Sandestin is basically a giant private city of its own… only it’s filled with tourists. Basically it consists of more than 10 high-rise hotels (5-6 on beach the rest on bay or out by golf course) and then many little condos, houses and other options. If you stay in any part of the resort you get access to the Choctawhatchee Bay, Gulf beach, golf courses, Baytowne Wharf & downtown, trolleys, bicycles, kayaks, canoes and more that is on Sandestin’s resort.

For people who like a vacation where they can relatively stay put, the resort contains everything you’ll need; and for those who want to spend time elsewhere here and there, its on Highway 98 which runs down then entire panhandle. Sandestin best has its own downtown-type area, “The Village at Baytowne Wharf.” The Village includes all kinds of restaurants, bars & shops; including a genuine New Orleans ACME Oyster House, a Nick's BBQ, Another Broken Egg Cafe (I'll get to that later), and a candy making shop. Even beyond the Village, on the resort is a full outlet mall, and probably over 25 restaurants. On the various part of the resort you can find concerts, lawn/drive-in-ish movies, minigolf, fireworks and more.

As you can see from the map, Sandestin is no small place; it encompasses the land of a small city. As big as it is, you don't have to do any driving if you don't want. Sandestin has free tram/trolleys heading to anywhere in the resort, but what Kelly and I loved and took big advantage of: bike paths! The resort has bike paths to go everywhere including tunnels under Highway 98 so you never have to deal with big traffic on your bike.

We stayed in a “Beachwalk Villa” which is essentially a nice condo that could have fit upwards of 6-8 people if needed.  It was much more than we needed but totally perfect for an open relaxed feel. 2 bedrooms, 2 stories with a complete kitchen 3 TVs (I guess if it rains… otherwise what the heck are you watching TV for?), maid service and a backyard facing a lake with ducks. In fact, all the Beachwalks are situated so they will back the lake. It was cheaper than any hotel in town and had we known it would be 2 bedrooms at minimum, we could have totally split it with someone and made it extremely cheap.

Being a private beach means a nice combed beach with no crap in the sand. Interestingly, having the same stretch of beach for so many people from the resort, you would think means congestion, but it sure never felt more crowded than any of the other beaches we've gone too.

While we brought our own, anyone on the resort gets 4 hours of free bike rental a day, 1 hour of canoe or kayak and some other things. We did make use of our free kayaking in the bay, which was cool & easy. The workers were totally casual about it; the girl just told us where the canoes and kayaks were and that was it. It never felt like we were being watched, I'm sure we could have stayed out for well more than the free hour and she wouldn't have cared.

Not all the resort benefits work out as the mini golf course is not free, and actually quite expensive at $7.50 a person. Plus the mini golf course itself generally sucked in all mini golf standards, mostly due to there being no bumper/barriers so you constantly went off into plants and bushes or sand and water. Now while we had “access” to play the pristine looking golf courses; they just aren’t in any kind of realistic budget for the common man. I wanted to play so bad, but with green fees starting at $100, I’d much prefer to play the 8-9 courses around our home each for the price of playing one of Sandestin’s.

While this little rant has nothing to do with the resort itself, I will tell you to NOT go to Another Broken Egg café. We saw so many people going so we decided to try it one morning and here is all it amounts to: not only the most expensive meal you will have while at the resort, but the worst service including up to an hour wait, being crammed 2 inches from the tables around you… and all for some food was not even memorable in the slightest. I got pancakes and two pieces of bacon, Kelly got a Belgian waffle, and we had a large milk and OJ... $29! My breakfast worked out roughly to $1.50 per piece of bacon, which again, would matter a lot less if it was good, but it wasn’t.

What I do recommend is a great little pizza place called Roberto’s. Its located in the Village, will deliver anywhere on the resort (via golf cart on the paths so its fast), and is probably some of the better pizza I've had in a good decade. There’s also a good Mexican-ish place over the water called Mangos, and if you’ve never been to New Orleans and want some good southern seafood, of course hit up the Acme Oyster Bar.

For those who want to get out of the resort, there are plenty eating options and great fun with The Track and also Big Kahuna’s Water Park less than a mile down 98.

Sandestin seems well made for big groups as you can split up and do many things while being in the same area, plus everyone exactly where they want to stay, be it the beach or bay, or in golf course and you can still easily stay connected. Sandestin is a ton of fun and relaxation, but if we had friends there it would have been even more fun, plus next time I know we get a full kitchen with dishes, so we'll just make our own dang breakfast.