Pensacola offers plenty of fun for free!

Maybe there is no such thing as a free lunch, but visitors to Pensacola can enjoy plenty of other free delights.

For starters, there is no charge to enjoy most of the area's sugar-white beaches and rolling dunes and the sparkling emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Miles and miles of free beaches, most preserved from development, can be found between Perdido Key and Pensacola Beach.

Pensacola is home to the Navy's Blue Angels. Folks who want to go indoors can stroll through the National Museum of Naval Aviation, one of the nation's largest air-and-space museums. The museum features an awe-inspiring collection of more than 100 military aircraft. Many of the guides giving informal tours are themselves retired aviators with personal stories to tell about the aircraft. The museum, located aboard historic Pensacola Naval Air Station, is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Veterans Memorial Park includes The Wall South, the nation's first full-name replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.The park is located on Bayfront Parkway near 9th Avenue.

Many of Pensacola's best free pleasures are outdoors.

The Bluffs, on Scenic Highway near Summit Boulevard, offer a stunning view of Escambia Bay and a series of walkways for easy viewing and spectacular photography.

Edward Ball Nature Walk, on the University of West Florida campus, rambles through a tree-shaded bayou where visitors can feed fish and turtles.

Self-guided tours of Pensacola's historic districts offer visitors a low-key, easy way to see the City of Five Flags. Markers point out historic sites in the downtown, Seville and North Hill areas.

Art buffs can find plenty to view for free, not only in the numerous shops featuring local artists but also at galleries at Pensacola Junior College and the University of West Florida. The regionally acclaimed Great GulfcoastArts Festival, held in the first weekend in November, is just one of many free festivals brightening the area.

Tennis players can find several free courts at Bayview Park, a sprawling recreational area in the city's tree- shaded East Hill area.The courts are lighted and open day and evening.

The Bob Sikes Fishing Bridge between Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach gives anglers a free deck from which to try their luck fishing in Santa Rosa Sound.With any luck at all, the anglers will catch enough fish to give them the proverbial free lunch.

Pensacola, Florida - Located on Florida’s Panhandle, close to the Alabama border, Pensacola draws visitors looking for the ideal seaside vacation to play or relax on the sugar-white sand beaches next to the soothing Gulf of Mexico surf. Visitors enjoy fun in the sun and all its inherent activities, from wind-surfing to fishing, to exploring a plethora of historic sites and taking in the show-stopping Navy Blue Angels precision flying team.

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