Emerald Coast Guide

Bonifay

Bonifay is a small Panhandle city with a strong agricultural heritage and a community that takes care of its own. Off the beaten path for most visitors, it's a genuine slice of Northwest Florida life — with local diners, family businesses, and a pace that's hard to find anywhere closer to the beach.

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73° Overnight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms Wind 0 mph

Saturday Chance Showers And Thunderstorms 90°
Saturday Night Chance Showers And Thunderstorms then Partly Cloudy 73°
Sunday Patchy Fog then Chance Showers And Thunderstorms 92°

Forecast: National Weather Service

Bonifay is the seat of Holmes County and one of the most authentically rural towns in the Florida Panhandle — a place where I-10 and historic US 90 cross, agriculture still shapes the calendar, and the biggest weekend of the year revolves around a rodeo. If your image of Florida is beaches and theme parks, Bonifay is the corrective: cattle country, pine woods, and a downtown where the diners know their regulars by name.

The town’s claim to fame is its rodeo heritage. Bonifay has hosted one of the South’s great small-town rodeos for generations, an event that swells this quiet community with riders and spectators and reflects the working agricultural culture that still defines Holmes County. The Holmes County Historical Society Museum preserves that story and the wider history of the county for anyone curious enough to stop.

Where Bonifay fits on your map

Bonifay sits on I-10 roughly 45 minutes east of DeFuniak Springs and about an hour and a quarter inland from the beaches of South Walton and Panama City Beach. That makes it less a beach base than a genuine crossroads stop — and a good one. US 90 doubles as the main street, and the town eats far better than passing traffic would guess: locally roasted coffee at Fresh Grounds Coffee House, quesabirria tacos at El Chingon Mexican Grill, smoked meats at M&W Smokehouse BBQ, local seafood, Southern home cooking, and the Holiday Restaurant, a family-style diner that has fed Bonifay for more than 40 years.

Springs country

Bonifay’s best-kept secret is what surrounds it. Some of Florida’s loveliest freshwater springs lie just minutes west along I-10 and US 90: Ponce de Leon Springs State Park, where a 68-degree spring pool makes a perfect summer swimming hole, and Vortex Spring, a famous dive destination near the town of Ponce de Leon. Pair a morning swim or dive with lunch in Bonifay and a browse through the Bonifay Indoor Flea Market’s vendor stalls, and you’ve got a Panhandle day the beach crowds never see. For travelers crossing the Panhandle on I-10, Bonifay is the honest, unpolished, welcoming small town worth pulling off for.

Arts & Culture in Bonifay

Holmes County’s story is agricultural Florida at its most genuine, and the Holmes County Historical Society Museum is where that story is kept — from pioneer settlement and railroad days to the rodeo tradition that still defines Bonifay’s identity. It’s a worthwhile stop for anyone curious about the Panhandle beyond the beaches, and a good first stop before exploring downtown.

Arts & Culture Bonifay