Family & Practical Editor
Beat: Beaches, Things to Do, Attractions
Tamika writes the pages people actually open in the car park: which beach lot is free, where the lifeguards and the ramps are, what the double red flag means and what it costs to ignore it. She tests the family logistics with her own children in tow, and she would rather tell you a museum is small than let you drive there expecting otherwise.
3 guides · 2 news posts
Last updatedTamika's most recent update to this site was .
Long-form
Reported guides to Fort Walton Beach, each with its own publication and last-updated date.
US 98 is the spine, the only spine, and it crosses water three times between Pensacola and Panama City. Understanding that one fact explains almost every delay you will have here.
7 min read
Photograph: Unsplash
The useful question here is not what there is to do. It is which shoreline suits the age of your children, because this town has two and they are not interchangeable.
7 min read
Photograph: Unsplash
This city has two shorelines with completely different temperaments (Gulf surf on the island, flat warm shallows on the sound), and knowing which one your group needs is most of the decision.
8 min read
Photograph: Unsplash
News desk
Shorter, dated pieces about what is changing in Fort Walton Beach.
How this was written. News published under Tamika Rowe's byline was drafted by machine from primary sources — operator notices, government and municipal releases, published schedules — and every factual claim in it was matched to one of those sources before it published. A Fort Walton Guide editor can change or pull any of it. Our editorial standards.
Visitors read the double red flag as strong advice. In Okaloosa County it closes the water under ordinance, and going in can cost you.
Photograph: Unsplash
Loggerheads, greens and the occasional leatherback nest on this coast for six months of the year, and the rules that protect them are small and easy to keep.
Photograph: Unsplash