Gulf Shores Keeps Beach Alcohol Ban During College Spring Break
Spring break for Alabama colleges and universities are just around the corner and Gulf Shores is advising students heading to the beach that the city council there has continued its alcohol ban on the white sands there.
The ban extended via resolution at yesterday's council meeting runs March 1 through April 28 and covers the full 2026 Spring Break season. It applies to all sandy beach areas within city limits but not to restaurants and bars along Beach Boulevard.
The resolution extending the prohibition states it, "bears a substantial relation to health, safety and welfare of visitors and residents and that a limited prohibition of the possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages on the Gulf beaches during Spring Break is a valid exercise of police power that will substantially promote the health, safety and welfare of the community and particularly that of the residents and young visitors."
The restriction was first put in place during Spring Break 2016 following chaotic and sometimes violent spring break crowds. The ban was to reduce underage drinking and maintain a family-friendly atmosphere, and it has worked. Gulf Shores has set annual visitation records since 2016 according to Gulf Shores Orange Beach Tourism.
The area covered by the ban runs from, "... east of the eastern boundary of the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge, west of the western boundary of Gulf State Park, and seaward of the line of sand stabilization fencing installed by the City as part of the beach projects established on the Gulf front beaches within the corporate limits of the City of Gulf Shores."
The ban does not extend eastward to include Orange Beach or unincorporated Baldwin County beaches, including the popular Fort Morgan beach house stretch.
Just down the beach to the east, in Florida, Panama City Beach has adopted similar alcohol restrictions after drunken, riotous college youth created problems there.
UA Spring Break is March 13-22, Stillman and Shelton State Spring Breaks are March 16-20.
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