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FTF honored Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, Destin, Florida with a Top 10 award as one of the best places for a family getaway in 2002.

Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort
Destin, Florida
800/622-1038; 866/931-3678

Looking for a touch of class and down-home hospitality?  For generations, the Destin area's sun, powdery white sand and emerald Gulf of Mexico waters have been enjoyed by southern families who crowd its busy hotels each summer.  The 2,400-acre resort of Sandestin, farther west on Florida's Gulf Coast, is different - it's renowned throughout the south for its first-class service, tennis, golf, children's activities, shops and fine restaurants.  This comprehensive resort offers a small town, genteel ambience while enthusiastically welcoming families. 

The community of high rises, private homes and hotels is clean and impeccably maintained.  The 7.5-mile beach and bayfront invites you to swim, nap and build sandcastles.  Get active with a sea kayak and paddle out to find sandollars on the sandbar, parasail over the clear waters, snorkel, hop onto a bike (infant bike seats and helmets for children are available) and explore the four championship golf courses, or choose from one of 15 clay, hard and grass tennis courts.  Adventurous families can rent jet-skis from the resort's professional marine staff and tour a shoreline full of grand homes, or take a three-hour ecotour to see the region's undeveloped sand beaches, alligators and bird life.  Jolee Island Nature Park, a five-acre, pine-forested island with a pirate-ship style playground, old fashioned porch swings, and a large lawn for croquet is great for family time.  Grandparents and grandkids can play golf; Sandestin is famous for its Juniors' golf, tennis and sailing clinics and programs.  Besides four major courses, there's a fun miniature golf course, as well as a groomed 18-hole putting course near the marina.  Even in the fall, it's warm enough to swim mid-day, and cool enough to enjoy tennis, and with 323 days of sunshine a year, many families return at every school break.  The Village of Baytowne Wharf recently expanded to provide even more family diversion.

Sandestin offers many free family activities as well as a fully-supervised children's program, for a fee.  Kids 6 to 10-years-old enjoy full days of games, waterplay, crafts, off-property trips and lunch, while half-days, also including lunch, are available for 3 to 5-year-olds.  Kids (3 to 10-years-old) have even more fun during Children's Evenings Out, where they eat dinner, play games, participate in activites and watch movies between 6 and 10pm. Private babysitting can be arranged upon request.   Kids of all ages and their parents enjoy other stops around the property including the Arcade Zone, live concerts at the Events Plaza, cooking classes in the demo kitchen,  bike riding and nature walks along scenic paths, and browsing at the 50 shops.

The Sandestin complex of over 740 one, two, three and four-bedroom private homes, condos and villas for rent is arranged in "neighborhoods" around the beach, the golf course and the bayfront marina, and served by free shuttles.  The Bayside Inn also offers large and comfortable double rooms with kitchenettes and serves a buffet breakfast.