How to Pick Your 30A Town: Carts, HOAs, Rentals, Beaches

Ten towns line up along 30A, and each runs its own way. Buyers usually sort them by the feel, getting around, HOAs, rental rules, beach access, lakes and the age of the homes. Here's how they compare.

The feel of each town

• Grayton Beach is the oldest beach town on 30A, with cottages under big oaks and the Red Bar.
• Seaside is the town that started it all, one of the first American towns built on New Urbanism: narrow streets, front porches, a pastel color on almost every house, and packed in season.
• WaterColor is about 1,000 homes in five phases around Western Lake, with trails and a free trolley.
• Rosemary Beach is a walk-and-bike town with St. Augustine, West Indies, New Orleans and Charleston influences.
• Alys Beach is white masonry courtyard homes, every one built to the FORTIFIED storm standard.
• WaterSound Beach is gated and tucked away, with New England-style cedar shake homes.
• Seagrove Beach is one of the oldest beach neighborhoods on 30A, started in 1949.
• Blue Mountain Beach has the bluff at White Cliffs, the highest point on 30A.
• West 30A is the quietest part of 30A, with the dune lakes and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park.
• Inlet Beach is the last stop before Bay County, with older houses and a lot of new building.

Golf carts, or walking and biking

Alys Beach and Rosemary Beach don't allow carts at all. Alys banned carts and LSVs at the end of 2018, and Rosemary banned them on March 1, 2014. People walk and bike in both.

In WaterSound Beach, owners can drive golf carts inside the gate and ride the boardwalks to the beach, but rented carts aren't allowed. In Seaside, owners can drive carts, and visitors can't without a medical permit. WaterColor allows only one street-legal electric LSV per home, registered with the association and never on the paths.

In Grayton Beach, a street-legal LSV can use the county streets. In Blue Mountain Beach, Seagrove Beach, West 30A and Inlet Beach, an LSV can use roads posted 35 mph or less, never US 98. A plain golf cart isn't legal on public roads.

HOA or no HOA

The older towns lean no-HOA. Old Grayton has no HOA, no dues and no buyer fee. Most of the old streets in Seagrove have none, and neither do the old core of Blue Mountain Beach or many older streets on West 30A and in Inlet Beach. Condos and newer neighborhoods have their own, and some in Inlet Beach add a CDD fee.

The planned towns all have associations and design review. WaterColor dues are $1,200 a quarter plus $310 for cable and internet. Rosemary Beach houses show $1,592 a quarter. Alys Beach dues are $3,562.13 a quarter in 2026, plus a $50,000 capital contribution and a $13,700 foundation fee. WaterSound Beach bills quarterly dues plus a buyer fee. For Seaside, no published dues or governing documents turned up, so ask for them early.

Short-term rental rules

Every short-term rental registers with Walton County each year. Beyond that:

• WaterColor: Phases 1 to 4 allow rentals, and Phase 5 doesn't. Stays under six months are registered with the association.
• Seaside: renters must be 25, with minimum stays of five nights in spring and summer.
• Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach: rentals are allowed, often through in-town programs.
• WaterSound Beach: rentals go through private managers, often with seven-night minimums in summer.
• Grayton, Seagrove, Blue Mountain, West 30A and Inlet Beach: most homes can rent, but some neighborhoods restrict it, like White Cliffs, Lakewood Pointe Estates, Sea Dunes, Lake Place and WaterSound Origins.

Beach access

Alys Beach, Rosemary Beach, WaterColor, WaterSound Beach and Seaside have private beach for owners and their guests. Seagrove has around 20 public accesses. West 30A has more public beach than any other stretch of 30A. The Inlet Beach Regional Access, the county's biggest, has free parking. Blue Mountain's two public accesses have about 20 spaces each, and Grayton has the new Beachmama access by the Red Bar.

Lakes

West 30A has Draper, Stallworth, Oyster and Allen lakes. WaterColor wraps around Western Lake, and people paddleboard and kayak on it from Grayton. Blue Mountain Beach has Big Redfish Lake, Seagrove has Eastern Lake, and Inlet Beach sits beside Lake Powell, the largest coastal dune lake in Florida.

Old homes or new

Grayton has cottages from the 1920s and '30s. Seaside's wood cottages date from 1981 to the early 2000s. Rosemary Beach houses were built from 1998 to 2015. WaterColor is nearly built out, so "new" there usually means a teardown or a remodel. In Seagrove, West 30A, Blue Mountain and Inlet Beach, older homes keep giving way to big new ones.