My partner and I took a spontaneous trip to Panama City Beach the weekend of April 30, 2010. We didn't realize it was also Thunder Beach Week (motorcycles galore, and racket, LOUD RACKET!) We checked the travel sites for reservations but the rates were too high for our tastes for the Friday and Saturday nights, so we just decided to wing it. Drove down there, found all the bikers, and decided to start looking for a cheap place to stay that was close to the beach. After a couple no-lucks, we found the Florida Palms. It is an old motel across the street from beach access 76. The managers are an older Indian couple, very nice, he insisted I take a look at the room before any paperwork was done to be sure I'd be happy with my stay there. The rooms are tiny compared to today's more modern motels and hotels, but all we were doing was sleeping and showering there anyway. We had a king bed, full-size refrigerator with table and chairs, TV, a very small bathroom with stand up shower, pedestal sink and toilet (what more do you need). The motel is a little further down the beach away from all the touristy stuff so it was much quieter there, not as much biker noise. The bed was comfortable, we had a brand new AC unit so we were cool. Even though this is an old motel, I didn't see any evidence of bugs or critters at all, not even a cobweb. If you want to do Panama City Beach on a budget, check out this quaint motel. I don't have any photos of my own, but here is their website.
http://interoz.com/floridapalms/
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.