Where to rent a house in the Destin/Ft Walton area

[triplefigs]

for a family trip? My brother called today and is treating us all to a week at the beach in June for my triplet's 6th birthday! It will be my family, my brother and SIL, my parents, and my grandmother. He wants to go very nice and get at least a 5 bedroom house. We're thinking the Destin/Ft Walton area.

Any suggestions for places to check for rentals? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Dan Murphy]

 

[perdidobay]

this would be were I would look first
this company started out in the Destin/ Ft Walton area and has a ton of properties to choose from.....

http://www.resortquest.com/portal/p...chema=PORTAL&cpgn=http://www.resortquest.com/


and this would be my second
http://www.vrbo.com/

 

[LaLa]

We have been going to Destin on vacation every year for the past 7 or so years and we always rent through resortquest.com

They have lots of condos but they also have beach homes to rent as well. We found one particular house that we liked and got to where we would rent that one every year. Well, a couple of years ago, the owners sold it and we haven't yet found one yet that we like as much as that one. Condos are great but nothing beats being able to step out from that private deck onto the sand.

We usually stay in the Crystal Beach area off Hwy 98. It's the newer section
of Destin and we just love it. There are some really awesome beach homes in a little beach community called Destiny by the Sea. They are BEAUTIFUL but we have never stayed there bc they are also PRICEY.

We just love Destin. The beaches are absolutely gorgeous. The water is emerald green. There is lots of stuff to do. We like to eat out on vacation and will usually spend the day on the beach, get cleaned up, go out to eat, and then take the kids to Big Kahuna's or The Track for the rest of the night. They have go karts, arcades, bumper boats, amusement rides, goofy golf and bungee jumps

You can also go deep sea fishing and go on a Dolphin Cruise. There are lots of really great restaurants and SHOPPING. They have a huge outlet mall where I always seem to get into trouble.

Hope ya have a great time.

Just take a look around on that website and I'm sure you will find something that suits you.

Matter of fact, think I'll book something for us as well!

 

[mchames]

We rented a house on Santa Rosa Beach last July and loved it. I used Vacation Rentals by Owner http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/florida/panhandle You deal directly with the owner of the house, though many are also represented by rental agencies as well. There's a description of each property, usually with pictures and a calendar to show availability. We've used this website for mountain cabin rentals and other beach destinations as well. I've never had a problem with any of the owners I've dealt with... but it's alot like renting DVC points there is some level of trust involved.

Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck.
Mary

 

[DisneyArk]

We love going to Destin! This year we're going with 3 other families and renting a 6 bedroom house on the beach.

In January we started looking for houses and found that most of the "perfect" houses are already rented for the entire summer (good price and on the beach). Start thinking about what your requirements are. For us we want to have a pool plus be on the beach. We also didn't want to spend a fortune! I would recommend pool access for you since you have small children. There have been several years when the ocean had tons of sea weed and jelly fish and my kids did not want to swim in the ocean. The pool can be a nice break!

I'll PM you with some rental agency web sites! We also looked at VRBO - it's a site where owners list their personal rental properties.
http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/florida/panhandle/panhandle-destin-area

Oops, I see other people responded while I was responding.

 

[hercamore]

I would consider renting a house thru vbro.com at the Sandestin Resort. We did this two years ago and it worked out great.

Sandestin area is less congested and less traffic to deal with than Destin.

herc.

 

[ckmommy]

We rented through
http://www.oceanreefresorts.com/home_html.html

in September. I liked their site and all of the photos of each property. Click the number of bedrooms that you want, then you can choose the name of the place you want to veiw. To see the photos of the house, scroll down on the right side and click show next to view more images.
This is the house we rented:
http://www.oceanreefresorts.com/rentals/beach_homes/sea_watch/Sea_Watch_slideshow.html

We were really impressed. We were literally across the street from the beach!! We had My family of 7 (one in a pack n play), my mom and dad, FIL, my sister and BIL and her three kids. We were not crowded at all.

Have fun planning!!

 

[triplefigs]

Thanks, everyone. We ended up renting a house in Seacrest Beach. I appreciate all the help!