I met a couple from Alabama at the Chicago Seminars last year. They gave me several recommendations of things to do in Alabama, one of which was to visit Dauphin Island.
Learning our lesson from Tybee Island, we checked to make sure their beaches were dog-friendly. It turned out that dogs are welcome on all beaches on Dauphin Island other than the west beach so long as they remain leashed.
With that confirmed, we got our beach stuff together and made our way south. We were staying at the Country Inn & Suites Saraland which is just north of Mobile, so it took us about 45 minutes to get to Dauphin Island.
Sand
When we arrived at the beach, we got additional confirmation that Truffles was welcome to join us 🙂
The beach was pretty quiet as we were visiting just after lunchtime on a Friday in late March.
After walking along the beach for a couple of minutes, we set up our Manta sun shelter (affiliate link) and ate the lunch we’d packed. One of the items we brought with us on our 50 state road trip is a sand anchor that’s normally used for beach umbrellas. We’ve since repurposed it; it’s still used on the beach, only now we attach Truffles’s leash so she can’t run off.
Truffles wanted to play with her ball despite being attached to the sand anchor, so she was ran a few feet back and forth catching it. Apparently part of the game involved her dropping the sandy ball in Shae’s bag of chips.
Truffles eventually decided to chill, so she and I had a snooze while Shae read a book.
We stayed at the beach for a few hours, then made our way to a local restaurant for dinner.
Seafood
Shae had done some research before setting out for the day and found a pet-friendly restaurant for dinner. JT’s Sunset Grill is a seafood restaurant on De Soto Ave with plenty of outdoor seating.
Their menu consisted mostly of seafood options, all of which looked tempting.
We started off with a side of fried pickles which came with a thick coating – just how I like them. They were served with Bomb sauce which, from what we can remember, tasted like some kind of spicy ranch dressing and was the perfect complement.
For my entree, I went for a seafood platter which came with grouper, shrimp and fried oysters along with sides of fries, hush puppies and coleslaw. It was more than I needed to eat, but it was so delicious that I ate it all anyway.
I’m not usually a big fan of hush puppies but the ones at JT’s Sunset Grill were the best I’ve ever had. They were incredibly flavorful and the chopped jalapeños inside gave them a nice kick.
Shae went for the soft shell crabs which normally come with sides of fries, hush puppies and coleslaw. She wasn’t interested in the coleslaw though, so our server offered to substitute it for some extra hush puppies.
Although she loves regular crab legs, this was Shae’s first time having soft shell crabs so she was a little apprehensive. Her concern was misplaced though as she enjoyed them, although she still prefers crab legs.
The restaurant’s desserts sounded good, but we were both so stuffed from all the food that we couldn’t manage anything more. It was also starting to get late and we wanted to get some sunset photos, so we asked our server for the check.
Kassey was our server and was excellent – if you ever eat at JT’s Sunset Grill, see if you can be seated at one of her tables. She was very sweet, friendly, attentive and helpful, plus she brought Truffles a large bowl of water and ice without us asking. The two of them were buddies by the end of the meal.
Sunset
Dauphin Island’s west beach is meant to be one of the best places in Alabama to watch the sunset, so after dinner we headed in that direction.
We’d been told that damage from Hurricane Nate last year meant it might not be possible to park near the beach. We were able to drive to the end of Bienville Blvd though and parked right next to the beach.
Despite parking at the end of the road, that’s not the far end of the island as the beach apparently stretches out a further ~8 miles. Well, maybe it did before the hurricane, but it didn’t look like it was that long the night we visited.
I can see why it’s a popular place to watch sunsets as it’s a beautiful view out over the water.
Final Thoughts
I’m sure Dauphin Island has more to offer which we missed, but we loved our day there nonetheless.
It has beautiful beaches that were even better the day we visited as they were so quiet. Both Shae and I had great meals at JT’s Sunset Grill, then got to watch a beautiful sunset.
If you’ll be in south Alabama and want a beach day, Dauphin Island’s the perfect place to visit.
Thank you for the review JT