Feel free to turn off your phone. It’s OK. Really.
If you are coming to Eden, you are probably already anticipating the seclusion and isolation you will experience. You have certainly calculated the distance our slice of paradise is from your busy home or office — or, as has been the case for so many of us this last year, your busy home-office.
The entire Perdido community is set up to help you forget that the far-off daily bump and grind is there at all. Sixty percent of Perdido Key is set aside as national and state parks, providing unending acres of sandy beach, brushy dunes, pristine wetlands and other wide-open spaces from which to take your deepest breath of the year.
Of course, you need not leave our palatial property to retreat to a soothing solitude. Not only can you appreciate the warm season at our outdoor pool, complete with waterfalls and LED night lighting, but also the year-round comfort of our indoor pool. Eyes closed, floating in the pool. The whole world vanishes.
For a respite more enmeshed in nature, seek the wet sandy areas of our local shorelines at low tide to see what natural treasures you may come across. Certainly, a sun-bleached sand dollar, sometimes broken, sometimes not. Maybe a calico scallop shell or purple coquina. Some of our locals love shelling so much, it has become part of their daily routine.
You can find seashells along any of Perdido’s Gulf beaches, but Johnson’s Beach at the Gulf Islands National Seashore is especially known for spectacular shelling.
Nature will take you on a more active adventure if you choose to hire a charter fishing service like All Jack’d Up out of Perdido. You may choose a brief three-hour excursion on the bay or a six-hour journey where you are surrounded by the horizonless sea and angling for some succulent flounder, king mackerel or red snapper.
Maybe you’d like to see the sea but not work for your dinner.
If so, you might like the intimacy of a sunset or dolphin cruise out of Orange Beach Sailing Charters. This company specializes in small party private cruises. Their sailing yachts, the Sailob and the Attitude, max out at six passengers each.
Rent a bike at a place like Beach Bike Rentals in Orange Beach. Here, you can get a cycle for a day, a week or a month, with options ranging from standard cruisers to a recumbent bike to a tandem unit. They will also happily rent you trailers in which to tow your toddlers or fur babies.
If you want to take your moments of solitude under the night sky, Perdido is a great place to stargaze because it is so far away from major sources of city lights like Pensacola or Mobile.
A local amateur astronomy group leads a stargazing event every so often at nearby Big Lagoon State Park. Perdido Key would also be a great place to view the upcoming Super Moon on May 26, when the moon will be at its closest point of the year, and the Strawberry Moon on June 12, the last full moon of the spring.
So, yes, do turn off your phone. Allow yourself to get away while you’re away and find your own space at Eden.
And breathe.
There's so much to do on and around our 16-miles-long island paradise, there's no way you can experience it all in just one stay. To help you make the most of your Eden vacation, we've picked a few of our favorite experiences that we hope will become precious memories for you too. If you have a question, or don't see what you're looking for, please let us know. We want to make sure that each memory of your Eden vacation is truly magical.