Easy Days at the Wharf Marina in Orange Beach Alabama

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What a delightful surprise after arriving at the Wharf with large floating docks and lots of room to maneuver. There are many huge yachts at this marina. Our first night there we treated ourselves to one of their more famous restaurants, Ginny Lane. We discovered on our walk the next morning that the Wharf is quite a place. It would remind you a bit of the Smoke House Bay spot in Marco only about 4 times as large. However, other than the services available at the Wharf not much else is in walking distance. There is a large condo development and an even bigger shopping complex complete with a huge movie house, convention center, ferris wheel and lots of stores and restaurants. Unfortunately, with the economic situation many of the stores and restaurants are empty, but those that are open are quite nice.

Our real surprise was the inclusion of the water park which we enjoyed one of the warmer days. A spa, wave pool, water slide, floating on the lazy river and a patio bar and grill. In fact, we were the only patrons there. The park is a mile walk on the grounds, but a shuttle (free) service is offered to marina guests. Apparently the marina, condos and water park are more used in the spring and summer months. The marina staff was marvelous, willing to print documents from our computer. The price of this marina was definitely a bargain: $1per ft fee per day ( for Looper members Great American Loop Assoc) we received electric, cable with HBO, a daily newspaper delivered to the boat, water and pump out.
We are so impressed with this Wharf Marina that it might be a nice long cruise destination for some of our boating friends from Punta Gorda. We’ll know more about how long it takes to get to it from PGI once we make the treak home.

So far, so very good. Feels like we are on vacation.

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