Things to do in Biloxi
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Biloxi
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Cool, quiet and cheapest outside Mardi Gras, with crawfish season opening.
Best all round window: crawfish at peak, baseball returns, Blessing of the Fleet in May.
Peak heat and hurricane season, Ship Island and Shuckers at full schedule, mornings for golf.
Still hot and hurricane prone but crowds thin, with the Biloxi Seafood Festival.
Best weather of the year and Cruisin the Coast, the coast's biggest and busiest week.
Mild and underrated, with the Peter Anderson Festival in Ocean Springs in early November.
Mild festive value month, with Christmas on the Water boat parade in early December.
What's on
- Mardi Gras in Biloxi Fat Tuesday, 9 February in 2027
Weeks of coast parades and balls culminating on Fat Tuesday, book the final weekend ahead.
- Mississippi Gulf Coast Crawfish Music Festival spring, April
Boiled crawfish and live music in Biloxi at the peak of crawfish season.
- Blessing of the Fleet May
The shrimp fleet blessing at the harbour marking the working coast's season.
- Scrapin' the Coast Usually a weekend in late June
Custom low rider trucks fill Biloxi for a three day show weekend.
- Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo early July
Running since the 1940s, anglers weigh in at Jones Park in Gulfport.
- Biloxi Seafood Festival September
Town Green gumbo cook off, boiled shrimp and live music, running over four decades.
- Cruisin' the Coast Usually the first full week of October
Over 10,000 classic cars on a 30 mile Highway 90 route, rooms book months ahead.
- Fall Muster at Beauvoir Usually a weekend in mid October
Living history weekend with reenactments on the Beauvoir grounds.
- Peter Anderson Arts & Crafts Festival first full weekend in November
Over 400 artists fill downtown Ocean Springs, drawing close to 100,000 visitors.
- Christmas on the Water early December
Decorated boats sail from the Biloxi Lighthouse toward Point Cadet with fireworks.
Best things to do in Biloxi
Biloxi Lighthouse
An 1848 cast iron lighthouse in the highway median, climbed on morning tours for the panorama that orients the whole trip.
Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art
A Frank Gehry campus among live oaks built around George Ohr, the Mad Potter of Biloxi, with a working ceramics studio.
Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum
Three floors on the schooners, shrimping and hurricanes that made Biloxi, and the best orientation to what you will eat.
Beauvoir
Jefferson Davis's last home, guided house tours and oak grounds, significant as history and as a Katrina recovery story.
Biloxi Beach
A long groomed sand shelf for sunrise walks, sunbathing and calm shallow water, with swimming better saved for Ship Island.
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino
Biloxi's flagship casino resort, where a show, dinner and a beachfront walk make a complete night out without gambling.
Keesler Federal Park
The Biloxi Shuckers' intimate downtown ballpark, cheap tickets, a grass berm and local seafood at the concessions.
Hurricane Katrina Memorial
A granite wall as tall as Katrina's surge, engraved with coast victims' names, that changes how you read the whole town.
Where to stay in Biloxi
Beach Boulevard casino strip and downtown
first trip, walkable casinos and dining
Walk between Beau Rivage, Hard Rock, the ballpark and downtown restaurants, with the beach across Highway 90.
Back Bay and D'Iberville
value, bay views and gaming focused stays
Quieter than the beach strip with the IP and Scarlet Pearl, a five to ten minute drive to the beach.
West Biloxi Beach Boulevard
families and beach first stays
Spread out and calmer, with suite hotels and the smoke free Palace, but you will drive to most dinners.
Think twice about
- I-10 interchange motel clusters
Highway frontage in D'Iberville and at Biloxi's northern exits, nothing walkable and every activity becomes a drive.
- Far west Beach Boulevard toward Gulfport
Sparse, car dominated motels with poorly lit gaps, few crosswalks and dining thinning to chains.
Best restaurants in Biloxi
Mary Mahoney's Old French House
Biloxi's grande dame in a French colonial era house, famous for gumbo and lump crab under a centuries old oak.
White Pillars Restaurant and Lounge
Chef Austin Sumrall's farm to table cooking in a restored mansion, the dinner to build a Biloxi food trip around.
Thirty-Two
Prime steaks and tableside bananas Foster 32 floors above the Back Bay, the coast's definitive view dinner.
Half Shell Oyster House
Chargrilled oysters in Rockefeller, Bienville and Orleans styles, order the sampler inside the Hard Rock.
McElroy's Harbor House
Family run harbour seafood since 1974, chargrilled oysters and royal reds on a deck built for sunset.
Patio 44
Downtown's Creole all rounder, redfish on the half shell and a serious shrimp po boy before a Shuckers game.
Desporte Seafood
A working seafood market and deli where lunch means a shrimp po boy, an oyster wrap and shrimp and crab bisque.
Taranto's Crawfish
No frills boiled crawfish by the pound in season, boiled shrimp and po boys at picnic table energy.
Outdoor things to do in Biloxi
Fallen Oak Golf Club
Tom Fazio's trophy course beside DeSoto National Forest, open only to Beau Rivage guests, so book the room first.
Grand Bear Golf Club
Jack Nicklaus golf in the DeSoto pines, public play and a friendlier test than Fallen Oak at well under its price.
The Preserve Golf Club
A Jerry Pate course inside an 1800 acre nature preserve of wetlands and longleaf pine, with no houses on the course.
Sunkist Country Club
Biloxi's forgiving in town round, a semi private local club where Gulf Coast golf costs about the price of lunch.
Ship Island Excursions
The ferry from Gulfport to West Ship Island, dolphins in the wake and the clear swimmable water the mainland lacks.
Biloxi Shrimping Trip
A 70 minute working shrimp boat trip where the crew hauls a net and identifies the catch for the whole boat.
Gulf Islands National Seashore - Davis Bayou Area
Flat bayou trails, a fishing pier and calm paddling water in Ocean Springs, a half day nature reset from the strip.
Front Beach
The Biloxi day trip to Ocean Springs, over the Bay Bridge on foot or by bike to Front Beach and oak shaded downtown.
Best hotels in Biloxi
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino
The coast's most polished casino stay, with the deepest dining bench, a spa, a theatre and Fallen Oak access.
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi
The younger, louder casino hotel by Beau Rivage, with a party leaning pool scene and live music energy in the building.
White House Hotel
A restored 1890s beachfront mansion hotel with porches and a pool, and no gaming floor between you and your room.
IP Casino Resort Spa
The locals' favourite gaming resort on the Back Bay, strong dining and service at prices under Beau Rivage.
Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort
The coast's newest large resort across the Back Bay, modern rooms and top tier service a short drive from the beach.
Palace Casino Resort
Biloxi's only smoke free casino resort, a full resort with a marina that prices like a value property.
South Beach Biloxi Hotel & Suites
Condo style suites with kitchens and balconies on the west beach, built for families who self cater by day.
Is Biloxi expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $85 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $165 a person |
| Splurge | $340 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Beau Rivage Resort & Casino: a few days ahead
- Fallen Oak Golf Club: weeks ahead
- Grand Bear Golf Club: a few days ahead
- The Preserve Golf Club: a few days ahead
- Ship Island Excursions: a few days ahead
- Beau Rivage Resort & Casino: weeks ahead
- Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi: a few days ahead
- White House Hotel: a few days ahead
- Cruisin the Coast week rooms disappear months ahead in early October.
- Book the earliest Ship Island ferry ahead in summer, sailing from Gulfport not Biloxi.
- Fallen Oak needs a Beau Rivage room first, then a tee time weeks ahead.
- Reserve White Pillars, Mary Mahoney's and Thirty Two for weekend dinners.
Is Biloxi safe?
- Hurricane season runs June to November, leave early if officials say so.
- Check MDEQ beach advisories that morning and do not swim within 24 hours of heavy rain.
- Shuffle for stingrays, expect jellyfish in late summer, and give alligators a wide berth.
- Cross Highway 90 only at signals and supervise children, the beach is across a highway.
Biloxi travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- The town beach is not a swimming beach: swim at Ship Island instead.
- Casino buffets vary hugely by property and day, eat independent seafood first.
- Paying resort prices for a po boy before one cheap Desporte or Le Bakery lunch.
- Driving Highway 90 during Cruisin the Coast or a parade without checking closures.
Getting around Biloxi: public transport and more
- You need a car: the beach strip, Back Bay, Gulfport ferry and inland golf are all drives apart.
- Coast Transit buses cover Beach Boulevard for a strip based trip without a car.
- Gulfport Biloxi airport is about 20 minutes west, New Orleans airport about 90 minutes.
- Walk or cycle the Biloxi Bay Bridge path to Ocean Springs, mornings in summer.
Who Biloxi suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | Great |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Biloxi your trip
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