4 Best Sights in The Panhandle, Florida

In addition to being where the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron Blue Angels launches its practice flights, the Pensacola Naval Air Station (NAS) is home to a 300,000-square-foot museum with more than 140 aircraft representing more than 100 years of naval aviation. Currently, however, access to the NAS is not available to the general public unless they're accompanied by someone who holds a Department of Defense ID card (e.g., active or retired military personnel or a member of their families). If you don't have someone to accompany you, it's worth calling ahead or checking online to see if this requirement has changed, and, if so, make time for a visit.

On display are the NC-4, which, in 1919, became the first plane to cross the Atlantic; the famous F-6 Hellcat World War II fighter; the Skylab Command Module; an atomic bomb (it's defused, we promise); and the restored Cubi Bar Café, a very cool airmen's club transplanted here from the Philippines. The museum also offers a giant-screen theater showing Magic of Flight, Aircraft Carrier, and other educational films.

If you're feeling more adventurous, the MaxFlight Simulator—featuring interactive, 360-degree, pitch-and-roll technology—offers the chance to experience air-to-air combat or stunt flying. Alternatively, you can see what it's like to fly with the Blue Angels or take off from an aircraft carrier and do battle in the Iraqi desert in an HD Motion-Based Simulator. If you'd rather reach for the stars, opt for the Apollo 11 VR Experience.

The collection at this museum just outside the Eglin Air Force Base's main gate contains interactive displays and more than 5,000 armaments from World Wars I and II and the Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf wars. Included are uniforms, engines, weapons, aircraft, and flight simulators. You can't miss the museum: there's a squadron of aircraft—including a B-17 Flying Fortress, an SR-71 Blackbird, a B-52, and a B-25—on the grounds in front. A continuously playing 32-minute movie, Arming the Future, features current weapons and Eglin's history and its role in their development. You can take a self-guided tour, and you're allowed to take photos.

Some of the 250,000 acres of the Eglin reservation are conditionally open to the public for hiking, mountain biking, swimming, canoeing, and fishing. To gain access, you must obtain a permit from the Natural Resource Division (also known locally as the Jackson Guard). The reservation has 21 ponds and plenty of challenging, twisting, wooded trails.

Constructed of more than 21 million locally made bricks, the fort, dating from 1834 and now part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, once served as a prison for Apache chief Geronimo. A National Park Service plaque describes the complex as a "confusing jumble of fortifications," but the real attractions here are the beach, nature exhibits, a large campground, an excellent gift shop, and breathtaking views of Pensacola Bay and the lighthouse across the inlet. It's the perfect place for a picnic lunch and a bit of history, too.