In the game
Trailer 2 gives Port Gellhorn a pier: a long, straight run of concrete on tall pilings, a low-rise beach town behind it, the Gulf flat and pale in front. It is on screen for a moment, but fans jumped on it: a pier of that shape with motels and neon behind it is the Panhandle’s signature.
The match rests on silhouette and setting. Russell-Fields Pier, Panama City Beach’s city pier, is 1,500 feet of concrete at the foot of Pier Park, with Front Beach Road and its hotels stacked up behind it. That is the trailer’s composition, and it fits Rockstar’s own pitch for Port Gellhorn as a resort town whose best days are behind it. Rockstar has not named the pier, so treat this as a confident fan match rather than a fact.
The real place
Panama City Beach has had a pier at this spot for decades, and hurricanes have taken pieces of it more than once. The current concrete version opened in 2009 and has held up since, including through Hurricane Michael in 2018, which hit hardest well to the east.
Standing on it today, you get the view the trailer was going for: white quartz sand in both directions, water shading from clear green at the beach to deep blue at the end, and the whole strip laid out behind you. Dolphins are a common sight in the mornings. In spring and fall the rail fills with anglers after Spanish mackerel, pompano and kingfish. The detail a GTA fan will recognize is how the pier and town line up, the pier jutting straight out from the middle of the strip.
Go there
The pier sits on Front Beach Road at the Pier Park end of town, with big lots behind it, free most of the year and paid on peak days. Walking on costs a few dollars, fishing a bit more, and the pier’s own license covers you; confirm at the gate window because rates change. Go for the last hour before sunset, walk to the end and turn around.
Give it an hour or two. Pair it with a stroll through Pier Park next door, or a swim off the beach on either side. For food, Pineapple Willy’s on the beach a few miles east is the well-known spot for ribs and drinks with your feet near the sand; Schooners, further east, fires a cannon at sunset. Both are institutions and both get busy.
The honest warning is summer. July weekends mean gridlock on Front Beach Road, packed lots and heat that feels heavier than the number on the forecast. Spring break in March is its own thing, and the county has banned alcohol on the sand that month for years. If you can, come in October, when the water is still warm and the town has room to breathe.
Nearby
- Faded motels on Front Beach Road: the strip that stacks up behind the pier, and the other half of the Port Gellhorn look.
- Pier Park and the ghost of the Miracle Strip: the shops and the big wheel right at the foot of the pier.
- St. Andrews State Park: white sand and the jetties: the quiet end of the same beach, twenty minutes east.
Updated September 12, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.