If you go to the Grand it better be in the middle of winter. Summer time it is packed.

Mentone, Alabama area and the nearby Cloudland Canyon State Park area in Georgia is really nice and low key. There is actually a great restaurant up there in the middle of nowhere, Cloudland Canyon Grill, and a hole in the wall wood fired pizza place that the owner gets his dough flown in from Italy. Lookout Mountain Pizza, its some fine pizza. Wildflower Cafe in Mentone is really cool too.

Clouldland Canyon State Park is beautiful, hike the canyon rim trail.

Mexico Beach /Port St. Joe

If Bayou La Batre is too busy, Bon Secour should be what you are looking for.

Alligator Point

We were in Port st joe last week. Took a boat out to the point of cape san Blas. Probably the prettiest beach I've ever seen. Caught several nice trout in the bay. It may be more crowded than it used to be but it's still nothing compared to PCB/Destin/Gulf Shores

The Forgotten coast will be crowded this next week. It's not so forgotten anymore. This is why our beach property there has tripled in value.

For what the OP is asking I would recommend Natchez, Mississippi.

It's like a small cleaned up New Orleans with some great restaurants, great bars, neat self guided walking tours through the old town, nice antebellum homes, beautiful bluffs over looking the river, tons of history, nice bed and breakfasts to stay in. Make sure you stay in the old section of town so you will be in walking distance of the bluffs, the bars, the restaurants, shops, etc...

Check out the Eola Hotel. Old historic hotel with a super cool bar.

I was gonna say Natches as well. Hit some of the smaller casinos up and down the river.

We like ormond by the sea. Its 30 minutes North of Daytona, low density, very few condos, mostly single family homes, in many areas there are no houses on the Atlantic side of A1A. We have been there about 3 different times, 2 of those times we brought our beach chairs, umbrellas, buckets, etc.. to the beach on day one and just left them the whole week. All we brought back and forth was the cooler and electronics. The last time we went we were in a more populated area and didn't try it.

My 2nd suggestion would be Marathon Key, or maybe Islamorada Key. I love it there, but not a sandy beach kind of area.

Most any time we find a place that's not all touristy good food is not hard to come by.

Carabelle and East toward St. Marks. No condos and little traffic. Only beach area i like.

Rogersville,AL

Carrabelle sounds like where you are wanting to go. Only locals, it’s like an old fish camp town. They have a neat little restaurant/bar, Fathoms Steam Room and Raw Bar, great food and atmosphere. I was there a few weeks back during Thunder Beach, I really liked this place.

Thanks for all the info. Well check out some of the places.

Good deal. Hope it all works out. Post up some pics of the trip and the wife.

X2 for Alligator Point, we've been going there for years. You can sit on the beach all day and maybe see 2-3 other people. And the fishing down there is fantastic. If you go, make sure to stop by Posey's. Great food and all the waitresses wear short shorts and oyster boots.

Bit of a long drive, but Captiva island was the most relaxed stress free place I’ve ever been. Good restaurants and very good fishing. Never saw anything with an engine in it on the whole island except the fire truck. Everybody just rides around on golf carts.

Little River Canyon Area. Hard to beat

Captiva was a really cool place, went there probably 20 years ago. Only stayed one night as we were doing a whirlwind tour down the state. Ate and drank at the Mucky Duck.