Review of Holiday Inn Resort Panama City Beach, an IHG Hotel 3*

The rooms are certainly nothing to write home about. They are clean, and they are rooms, but you don't go here to spend time in your room. The food selections, outside of the breakfast buffet are not very good inside the resort. BUT, you DO go here to spend time outside in the pursuit of sun, sand, and water and this place is perfect for that. The pool area has a small splash park for the kids to run around in. There are two hot tubs, one for adults only. The pool is just the right temperature and the music is always pumping… well, not after a certain time at night though, people do need to sleep occasionally. The access to the beach is a very short 30 meter walk from the pool area and offers pristine white sands and ocean water about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of the beachfront in this region has a sandbar 50-70 meters out that is an easy swim to go stand on. At the sandbar, the water depth is roughly 3.5 meters (4-5 feet) deep. Each night, the staff produce some activity, ranging from movie by the pool to hula dancing. During the day, is music and games poolside. The resort has a small workout room with limited weight equipment, treadmills, a steam room, and a sauna. The breakfast buffet includes all the usual suspects like waffles, pancakes, eggs, bacon, pastries, etc and is fairly large and plentiful. A caveat not against the resort but for the area around the resort, the food selections can be rather pricey. If you are driving in from the North, a typical route takes you several 10's of miles through much of Alabama back country two lane roadway. Every town has a speed trap, even at night with cameras, so beware. The banjos could certainly be heard and there is nowhere you'd want to stop between the Interstate highway and PCB.