Guide to Beaches of South Walton vacation rentals

Beaches of South Walton area is located almost at the center of Florida's Panhandle, between Panama City Beach and Destin. It’s a 26-mile stretch of tall, powdery-white dunes, vast stands of pine forests, cool underground springs, marshlands, bays, coastal scrub, backwater bayous and crystalline gulf waters. This area is comprised of 13 picturesque seaside villages.

Seascape Beach is known for combining fine luxury with the beauty and simplicity nature has to offer.

Seascape's vacation rentals are mainly villas which are nestled among oak and pine trees. Prominent in the Seascape area is a resort on 300 acres featuring several high-rise towers with commanding views as well as lakefront and golf villas.

Miramar Beach begins at the gulf, along Scenic Gulf Drive, meandering past condos and private homes, many of which are available for vacation rental, with its panoramic views of the gulf and scattered shops and restaurants, then curves around to join Emerald Coast Parkway. Laid out before you at this junction is the nation's largest designer outlet center, Silver Sands Factory Stores. More than 100 designer outlet shops could keep you from the beach for quite some time.

Every member of your family will enjoy a vacation at Sandestin. This 2,400-acre family-friendly resort truly is all-inclusive, and in many ways functions like a self-contained city. The sprawling property encompasses both gulf and bay fronts, offering vacation rentals in gleaming gulf front condos, golf course villas, lakeside homes, and just about everything in between. Sandestin’s Village of Baytowne Wharf, a 28-acre pedestrian village overlooking the Choctawhatchee Bay features a unique collection of more than 40 specialty merchants ranging from quaint boutique shops and charming eateries to lively nightclubs. Special events are featured throughout the year.

Dune Allen is an established community that surrounds Stalworth Lake, the first of 17 coastal lakes, which are unique to this part of the world. The lakes actually interact with the tides, forming their own biological communities, and are dotted throughout South Walton County. Dune-Allen's other coastal lake, Oyster Lake, is actually shaped like an oyster shell, and was once filled with oysters! Families who visited Dune Allen for vacation would picnic on its shores, and if the water in the lake was high, the men would dig a trench from the lake to the gulf to get the water running off. The effect was to lower the water level to make it easier to catch fish and gather oysters!

Santa Rosa Beach encompasses the largest tract of land of all the beach communities. The Santa Rosa area includes the historic town of Point Washington where Eden State Gardens incorporates the old Wesley mansion on Tucker Bayou, once a thriving sawmill. Topsail Hill State Preserve could be the state's most pristine piece of property; its beach, dunes, coastal lake and cypress swamp remain nearly untouched since the time the first Europeans landed here five centuries ago. Several entrances to Point Washingston State Forest take you into the 15,000-acre preserve with more than ten miles of trails.

Travel north on Hwy. 393 for a little local history and lore plus a shopping stop for antique treasures and garden statuary.

“Blue Mountain" is somewhat of a misnomer for a Florida landscape that is only 345 feet above sea level at its highest point (northern Walton County), but the first European settlers may have mistaken the Blue Mountain area's towering dunes for mountains after being at sea for months! They may also have been impressed by the lush vegetation covering the dunes, especially the spiky shape of the Gulf Coast lupine, which lives in the dune scrub and exists in only eight coastal counties in Florida's Panhandle. With its fuzzy blue leaves and purplish blue flowers that look like tiny sweet peas, it is easy to speculate that blue flowers covering tall dunes gave the area its unusual name.

Blue Mountain also marks the beginning of the Eastern Lake Hike/Bike Trail which meanders through the rest of South Walton's beach communities. Take it slow and enjoy the trip past coastal lakes, dense woodlands and architecturally stunning communities that make up the Blue Mountain Beach area.

Grayton Beach was the first community established in South Walton, some time in the late 19th century. By 1919, it was nearly abandoned, due to the fact that there were no good roads leading to it. Today Grayton Beach is best known for its incomparable natural beauty in Grayton Beach State Park, which spans the Gulf of Mexico and most of Western Lake. The hiking trail is fairly short, but one of the most scenic in the area, circling beach dunes, skirting the coastal lake, and cutting right through a dense scrub hammock. The area shops are worth your time to get a sense of the area's wonderful eclectic blend of local art, antiques and unusual gift items.

The neighborhoods of WaterColor are a testimony to southern coastal architecture, defined by color palette and architectural style. Five public parks welcome residents and guests to relax outside, while a large outdoor amphitheater serves as the setting for concerts and festivals on Western Lake. You’ll find restaurants for casual or elegant dining, a gourmet market, pools, a boathouse, and a traditional southern cutting garden create an inviting atmosphere. Except for the cutting garden in Cerulean Park, all landscaping at WaterColor is native to Florida's Panhandle, and homeowners are encouraged to continue the tradition.

Seaside made a giant splash in the architectural world when developer Robert Davis carved out a modern Victorian town with narrow streets, picket fences and homes arranged close together to encourage walking-and neighborliness. It was the first of its kind, creating the model for towns across America. Seaside's "walk-to-anywhere" design is working to bring necessary shops and services to its residents and guests, including a post office and a school.

Seaside's town center contains the market, art galleries, a florist, an ice cream store, a post office, and other small boutiques. Find many artists-in-residence at galleries lining Ruskin Place or enjoy a performance at Seaside’s Repertory Theater. Many of the homes can be rented on a daily or weekly basis for vacation. Park your car and rent bicycles to explore this wildly successful pioneering town, featured in the 1997 motion picture "The Truman Show."

Back in the 1940s and 1950s, families came to Seagrove Beach to rent modest one-story cottages with paddle fans instead of air conditioning and wide screened porches (perfect for sleeping). The same families returned year after year, and now second and third generations make the journey. Many of those cottages still exist, although they've been updated for today's travelers and are now thoroughly shaded by mature scrub trees and plants. Swimming and sandcastle building were once the popular pastimes, since there weren't many commercial ventures in the Seagrove area. Now visitors have numerous options for recreation as well as dining. Just up the road are art galleries and antique stores. Eastern and Deer Lakes make wonderful spots for quiet reflection, or put in a canoe or kayak for a day of exploration around the Seagrove Beach area.

Seacrest Beach begins after the big bend in the road on Scenic Highway 30-A. The road still follows the gulf here, and passes through areas with an up-close view of just how wild and dense the coastal scrub can get. Suddenly, rising out of the dunes, is the residential community of Seacrest. Camp Creek Lake is one outstanding feature of the area, as is the area golf club with its marshlands, perfect for wading birds, plantings of more than 200 live oaks, and its challenging landscape.

With calm gulf waters, soothing rays of sunshine, and silky sand beaches, Rosemary Beach is a great place to vacation if you want to unwind and soak up the scenery. Rosemary Beach's unique architecture is what first captures your attention, with its Dutch and West Indies-inspired homes and commercial buildings. Building palettes run to colors found in nature-mostly shades of rust, tan, green and brown, with Bermuda shutters, wide second floor porches, and arched garage doors. Gates and fences open with a latchkey, with steps leading to entrances on the second floor. Walls line both sides of the solid entryway steps, a feature right out of the Caribbean. Footpaths and boardwalks lead to large decks over the dunes and, of course, to Rosemary Beach below. The result is something completely different, classical, inspiring.

Inlet Beach is the last of South Walton's thirteen beach communities, and gets its name from Phillips Inlet, which separates Walton and Bay Counties. Inlet Beach is where Scenic Highway 30-A again meets up with Emerald Coast Parkway. Inlet Beach is a well-established neighborhood, defined by modest homes inland, newer multi-storied homes on the gulf side and sprawling lots north of Emerald Coast Parkway where rolling hills define the terrain. Look for a couple of funky but charming art galleries and outdoor antique stores along this last stretch of coast that makes up the Inlet Beach area.