We have been to Destin before and decided to go back and stay at the same condo we did last time. Silver Beach Tower is nice and they have huge floor to ceiling windows which is really cool and makes the condo bright and airy. However, I don’t think I would ever go back again. Destin has become really touristy and gimmicky. It really felt like I was in Branson, MO.
A fun restaurant with good food, but overall kinda tacky. It’s one of those restaurants that you can write all over the walls and it has a ton of bright colored décor. There is even an alligator pit where you can go and feed the gators. We did end up getting some fun t-shirts and I do always enjoy restaurants that give out the plastic cups with the drinks. I got the mac n cheese burger with fries and a voodoo punch.
Good pizza that we got carryout and took back to the condo. Pineapple, garlic, cream cheese and pulled pork.
Loved the décor and branding of the restaurant. The food was great too! Spring roll appetizer, Maui burger and fries. I got a shirt, cups, sticker and a matchbook. They had a flamingo tap at the bar and I immediately had to look it up to see if I could find it. Sure enough, the company has a website where you can just purchase the tap. I ordered one for myself that evening.
It was a fun experience, but never need to go back. I had the Cookie Monster Bowl which was fine, but not really worth the price.
We went here several times since we were able to walk on the beach from our condo. The restaurant is nice since it is on the beach but covered. They also have the branded plastic cups. I had chicken tenders, fries and a virgin pina colada. The food is fine, not great because due to its location, it doesn’t need to be. We all also got shirts.
A nice restaurant on water. I ordered a pineapple and coconut drink – the Shaken Colada, the panned chicken with penne and pot stickers. This is another restaurant that serves drinks in the plastic souvenir cups which I always enjoy.
We went to the Donut Hole the last time we were in Destin and they had great blintzes – not anymore. My mom and I both ordered pancakes and hashbrowns, but it was a ton of food and we really should have just shared one order. We did also go back another day just to get donuts, pineapple upside down cake and cookies which were all good.
This restaurant is on the Florida Alabama border and it was fairly empty when we were there. It was pouring which might have had something to do with the lack of crowd. We ordered the Loaded Tots, Key Lime Shrimp, Four Cheese Mac, Island Girl Drink. All of which were really good.
Another restaurant on the beach with souvenir cups! I ordered a Pina Colada, Reggae Rolls, Coconut Shrimp, Fries, Street Corn and Hush Puppies.
We always like to try to find a good bagel place for breakfast. We tried to go here one day, but they had weird hours. We did find a different time to go and it was good. I got an Asiago bagel with turkey, provolone and swiss.
We typically like to try to find at least one Italian restaurant every trip we go on. This one was not in a very scenic location, just in the middle of a strip mall, but the food was excellent. They had live music that evening and were also showing Harry Potter on the TVs which I have never seen a restaurant show anything besides sports so that was fun. I had bread with oil, Gnocchi Bolognese and the Panna Cotta.
A nice view of the water and fairly empty probably due to the time we ate though. I had the Local Blue Crab Claws, Bobo’s Burger and a Banana Colada.
Caribbean Coconut Colada, Stop Light Nachos, Pulled Pork Sliders, Fries and Hush Puppies
We did some shopping while we were there. I always go to any Lilly store in the area. There was one at Grand Boulevard as well as Anthropologie and Peter Millar. My mom and I like to go to the Home Goods, Marshalls and T.J. Maxx in other areas because they always have different things than we get at our stores. The one that we found the most fun things at was the one in Springfield, MO. I did find a light up Medusa head Halloween decoration which was difficult to pack. This trip we ended up buying a lot of difficult items to pack.
We also went to a couple of antique stores. I found a brass lobster at Smith’s Antiques that I really liked but it was $80. I ended up looking for one on Ebay that evening and bought one for $18. At the Blue Moon Antique Mall I found a ghost Halloween blow mold that was fairly inexpensive compared to others I have seen. This was the most difficult item to get home. I had to carry it on the plane with me. At the Oooodles Antique Mall my mom got two Shag cocktail books and a ceramic mid-century modern ceramic flamingo with a pond bowl. There was a tiki room at Rosie’s Antique Emporium and I ended up buying 2 flamingo tiki mugs (one broke on the way home) 1 koala tiki mug. We also did some shopping at Destin Commons. I specifically wanted to go there for the colorful flamingo mural.
I wanted to go to Harbor Village in the evening since they said that they would shoot off fireworks over the harbor and I wanted to take photos. We had to pay $20 just to park and I felt like I was in Branson, MO. It was really crowded and filled with junky souvenir stores. We waited about 30 minutes after the fireworks were supposed to start and of course they never did. It was a waste and I would not go back.
We went to a couple of different beaches to walk around and take some photos. Rosemary Beach and Opal Beach were nice.
From the Navarre Pier we could see dolphins, turtles and a ton of jellyfish. While we were there, two different turtles were stuck on fishing line and crews were working to set them free.
Pensacola Lighthouse is actually on a naval base. We were unsure about how to get to the lighthouse. The website showed that you could tour it, but the GPS kept telling us to drive through the Naval base which we didn’t think we were allowed to do, but we saw a lot of cars in front of us go through, so we decided to try. And that is actually the only way to get to the lighthouse. As you drive up the guard will stop you and then he will give you directions on how to get to the lighthouse.
We booked Sky High Parasailing early in the morning in hopes that it would be a little cooler. There was one group that booked the tour after ours so they called to ask us to switch to the later time, but we had already made plans for the rest of the day. We ended up being the only group on the boat so we got a private parasailing tour which was really nice since they let us fly longer. It was definitely not as pretty as some of the other parasailing trips we have been on before on tropical islands, but it was still fun.
Every trip we always like to go on some sort of boat tour. My dad always wants a fast boat and I always want a boat with some type of trampoline/net situation up front that I can lay on. Smile and Wave Sailboat was the company I picked and we got the private tour. The boat was a really nice sailboat with several places to sit up front. I sat on the nets for a while and even sat on the very front of the boat. I was soaked by the end of the trip from all of the waves crashing up against the front of the boat, but it was nice since it was hot out. We saw a ton of jellyfish and dolphins. A few of the dolphins were jumping out of the water which was fun to see. The captain was really nice and she often took people out of the boat specifically for photo shoots. She suggested several places to take photos on the boat and we were able to get some really fun photos that we couldn’t have gotten on a large group tour.
