My husband and 2 daughters travelled to Carillon Beach, FL and enjoyed one of our best vacations ever! Carillon is a private beach community, just east of the lovely 30-A area. It has a secured entry and a neighborhood of quaint and colorful beach houses. Several houses in the community have been featured in Southern Living and Coastal Living.
Carillon has 3 pools, a big park, private beach and its own downtown area. You can rent bikes (highly recommended), buy souvenirs, grab a cup of coffee or an ice cream cone in the downtown area. They host a "Concerts on the Lawn" series in the Spring and Summer that is fantastic.
You'll find mostly families who are there for a week at a time and want to slip away to a very safe, private and quality beach experience.
The beach itself is a private beach and all beach homes come with their own beach chairs. An attendant has fresh chair cushions and umbrella ready each morning. Because it is a private beach, most families left sand buckets and boogie boards at their chairs each night.
We rented a superb house named Bikini Bottoms. It was so cute and fun...the house is lime green and purple. The upstairs features a living room and open kitchen. There is also a huge upstairs open deck that can't be missed for dinner and sunsets. Downstairs are two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The master has a queen sized bed and the kids room has 2 twins with a trundle (making it sleep up to 3) and another bathroom (tub/shower). There is also a screened in porch with adirondack chairs and a swing-lounger that was perfect for afternoon naps.
The owners of Bikini Bottoms provide beach toys and have a convenient shower outdoors that is perfect for rinsing the sand off.
There is a Winn Dixie and several restaurants conveniently located around the corner from the community. There is also a rare dune lake next to the property which is great if you like to fish.
We are going back this summer with another family and renting a house directly on the beach! We can't wait...it is definitely worth the 45 minute drive from Destin.
