On a crescent of paper-white beach along Florida’s Gulf Coast, the sun catches slivers of sand in trillions of tiny sparkles so that the powdery strand looks as if it’s frosted with sugar. The water is warm, the breezes are cool, and the vibe is bucolic, barefoot simplicity. This is St. George Island, and it is not merely a beach escape as much as it is a peaceful and quiet sanctuary for the mind and soul.

St. George Island, at 28 miles long and just a mile wide, is one of Florida’s dynamic barrier islands that buffer and protect the mainland and its coastal communities and fragile ecosystems of salt marshes and seagrass beds against extreme weather of tropical storms and hurricanes. The Panhandle community is also considered part of Florida’s so-called “Forgotten Coast,” those small, pristine and relatively undiscovered islands and towns like its cousins of Mexico Beach, Cape San Blas and Carrabelle that don’t get the party-hardy crowds of Miami, Daytona and Clearwater beaches.

The crowning glory of the island is St. George State Park, an almost 2,000-acre park that was designated the No. 1 ranked beach in the U.S. on Dr. Beach’s 2023-24 annual Top 10 Beach List. Dr. Beach is actually coastal expert Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, a professor in the department of earth and environment at Florida International University in Miami.

“This long barrier island, far from urban areas, is a favorite destination for beachgoers, anglers and bird watchers, as nature abounds,” Dr. Beach wrote in selecting St. George. “Besides swimming in the crystal-clear water, I enjoy beachcombing and shelling.”

The top beach designation runs from Memorial Day to Memorial Day each year, when a new one is chosen by Dr. Beach. He has selected the top 10 beaches since 1991, using at least 50 criteria to evaluate the beaches, including water and sand quality, safety and management.

You can traipse along a glorious nine — yes, count ’em — nine miles of undeveloped beach at the park. The wind-driven, confectioner’s sugar-soft sand also creates massive dunes, where some folks refer to them as the Alps, Florida-style.

“Northerners also call them snow drifts,” says Sheila Hauser of the bright white dunes. Hauser works at Collins Vacation Rentals, the rental management company from which our small group rented our beach house.

Park Manager Joshua Hodson says the state park is among Florida’s great flyways and is “very popular” for birdwatching, with abundant feathered local denizens and migratory birds including least terns, plovers, osprey, eagles, snowy egrets, tanagers, buntings and great blue herons. At least 300 species have been spotted on the island, an amazing number for such a small destination.

Hodson also notes that with its remote location and no sky-reaching condominiums giving off artificial light, the sunsets are spectacular and nights are dark and chockfull of stars and galaxies. On a clear night, search for the easy-to-spot Orion and Canis Major all the way down to the smaller ones, among them the Pleiades Star Cluster of the Seven Sisters. In spring, the Milky Way casts its eerie glow across the universe. Don’t worry that streetlights will cloud your view, as there are none on the island to help ensure that hatchlings of the captivating phenomenon of sea turtle nesting season, between May and October, have a chance to survive.

St. George Island’s water is unusually clean and pure, at times colored emerald green or as silvered as mercury, depending on the season and the mood of the Gulf and its winds. To the island’s north is Apalachicola Bay, with both the bay and the Gulf an aquatic cornucopia for the freshest of fish and seafood, including the plumpest shrimp, fattest grouper, saltiest oysters and the reddest of snapper.

Only a thousand or so residents call St. George Island home year-round. Most vacationers rent homes, none of which is more than three stories high. As a matter of note, the tallest structure on the entire island is the historic and picturesque St. George Island Lighthouse with its 92 steps rising to the top with another eight more in a rung ladder. Amy Hodson, executive director of the lighthouse and wife of Joshua, says it’s one of the few lighthouses in the country with wooden stairs.

“About 25,000 people a year climb the stairs to the top,” she says. “Some come for the full moon climbs, but they’re so popular they sell out in just a few hours.”

Staying on the island

Through Collins Vacation Rentals, owned by Alice Collins, our group had a choice of homes from one to seven bedrooms. While other rental agencies are on the island, a family member who vacations frequently on St. George Island recommended Collins’; Collins has been in rental management and real estate for a half-century. More than 100 of the nearly 300 homes Collins manages have swimming pools, but that wasn’t at the top of our list with the Gulf of Mexico at our backdoor.

In the end, we chose Papaw’s Sandbox, a gorgeous beachside home filled with a beachy array of blue, turquoise and white. The enormous gourmet kitchen was a plus for our group because we didn’t want to eat out every morning and night, as was the long porch complete with Adirondack chairs and overlooking the water. With its private pool and convenient elevator, it was ideal for our group of friends for a spring getaway.

For those who prefer getting closer to nature, some 60 campsites are available at the state park with extra amenities including a playground, shower and bath facilities, and electrical hookups. Several miles of nature and bicycle trails meander through pine forests, dunes and coastal scrub habitat.

While the island is remote, for all the necessities there is a Piggly Wiggly, locally called the Blue Pig because of its blue exterior, and Captain’s Corner Store and Deli complete with sandwiches and snacks.

Eating and drinking on the island

A sampling of eats and drinks include the Beach Pit, serving up seafood — try the blackened flounder and the fish dip — and homemade Texas-style barbecue. Get the clever name? Seafood plus barbecue equals the beach and a grilling pit. Another happy place is Mango Mike’s, which serves oysters every which-a-way from raw to steamed to smoked or in unusual dishes such as the Bootleg, where the bivalve is made with moonshine, Parmesan, bacon and chives.

Follow up, too, with the cozy Blue Parrot. Of the appetizers, we ordered fried blue crab claws and peel-and-eat shrimp and gobbled them up until not one was left. For my entrée, I wisely chose Gulf shrimp stuffed with jumbo lump crab meat that tasted simply luxurious.

Paddy’s Raw Bar, in summer jam-packed, is another casual spot to try the local Apalachicola oysters, with the local favorite a dish called the Kitchen Sink with red and green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, bacon, onion and topped with Parmesan. Fish tacos are made with the catch of the day, and the gumbo is made with local shrimp and crab. Also, cool down at Aunt Ebby’s Ice Cream where you’ll be rewarded with huge portions of hand-dipped ice cream.

Not in the mood for cooking? Chef Ian Williams, owner of Your Table! Your Chef! will come to you, even in your kitchen, to provide a fine-dining experience where everything, right down to the bread, is made from scratch. He’ll whip up a culinary delight from preparation to presentation, from four-course meals to Low Country boil, a spicy Southern creation of seafood, usually shrimp, andouille sausage, potatoes and corn on the cob.

Playing around on the island

The big draw is the water and the state park, but opt for a sunset or dolphin cruise with St. George Island Charters with the bright and bubbly Capt. Krista Miller. Explore the island via bike or golf carts with Island Adventures, all the while watching out for cats, perhaps moseying across the road at the “cat crossing” sign. The Gulf Coast is known for afternoon rain showers, but there’s a cure for that, too, with a class at Art of Glass, where you create mixed media projects such as sea turtles or beach scenes that double as souvenirs to take home.

If you’re ready to get away from it all to St. George Island, take the incredibly scenic drive from the mainland over the 4-mile long Bryant Patton Bridge. The island is only a short drive from the Florida capital of Tallahassee and tourist-crammed Panama City, but in every sense a world away with its peaceful, slow existence. Think of it as sort of Gilligan’s Island, Florida-style, but instead of straw huts and shipwrecks on an uncharted desert isle, it’s more like a watercolor painting with pastel-hued homes and beaches fabulous enough to be voted No. 1 in the country.

If you go

For information on visiting or camping at St. George Island State Park, formally known as Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park, call 850-927-2111 or visit www.floridastateparks.org.

To reserve a rental home, visit Collins Vacation Rentals at www.collinsvacationrentals.com or call 850-927-2900.

For reservations for Art of Glass, call 850-370-1019 or visit www.sgiartofglass.com.

For St. George Island Charters, contact Krista Miller, owner and captain, 850-542-2542 or visit www.stgeorgeislandcharters.com.

For bike and golf cart rentals, contact Island Adventures at 850-927-3655 or visit www.sgiadventures.com.

To reserve a space for the full-moon climbs, call St. George Island Lighthouse Museum and Gift Shop 850-927-7745 or visit www.stgeorgelight.org.

For information on Dr. Beach, visit www.drbeach.org.