Overall, we had a great vacation! Check-in was super easy. The condo & decor was lovely as pictured. The baseboards and bathroom floors (especially grout) need a thorough cleaning but otherwise it was clean and well-kept. The master bedroom bed was very comfortable. It’s a small detail but I was disappointed to find there were no drawers in the master bedroom, so we couldn’t unpack. Our kids (10 & 6) loved the bunk beds!
For our family, the location just wasn’t ideal. On one hand, it’s perfectly situated along 30a, close to restaurants & shopping in both directions yet away from congestion. Unfortunately, I booked based on reviews saying how easy it was to get to the beach and the great pool, so I feel compelled to share our experience. For context, we have kids and like to go to the beach/pool everyday, sometimes multiple times per day. The closest beach (our fav) is Deer Lake beach access, which is gorgeous and uncrowded... likely bc of the $3 entry fee and small parking lot. Thankfully, we arrived by golf cart early enough to get a parking spot most days. The board walk from the parking lot to the beach is stunning but looong. Once your toes finally hit the sand, there is no beach chair service available, which means you have to make that long trek with beach chairs strapped to your back. Depending on your life stage, if your like us, you’re carrying chairs for yourself and your kids, along with beach toys, boogie boards, towels, cooler, heavy bag, etc. Between the 1 mile drive and feeling like a pack mule as you trek to the beach, it’s far from relaxing. If you sleep in like we did one morning, you’ll likely arrive to find a closed gate and be denied entry. We tried two other public beach access points that day. There was no parking available at Walton Dunes access. The other access point was open but the beach was terribly overcrowded. This was the first beach vacation where I’ve had to worry about beach access. Sadly, we couldn’t just head to the pool instead. While the pool is very nice...it’s not heated. The water was freezing despite the beautiful mid-seventies weather. On this trip, I learned it’s important to our family that a rental property have private beach access with beach chair service, and a heated pool unless visiting in the warmest months.