Lead singer Zac Brown and bass guitarist John Driskell Hopkins co-wrote the song with Shawn Mullins and Wyatt Durrette.
[1] According to Brown, Durette phoned him at six o'clock one morning during his 30th birthday vacation in Key West, and provided him with the idea for the song.
Portions of the music video were shot at Daniel's Grocery off of Pilgrim Mill Road in Forsyth County, Georgia, and on Lake Lanier.
Mark Deming, in his Allmusic review of the album, compared "Toes" and "Where the Boat Leaves From" to Buffett's material, saying that both songs were "devoted to the joys of getting buzzed and playing music in some seaside locale with good weather.
[5] Billboard critic Ken Tucker said that it was a "tropical treat" in Buffett's tradition,[6] and Bobby Peacock of Roughstock said that it "may just be one of the best summer songs to hit country radio in quite some time.