International
Magazine
Family Trips
Travel Adventures
Stories & Pix
Family Travel Adventures
International Magazine
Fabulous Vacation at Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort (TM) in Florida
By Bonnie Neely, Photos by Bill Neely
For one of your most memorable holidays, plan to take your family or favorite significant other to the fabulous Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort(Tm) on Florida's beautiful Northwest Coast. The Resort, well known for its thirty years of hosting visitors in the most luxurious style, has undergone a multi-million dollar building program and offers marvelous accommodations for almost any budget...from rooms with little kitchenettes (Bayside Inn at about $85 per night) to large condominiums, and the fabulous West Winds Penthouse (about $800 a day). Each of these offer the wonderful amenities of this excellent resort with all the recreation you could ever want. 
The new Convention Center and Condominium Hotel is the perfect location for meetings, weddings, and any size conventions, where the working member can walk next door to the meetings while the rest of the family can walk, bicycle, or get a free Sandollar Express tram to any kind of fun passtime or recreation you can think of! The Convention Center, with Magnolia Ballroom...the largest on the Gulf Coast, also has meeting rooms which can be used even for smaller engagements like family reunions.The Village of Baytowne Wharf
Sandestin, which was purchased by Intrawest Corporation five years ago, has added the new Village with thirty shops and restaurants, which have been carefully selected from over a thousand reviewed for their uniqueness and excellence in representing the culture of the Southeastern United States. You'll find in each one-of-a-kind shop special items you'll find nowhere else, making your shopping experiences exciting.
The Village, designed by Eldon Beck, is expertly arranged in five "neighborhoods," with each featuring a local historic theme and carefully planned for traffic flow, breezes, and sun/shade comfort, beautiful views, and an experience of discovery for visitors. There is the Old Fishing Village on the Baytowne Wharf area, reminiscent of the early days along this coast. The culmination is the French Tupelo Terrace area, where high-end connoisseurs even find special tricks or treats for their pampered pets at Bark Avenue.
The Village is open to anyone, whether staying as residents in the Resort or not. The Events Plaza in its center is a popular place for coastal residents, who find free fun happenings and concerts on Wednesday nights year-round. A large parking lot is provided at Horseshoe Bayou Dock and visitors ride a free water shuttle boat, " Miss Connie" and "Maco Mazie" across the Bay.
Great Dining Experiences!
The eateries selected for the Village are par excellence, with the very tastiest food you'll find anywhere in the Southeast. There are choices for every palate. It would be impossible to decide a favorite restaurant because the cuisine is unusual, delicious, and beautifully presented in each. 
Try Southern pulled pork Bar-B-Q at Jim N' Nick's. Have you ever heard of a bar-b-q salad? Fabulous!!
Try Southern pulled pork Bar-B-Q at Jim N' Nick's. Have you ever heard of a bar-b-q salad? Fabulous!! 
Bistro Bijoux (850-622-0760) serves excellent seafood and European cuisine in an up-scale bistro atmosphere. Famous for its Caves, Bistro Bijoux Restaurant and Spirits is the place to select the best wines for your meal or to take home. Lobster is the specialty at Poppy's Seafood Factory, where you can dine inside or in open air by the Bay, where you'll be enticed to dance to the popular music from sixties to present-day.Call 850-351-1996
At Gerard's Cookery and Cajun Market you'll want to become an experienced cajun chef in their cooking school and enjoy the specialities Patty Hay prepares. She also caters any kind of event you may wish to book. Her crab cakes and chicken salad are the best you'll ever taste! Call 850-351-1999. You'll want to purchase their famous "Slap Yo Mama" very hot spicy seasoning and Patty's new cookbook which shares her secret shortcuts for very tasty cuisine. Be sure to stop in the afternoon at Magnolia & Ivy Tea Room for elegant old South hospitality and high tea. It's a fun dress up experience.
At Marlin Grill we enjoyed one of the most delectable seafood dinners we have ever experienced, in a lovely, quiet atmosphere with beautiful presentation. Go here for a very special meal. (850-351-1990).
There are so many excellent eateries for you to sample you better plan a fast when you return home! Eating anywhere else will never live up to these fabulous restaurants and eateries.
Sports and Recreation
There are so many sports to enjoy at Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort(TM).
Tennis players at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort (TM) are not forgotten! You'll have the choice of playing on excellent clay, grass, or hard surface courts. You can reserve time with a private instructor or sign up for group clinics. Call 867-267-7110. Every guest is entitled to a free hour each day at most of the sports in the Resort.
Golf
With four exquisite championship golf courses, golfers from novices to pros can find just what they need. The Hank Johnson Clinic is nationally renowned. Burnt Pine Course, designed by Reese Jones and Robert Tripp Jones, is open to the public before 8 a.m. and after 1 p.m. The Raven, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., is carved through marshes, wetlands and pines and is a beautiful experience in nature. The Baytowne Golf Course is beautiful and more suitable for beginners. It has three challenging holes along the Gulf. Inquire about the group clinic for only $15, which has excellent professional instructors and gives you access all day to the putting green. You should reserve your tee times at all the courses about two weeks ahead. The Links, designed by Tom Jackson, is the ultimate challenging course with 13 out of the 18 holes featuring water hazards. There are rental units along this course that are popular with avid golfers, and the course also features the 32,000 square foot Linkside Conference Center which can accommodate 1,100 people.Beaches & Water Sports
Sandestin covers 2,400 acres with both Choctauhatchee Bay (just off Intercoastal Waterway) and Gulf beaches. On the Bay coastline, you'll find boat rentals of all types: fishing tours, sailing lessons, eco-tours by Wave-Runners (R), and kayaking to a nature preserve. Owners of yachts from 20 feet to 130 feet can reserve (at least a month in advance at the price of $1.75 per foot per night, all-inclusive) excellent overnight slips with valets to dock and service their vessels while owners play at the Resort, with all the priviledges that hotel guests enjoy. In the next two years the marina space will be tripled because of its popularity. Call 850-267-7777.At the Resort, fishing is a very satisfying and rewarding sport. You can select charters or rentals for all kinds of successful sport fishing in the Bay or Deep Sea fishing in the Gulf. The annual Blue Marlin Classic is a fun tournament.
Sandestin's private Gulf Coast beach of dazzling white, sugary sand, is carefully groomed each day, and you'll find lounge chairs and umbrellas, if you just want to relax and gaze at the crystal-clear, emarald waters of the gentle Gulf of Mexico. You won't find shells here because of the way the beach was formed naturally by geological events over thousands of years which deposited sands from rivers ending about fifty miles off-shore and then naturally filtering the white crystals out from heavier deposits and washing this unusually perfect sand up to form this exquisite beach . Kidzone
Children can enjoy free fishing for catch and release. Those who attend the KidZone activities will enjoy the tree-house and fun events on Jolee Island. Sailing lessons for certification range from one to five days for kids over age six and are in the Cove where the deepest water is only five feet. Other fun activities, supervised and instructed by carefully trained leaders who know CPR and First Aid, include: swimming,crafts, games, field trips, bowling & arcade, nature walks, petting zoo, and carnival. Hours for children 6 - 12 are from 8:30 - 3:30, and for children 4 and 5 years old the hours are from 8:30 to noon, allowing plenty of family time in the day. Call 852-267-4FUN to make reservations.
Permanent Residents
Sandestin Resort also has beautiful permanent homes, many along the four golf courses. Recently Betty Main, accompanied by her daughter Patty Thurston, was honored as the home-owner with the longest time in residence here. She and her husband built one of the first homes here in the very early days. Her home is on The Links Golf Course, which was only a swamp and accessible only by four-wheel drive then.
There are so many more wonderful features and activities at Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort. You'll just have to experience it for yourself because words cannot convey its beauty, relaxation, and fun. Spring and fall are special times, and the rates go down after Labor Day. Throughout the year you can ask about featured rates and events. All reservations for accommodations or sports can be made online . Click here. Located between Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola, Florida, the airport shuttle to the Resort is about $40. (Call Bayside Airport Shuttle 850-581-1505)
Real Travel Adventures Web Magazine
Thanks for visiting us!
If any links don't work
© 2004 Bonita Productions Inc.