Something about our stay in Tampa made us crave being by the ocean. The beauty of this life is that we can make random choices just about every day. If we don’t like a place, we leave. If we love a place, we stay longer. We’ve really been trying not to plan as much, not to promise to be in certain places at certain times and instead roll with it.
This strategy is the best way to avoid stress, save money, and just be calmer throughout the day. However, it’s not so great when you decide that you’d like to go to Florida Keys, like, tomorrow.
We dedicated nearly a whole day trying to find an ocean spot and quickly realized that going to Florida Keys isn’t something you just decide on a whim. All the good places were booked until September. Not even kidding.
Kevin found Destin West RV Resort by chance, site #39 was available, it looked good, so we booked it! Not at all close to Florida Keys, but they said there was ocean, and that was good enough for us!
Fast forward 30 days and we arrived early enough in the day that we were able to pack our beach things and head to the ocean. Now, at this point we really had no idea what Destin was really like. Sure, we knew there would be beaches, we knew we’d get in some ocean time, but we had no clue it was going to be like this.
The first couple of days were chilly, but the weather warmed up to the perfect temperature, just perfect enough for playtime with Coconut in the water, long walks on the beach, wave watching with lemon sorbetto, walks along the streets of Seaside, and so much more.
Of all the RV parks we’ve stayed at, this is by far our favorite. The entrance and exit was easy, it was quiet (no traffic noises at all), the staff were all friendly, the people were great, the property is designed perfectly, what’s not to love? We enjoyed it so much, we extended our booking 3 days, switching to site #41 just so we could keep enjoying Okaloosa Island and all it’s magic just a little bit longer.
Will we come back? Yes! Wait, make that a DOUBLE yes. I’m sure our answer would change if we’d visited in the peak season, but visiting April 7 to 15 was the perfect time to go. There were rarely any other humans on the beach, the weather wasn’t too hot or too cold, and the RV park was quiet… yes. We would come back.
A shot from Navarre Beach, about 30 minutes from where we were staying. Totally worth the drive!
We loved watching these little guys run along the sand. Not one of them got surprised by a wave, it was mesmerizing!
We sat on the sand and saved $60 USD a day. Yes, they charged $60 a DAY for two chairs and an umbrella. Steal of a deal at $210 for the whole week. Hahaha no.
The view from our second site at the park. See that site right there close to the water? That’s the one we did have. We were a little upset because the new people who moved in didn’t enjoy the view at all. And when they did go outside, it was to watch TV with their backs to the water. Humph.
Our canoe all setup and ready for action. We went out a handful of times and enjoyed each one. No flipping!