Seacrest Beach has a 378,000-gallon lagoon pool, an amphitheater lawn and a poolside café. The Seacrest Beach HOA lists no merchant row inside the community itself. It sends residents next door for dining and shopping, to The Village of South Walton, Alys Beach and Rosemary Beach. The HOA calls all three "well within a 15-minute walk from anywhere in Seacrest Beach." The HOA's own events page had nothing listed for October or November 2026 when this was published.
For most of the year, that means walking a little farther for dinner. This month it pays off. The two town centers on either side of Seacrest each hold a merchant trick-or-treat, two days apart, at different times of day. A household in Seacrest can do both without a car, and without picking one town's Halloween over the other's.
Thursday evening belongs to Alys Beach
Alys Beach goes first. Its Howl-O-Ween + Merchant Trick-or-Treating runs Thursday, October 22, from 4 to 7 p.m. The evening comes in two parts.
- 4 to 5 p.m. is the Dog & Owner Costume Contest, judged on coordinated costumes for pups and their people. Contestant tickets are limited and presold.
- 3:30 p.m. is contestant check-in, at the south end of the Amphitheatre.
- 5 to 7 p.m. is Merchant Trick-or-Treat through Town Center.
Alys Beach notes that the event is subject to change or cancellation for weather. The Thursday timing also means it lands on the opening day of the Garden & Gun Society and Friends Gathering at Alys Beach, which runs October 22 through 25 with dinners, talks, tours, excursions and live music. Town Center will carry two crowds that Thursday evening.
Saturday daytime belongs to Rosemary Beach
Two days later, the trick-or-treating moves to the other side of Seacrest. Rosemary Beach's Trick or Treat! Halloween Bash runs Saturday, October 24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Participating merchants hand out candy through Town Center as part of the annual Trick-or-Treat Around Town. A Kids Halloween Bash runs 2 to 5 p.m. on the East Long Green.
Alys Beach's event is a weeknight that runs from late afternoon into evening and includes a dog contest. Rosemary Beach's is a weekend daytime event built around kids, and it wraps up by 5. Because the two barely overlap in time or audience, a Seacrest family with young children and a dog has a reason to go to both. A family that can manage only one can choose by schedule.
The stretch, on one calendar
Halloween week sits inside a busier October in Alys Beach. Here are the dates already on the books for the two towns that flank Seacrest:
Date | Day | Where | What | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Oct. 13 | Tuesday | Alys Beach | Wine + Song at NEAT | 5–7 p.m. |
Oct. 20 | Tuesday | Alys Beach | Wine + Song at NEAT | 5–7 p.m. |
Oct. 22 | Thursday | Alys Beach | Howl-O-Ween + Merchant Trick-or-Treating | 4–7 p.m. |
Oct. 22–25 | Thursday–Sunday | Alys Beach | Garden & Gun Society and Friends Gathering | Multi-day |
Oct. 24 | Saturday | Rosemary Beach | Trick or Treat! Halloween Bash | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. |
Oct. 27 | Tuesday | Alys Beach | Wine + Song at NEAT | 5–7 p.m. |
The Alys Beach events calendar describes Wine + Song as tableside tastings with live music. The Tuesday on either side of Halloween week gives adults the same short trip toward Alys on an evening without costumes.
Why the walk matters more this month than in July
The two-town Halloween only works if getting there is easy, and by late October Seacrest households are getting there on their own. The Seacrest HOA publishes a neighborhood tram schedule for March through October. Residents call from a tram stop, a tram arrives within 15 minutes, and service runs from 9 a.m. to a last beach pickup at 5:30 p.m., seven days a week. That season ends with October. The tram is also built for runs to the beach and the Lagoon, and the HOA's page is undated, so the 2026 schedule is worth confirming with the association directly. Either way, the tram doesn't figure into an Alys Beach event that starts at 4 and runs until 7.
That leaves feet and bikes, which this stretch of 30A handles well. The paved Timpoochee Trail runs the full length of Scenic 30A, from Santa Rosa Beach to Inlet Beach. SoWal's guide to the trail, last updated August 11, 2026, calls it "safe, wide, and relatively flat." SoWal's rundown of the east end covers Seacrest, Alys Beach, The Village of South Walton and Rosemary Beach, so both Halloween stops are on the same path that runs past Seacrest.
Walton County's Beach Operations team maintains the multi-use trail and clears the trail and adjacent right-of-way weekly, according to Visit South Walton. On a Thursday evening that ends after dark, a bike light and a reflective strip on a costume are cheap insurance.
What's new in Alys Beach Town Center since last Halloween
Thursday's trick-or-treat route runs through a Town Center that has changed since October 2025. SoWal reported on October 7 that the Merchants of Alys Beach added a new restaurant and two retail tenants.
Indaco is the restaurant. It's an Italian concept from the Indigo Road Hospitality Group, and it began welcoming guests at its Alys Beach location in July 2026. SoWal describes the menu as a modern take on Italian built around fresh seafood, wood-fired pizzas and handmade pastas. Indaco joins O-Ku, the same group's Alys Beach restaurant, which opened in 2024. That puts two Indigo Road restaurants in Town Center for this year's trick-or-treat. SoWal's report doesn't list Indaco's hours, so a post-candy dinner reservation is worth checking ahead.
Rowan is a California-based clothing brand opening its first location outside that state in Alys Beach. The shop will carry Rowan's menswear collection and is expected to open in October 2026. SoWal gave no exact date, so it may or may not be open by October 22.
KREWE has announced a fall 2026 storefront in Alys Beach, its first brick-and-mortar shop in Florida. It will offer expanded eyewear, optical frames and lens-cutting services. SoWal's timing is "this fall," so it may not be open for Halloween week.
After the candy, the calendar keeps going east and west
The pattern continues into November, with the same two neighbors setting the schedule.
Alys Beach Crafted comes back November 11 through 14, Wednesday through Saturday. The event listing centers on makers, food and drink, and craft and artisan experiences, with proceeds benefiting the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County.
The 30A 10K runs in Rosemary Beach on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26. According to the race site, Highway 30A will close from 7 to 10:30 a.m. from East Water Street in Rosemary Beach to the turnaround at Bridge Lane, east of The Big Chill. Watersound Parkway also closes for the 5K route. Seacrest is west of that closure. Westbound trips toward Alys Beach are unaffected that morning, but anything east of Rosemary's East Water Street will have to wait until after 10:30 or take another route. Packet pickup is Wednesday, November 25, at The Big Chill, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Halloween itself, October 31, falls on a Saturday this year. Neither town center had a separate event listed for that night when this was published. In 2026, both town-center trick-or-treats come in the week before.
If you're thinking about how Seacrest Beach's location between Alys Beach and Rosemary Beach shapes daily life, from a Thursday trick-or-treat to a second home you'd use year-round, The Kendall Hood Collection knows this stretch of 30A one community at a time. Schedule Your Concierge Consultation, and we'll walk you through it.
