TomMM

That would be LA, Lower Alabama.

ATOBTTR

This coming from the guy from Memphis..... ROFL.

FBI: Memphis 3rd Most Dangerous City in the US.
FBI ranks Memphis as the 3rd most dangerous city | WREG.com

But by all means, please, continue to insult where others live.

beachmouse

Locally everyone including the airport marketing department calls the civilian air terminal VPS because the county changes the official airport name so often that no one including the airlines is quite sure what the current name is. (I think I'm up to six different airport names for VPS on different boarding passes over the years-we're too insignificant for the airlines, especially the foreign ones, to get it properly changed in the system)

My question is what happens if you miss the connection? Seems like there would be additional options out that night. As for summer thunderstorms, I've misconnected for domestic-international at ATL with a 2.5 hour original connection time because of ground stop recovery, so tend to see it as kind of binary- I'll either make it or I won't- and padding the connection won't do anything either way. Just be all zen about it and walk with mindfulness between gates.

As for the area itself, yes my mailing address is in Niceville just across the toll bridge from Destin, and yes, it's a pleasant place where my neighbors skew rocket scientist and other flavors of Air Force geek.

hotturnip

Unless your inbound flight is late, you'll be fine. Even if you have to walk all the way from the end of your arrival terminal, you'll probably only have to take the Plane Train to E, since that's where most of DL's transatlantics depart from.

Even if you're late, there's another DL flight around 9:30, and a BA flight around 10:30, I think.

yokozuma

Thanks all for the replies, looks like it will be OK. The ATL wiki is useful!

On Delta it says 1 hour 'layover' but it is just a connection.

yokozuma

Are there any must visits/activities around? Going to be travelling with my girlfriend who's working on a press trip with Florida tourism, they're putting an itinerary together so we want to show Destin off as a great place to visit. Not sure many in the UK have heard of it before!

ATL - LHR is a codeshare with Virgin, looks like there are a couple more flights to LHR on the same night so if there is a delay (out of our control) we should be able to get home still!

aww3583

Stinky's Fish Camp
Seaside
Alys Beach
Destin Commons
Crab Island

The Destin-to-Orange Beach region has the whitest, softest sugar-sand beaches in the world.

Make a run over to Pensacola (the oldest city in America!) to see the Naval Air Station Museum and the Blue Angels.

dmarge18

Sure! Destin itself is probably pretty touristy, but there is good shopping at the Commons and at the outlets. The beaches and state parks are great (Henderson Beach, Topsail, Grayton, Rocky Bayou). I'd recommend driving down 30A and past Sandestin as well; there's some great beach towns, restaurants, and a beautiful bike trail on the beach. The other direction, Gulf Islands National Seashore is a pristine drive on the beach. There's a burgeoning craft beer scene as well (Destin, Grayton, Idyll Hounds, 3rd Planet). I could probably give a whole lot more specifics depending on what you're interested in, what you want to showcase, restaurants, etc. Just shoot me a PM.

beachmouse

My favorite drive in the area is the Gulf Islands drive between Navarre Beach (go south across the Intracoastal at Navarre) and Pensacola Beach. I don't think you're more than a meter above sea level at any point and there are some points where it seems like you're below sea level, and it's wonderfully sublime. If the road is open to the Fort Pickens area past Pensacola Beach (it's low enough to be prone to closures from overwash) it's an interesting mix of nature and history.

We can be pretty cheap about restaurants- we regard grabbing some sandwiches from Publix or takeaway from one of the dozens of strip mall Thai restaurants and make a picnic of it . But we do really like Sushimoto over by the outlet mall (they're really nice people; the signs on the door are because they've got a small space and the local diners can be more than a little entitled) or Doc's on the bayou in Valparaiso as a dive bar with good food- as least on weekdays when the good manager is in. For 'touristy', I'd go The Red Bar in Grayton Beach, which is run by some nice Belgians and has typically good food at reasonable by South Walton standards prices.

This is a new area that didn't really exist before the Department of War set up shop during WW2; anything predating 1990 counts as 'old' and the Belgians are, like most of us, from Somewhere Else. In general, Florida is a state that it still trying to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up, if it wants to grow up at all.

pvn

some sensitive people around here

ATOBTTR

beachmouse

I will note that if you land the north-south runway at VPS, it really does seem like you touched down in Alabama. Because of the long distance from there to the civilian air terminal, it's like the region's version of the Polderbaan at AMS.