From my very limited personal experience:
Pensacola: I love Pensacola. As everyone says, the beaches are incredible (although there's no surf to speak of). And, if you stick to the right areas, it's a nice little town in my opinion. Personally, I prefer the downtown bars and Pensacola Beach to any of that back-gate stuff, so my recommendation is to live downtown - short drive to the beach, short drive to work, short walk to all the good drinking spots. NASP is a very nice base with a lot of newish facilities since the hurricane, and the O Club was a pretty active place on Fridays while I was there. The museum is also pretty awesome. And at least when you're new there, it's pretty cool to watch the Blues practicing (tradition). I never did Mobile and wasn't a big fan of Biloxi, but I never had a bad night in New Orleans...rough mornings afterward, but good nights.
Whiting: Most people just lump NASWF in with Pensacola, which is pretty fair I guess, but they're about 45 minutes apart. Milton itself is not too interesting, but there is at least one REALLY good local restaurant - the Blackwater Bistro. It really doesn't seem like the kind of place that should exist in Milton, but they have great food, a good beer selection, and they're very military-friendly. Having to live in government housing (Whiting Pines) sucked. Some are renovated and decent, but most of the houses are crap that they can only getting away with charging that much because the military is forcing students to live there. On the other hand, it was kind of cool to live in a big neighborhood with all the people you work with. We had lots of fun cookout/poker/beer/hookah nights. But after the last flight on Friday, you head to Pensacola for the weekend. As far as the base goes, Whiting's pretty decent. It's small and there's not much going on, but it's nicely taken care of and also has some new facilities since the hurricane.
Kingsville: Kingsville sucks. There are 3 good restaurants - Bua's Thai, Butch's Steakhouse, and CB's BBQ. You go to San Antonio and Austin as much as possible. People say the flying's great, but as a student, I don't know that you notice that much - it was much more common for me to look outside and think, "Shit, there's no way I'm gonna get weather canceled today...I guess no more time to study for this" than "Looks like a lovely day for ON-10 and 11X." Also, bigger mosquitoes in thicker swarms than I ever dreamed imaginable, every damn time it rains. Let me reiterate: Kingsville sucks.
Corpus Christi: I only experienced Corpus while I was a student in Kingsville, and not very often even then, but I kind of hate the place. Fester said if you like P-cola you'll like Corpus...well, I'm sure he's spent much more time both places than me, but my view differs. Pensacola is a small, rather clean, Southern town - it's not super exciting, but it has more nightlife than most towns that size, and it has some Southern charm. Corpus is a large, filthy, utterly charmless, South Texas shit hole. And the base seems built to match (although that BBQ trailer outside the NEX is undeniably awesome). That said, my friends who went through primary there had a good time living on the island, but in my times up there I never saw any appeal, especially any worth the hour drive from Kingsville.
Virginia Beach/Norfolk: I'm just getting here, so I can't really make a good judgment yet probably. My perspective is also tainted by the year in South Texas - an apartment outside the back gate of Hell might seem nice right now. But from what I've seen, there are very nice areas of Norfolk. I'm going to be living in Ghent, which is a little far from Oceana, but against traffic so I don't mind. Haven't been aboard NS Norfolk since CORTRAMID, but NASO seems like a decent place, obviously much bigger than I've seen while in the TRACOM.
El Centro: Spent a bunch of time here on dets and I really don't think it's that bad. Part of that is the getting paid per diem to leave Kingsville, and I was also fortunate to never go there in the summer (October and January only), but I'll take El Centro even over Corpus. The town itself...nothing to write home about. But there is Burgers and Beer, which has yet to get old for me, thanks to their impressive beer list. The base isn't bad except for the never-ending jet noise and total lack of cellphone reception. And San Diego is 2 hours away. When I was there in January, I got to ski at Big Bear Lake one weekend and surf at Pacific Beach the next. Beats South Texas in my book.
North Island: Only here for one short but memorable det, but it's awesome. NASNI is pretty much the crown jewel of Naval Aviation. Pretty much everytime I'm in San Diego, I can't help but think I should have flown helicopters (or CODs). But yeah, there isn't much that needs to be said about North Island aside from that it rocks. And it's the only Navy base I've been to that is immediately adjacent to a REALLY nice neighborhood. Good place.
Key West: I've only been to NASKW for one short det so far, but it's also awesome. It reminded me of a combination of New Orleans and Pensacola - the activity of Bourbon Street without the nauseating filth (though to be fair, in all likelihood, many of the same diseases). Seems like a cool place to fly also, and eating lunch at the Club while RWY 7 is active and F-5s are in the pattern makes you glad to be in jet aviation. I've heard people get sick of KW after a while, but the small dose of it I got was enjoyable.
