Little piece of paradise in Destin

Ok.. Technically, we stayed at Fort Walton Beach which is about 10 minutes drive from Destin. Last week, we packed up the kids, the cooler, the car and armed with DVD movies and headed down to Destin, FL. This place has been on my to-do list for a really long time. I wanted it all.. I wanted to stay in a nice place with ocean-front view. I wanted to spend as less money as possible. I wanted to enjoy and relax by the pool... Could that be done? Well, we did it.

I started off by checking on TripAdvisor.com. This is a great site with a lot of local and real travelers input. I learned about a brand, spankling new condo that recently opened in April called 'Waterscape'. It has everything I am looking for.

An ocean-front property.. checked!

A to-die-for pools for the kids and kids-at-heart adults.. checked!

A great gym with great view for Mr. Rojo.. checked!

A room with kitchen and great decoration.. checked! (ok.. I'm shallow that way. I want to stay in a nice place)

A reasonable rate that we can afford.. checked!

I waited untill a couple weeks leading up to our planned vacation to book because I knew that we were going during the off season so there were plenty of rooms available. Sure enough, I was able to snag a 2br/2.5bt condo with the best view for the same price as 1br/1bt condo if I would have booked it 1 month ago. There were so many rooms available from various resources. I checked VRBO, Resort Quest and a few other rental companies.

I decided to go with Resort Quest because of their reputation and extras like free tickets to local attraction. The checking-in process couldn't be easier. We arrived about an hour earlier than check-in time and they let us check in right away. After we picked up the keys and card, we were ready to unload to our new home in the next few days.

The condo has 6 floors and we were on the 5th floor with a great ocean view. We were so close that we could hear the sound of the wave every night.. Ah.. Heaven! It was unfortunate that we got rained in 2 days during our stays. But we still managed to get around town and checked out other stuffs around Destin area. (that will be another post)

It was fortunate that we chose to go during an off-season in Destin. We practically owned the whole pool and the whole floor.. It felt like we were at our own beach house that was really really big! There were little traffic and no wait to eat at the restaurant. The beach was not crowd. We truly enjoyed having the piece of the paradise all to ourselves here.

So stay tune for more to come in detail at Destin..