home at the Panama City airport so we were able to spend a few hours in this GORGEOUS town!! We had yummy snow cones (before lunch!) and then had the best burgers at Pickles. Wonderful. Just sad we couldn’t have spent our whole vacation there! (My bank account feels differently though, because yikes, Seaside is expensive)
Whoa, that cottage, or should I say castle, is beautiful. What a fun vacations! Totally jelly right now. :)
Oh my goodness, I’ve heard of Seaside and have always wanted to visit. It looks AMAZING. And those rentals are phenomenal!! What a great time you all had. And those foodie photos were making me drool all over my keyboard. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.
What a gorgeous place! I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it. I’ll definitely need to get back there at some point. So glad you ladies had a great time and as always, gorgeous photos!
I’ve always wondered what that area was really like…and it looks LOVELY! Beautiful photos, friends, and food!
Such a fantastic trip! I had the best time and am so thankful I was able to spend time with you and all the girls! Loved every second!
Absolutely gorgeous – wish I had the $1,600 a night to book a similar girlfriend getaway :-)
Looks like you all had a great time. Those cakes look delicious ! Heck, all the food looks delicious !
Looks like y’all had a blast. I’ve never been to seaside. It’s on my places to travel too.
Lovely post – we’ve stayed in the Seaside area several times and there’s truly nothing like it. I need to get back and get another of those Seaside t shirts – mine’s about to wear out :)
I just looked at one of your sunset pictures with the view of the ‘lighthouse’ looking structure…..it said you took it with your iphone but it had aperture setting etc. Just wondered if that was right and if so can you tell me how you do that on an ipone? thanks! love your pics!
Wow….beautiful girls,delicious food,crafting with friends and an awesome sunset…sounds like fun fun fun in the sun to me. Thanks for sharing your fabulous photos. Can’t wait to see part 2. Hugs, Becky
I cannot believe I have never been to Seaside. Every time I see a blog post about it I say *I have to go* and I mean it!! Love all your pictures and the fun things you did…especially the food!!! I’ve never met a grilled cheese I didn’t like!
Awesome pictures! Love Seaside and love The Meltdown! There is a great Mexican place a little further east on 30A too!
Following you on Instagram is like a constant adventure!
I often think, “doesn’t she just want to be home?” or “how does she get regular work done with all these trips?”. Then it dons on me, this is your job! Duh.
Thanks for letting us travel with you.
Lovely photos! And what a fun vacation. The food and dessert!! Yumm!!
Just added a new destination to my bucket list. What a gorgeous place!!
Looks like it was so much fun and a gorgeous place. I’m in love with the coffee table in the third photo.
How beautiful! I want to go there–I love that cottage…and the grilled cheese! And cake. :-)
These pictures all makes me so happy! So many great memories, with great friends, in a GREAT town. Seaside will always have a little piece of my heart now! :)
Looks like it was such a fun trip! Beautiful place!