Travel Orange Beach, Alabama

Travel with me! We’re talking Orange Beach, Alabama! The beach, food, drinks, and money saving tips! 

I’ve decided to open up a bit more about our traveling, because I usually hoard it all to myself. Since my husband and I do tend to travel often (to random locations), I thought you may want to see a peek more than what you see on Instagram and Snapchat.

Plus, I’ve included advice on where we ate, whether I’d recommend those places, and how I ordered to make my meals and treats gluten free. Also, how we saved money (because we’re an average couple on a budget) is sprinkled in there too. Some of the pictures you may have seen on Instagram. 

We visited Orange Beach, AL in late October for a bit of a Babymoon and a real get-away. It was the off-season, but we scored a weekend that was sunny, 80 degrees F, and had a lovely breeze. Perfect beach weather, and just enough sun to really sunburn me.

We rented a condo in the Phoenix V building on the beach with a beach-view for Thursday-Sunday. The rent was relatively inexpensive, but the room was nothing impressive. We’ll probably try to stay somewhere a little nicer next time. The amount of rugs on the floor grossed me out (just think about the number of people who have walked on those with bare feet, wet from the ocean…you get it), the couch was kind of falling apart, and the bathroom was fine but didn’t exactly make me want to take a spa shower for an hour.

We saved money by bringing and buying enough snacks and food to eat in the condo for breakfasts, lunches, and snack time. I packed lots of oatmeal packets, peanut butter, Popchips and gluten-free Joe Joe’s; we bought yogurts, bananas and apples; and we bought a ½ loaf of bread (check the bakery section), a rotisserie chicken and a container of salad greens with a bottle of salad dressing for lunches. We also bought a case of bottled waters (I brought coffee beans, a grinder, and my French Press), electrolyte drinks, LaCroix sparkling waters and any alcohol/mixers my husband wanted. There was a Walmart and a Publix within a 4 minute drive from our condo. 

Planning on only eating dinners out saved us a lot of money and it also helped us enjoy our vacation on the beach more. We didn’t have to worry about: I’m hungry, let’s pack up, take a shower, go find lunch, come back, re-sunscreen, get back on the beach… Yeah, being prepared was very helpful for us.

The beach was incredibly clean, soft, and beautiful. I highly recommend this beautiful beach.

Here’s what we ate (we tried to stay in the Orange Beach region, but Gulf Shores is 15min up the road, so feel free to drive a little farther for more options; all the places we chose were within a 5 mile radius, which was nice)

 

Thursday Dinner:
Wentzell’s – I ordered the Jumbo Shrimp Fry basket BUT I asked for it grilled and with a salad and sweet potato fries. The shrimp in the area is incredibly fresh, so a basket of grilled shrimp was the way to go. This place was ok, but nothing mind blowing. My shrimp was really tasty, but my husband said his food (shrimp po boy) wasn’t that impressive and the fries weren’t great.

Friday Dinner:

Gilbey’s – I ordered the grilled salmon with risotto and broccoli BUT I asked for grilled asparagus instead. This meal was kind of disappointing (my husband agreed) because it was a nice restaurant, the plates were decently expensive, but my salmon was overcooked (so was my husband’s seafood), the risotto wasn’t true risotto, and there was SO much butter that when the waitress took away my “finished” plate, it was a pool of butter and “risotto”. Skip.

Saturday coffee run:

I ran up the road to Liquid Life and grabbed a cinnamon roll for my husband (he pleaded and I thought it was adorable, so yes I’ll go get you a cinnamon roll) and an iced coffee for myself. I ordered an iced coffee with a pump of banana nut flavor. It was really delicious! The service was so great and they were so nice about letting me put the milk in myself so it’d be just as I wanted it. The coffee shop was adorable too, really beachy inside and I loved it.

Saturday Dinner:

Live Bait – This was a pub-like place and we ordered to-go so we could eat on our balcony, watching the water. I ordered a salad with grilled shrimp. The shrimp were really great, not overcooked. And my husband seemed to enjoy his burger. My only complaint is that it was $6 to add shrimp to my salad, and they only add 5 of them, so that seemed a bit over the top price-wise. But otherwise, this was a quick, easy option.

That’s all! Clearly, we loved the beach, and would change a lot about what we ate and where we stayed, but the beach is what we were there for. Sitting for hours outside either on the sand or on the balcony was just what I wanted. Swimming in the pool was really lovely too (though the pool itself was in really poor condition) with this big ol’ pregnant belly. This getaway was just what my soul needed. 

If you have any specific questions about our trip, please feel free to ask me!

Note: this is not a sponsored post.