Panama City Beach, FL Outdoor Activities

The PADI-certified instructors at Panama City Dive Charters run their classes with a focus on the heart of scuba diving-fun and adventure-while keeping safety and each student's diving success as the primary goals. With online courses as well as pool and open-water instruction available, the team prepares divers to explore the region's aquatic splendor, such as Vortex Spring and Morrison Springs. The squad also arranges adventuresome ocean-scuba-diving trips and spearfishing outings during which divers kick through crystal-clear waters to hunt treasure, catch dinner, and play Go Fish with the local mermaids.

A 5,000-square-foot splash park, 50-meter Olympic pool with diving well, covered picnic shelter, and full concession stand await visitors to PCB Aquatic Center, which invites bathing-suit clad citizens to revel in its refreshing, state-of-the-art facilities. After emerging from locker rooms with heated showers, patrons can plunge into classes on lifeguarding, water-aerobics instructing, or basic and advanced pool figure-drawing or just relax and lap alongside other swimmers in the temperature-controlled waters. As scuba-geared divers explore underwater views in certification courses, children can splash their way into swim lessons led by certified water-safety instructors, before winding down from their amphibious education by winding down one of several water slides.

Chief aviator Evan Jordan of Jordan Aviation take cloud-gazers into the skies in services that range from scenic rides to full pilot-certification programs. The outfit's educational fleet of well-maintained Cessna 172N aircraft, act as aerial classrooms for students logging hours en route to a pilot's license and novices getting a first taste of flight. Instructors begin Discovery Flights with a brief overview of plane operation, from instruments in the cockpit to the propellers that chop clouds into Mentos. Once aloft, they allow the student to take the controls if they so choose. Jordan Aviation calls Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport its home base and schedules flights Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

At the authorized Cessna Pilot Center, Island Air Express's certified pilots and instructors curate training courses, helm scenic tours, and glide above clear waters during private flights to the Bahamas. They help aspiring flyers to accrue hours for a private pilot's license, as well as prepare them to complete official flight tests with FAA–approved blindfolds for instrument ratings.

Established in May of 2009, TripShock.com was founded to create an efficient search engine where visitors could find resources to fully experience the Gulf Coast. The company currently offers more than 150 tours and activities in five popular coastal cities. Activities range from Creole-inspired dinner jazz cruises along the Mississippi River and scenic helicopter tours over Panama City to surf lessons in Destin. Travel enthusiasts can also gallivant around the website to find discounts, reviews, videos, and contact information for customer-service reps who are available 24 hours a day or the time it takes a Tasmanian devil to travel around the world while spinning on its axis.