The Emerald - Destin, FL - 4 bedrooms - 3.5 baths

The home was absolutely fabulous. Plenty of room for all of us to spread out and have a good time. With in walking distance to the beach, but the trolley will pick you up at your door. Destin is great and grocery stores are close enough to stop at every other day or so, we ate at the house for breakfast/lunch, and then went out and enjoyed ourselves for dinner. Making stops at Mcguire's Pub, Bubba Gump, Joes Crab Shack, Hard Rock Cafe, and a few other great restaurants. I would stay here again. Only improvement would be to have the company in charge of the community Commons take a little better care of the Barbecue grills available to guests at the pool area.

This property had a large pool so never seemed overly crowded and close to the beach. The family area downstairs was a little small; however the bedrooms were spacious and overall nice layout.

Overall our stay was really nice. House was just the right size for all of the people that we had visit. Loved the pool area and the friendliness of the maintaince crew that were around the pool area. Wish we would have had an outdoor grill at our house. It seemed that many other houses had this as a feature. The one improvement that I could suggest is that there is a little more attention to maintaince inside the houses. The day after we arrived I had to call the office with a list of about 6 things that we found needed attention.

The house was located in a lovely community within walking distance of the beach.

It has been our second winter staying at "The Emerald" and we really enjoyed that house. It is very clean, spacious and well located (5 min. walk from Destin Commons, Best Buy/Michaels Centre and the beaches). The house is situated in the gated community projet of "Villages of Crystal Beach" which has a tremendious pool area (it is like hotel type pool, fully landscaped with lawn chairs, BBQ, hot tub, etc. Until springbreak season (i.e. 2nd week of March), it is very quiet but after that, there is more action.

My family and I drove in from Texas arriving around 7PM. To not have to go by the rental office for the info or a key to get in the house was by far a great service and time saver. In fact, from speaking with the agent by phone and receiving the confirmation, key codes for entry gate and home by email is the only way to do business with a rental service. The home was clean, decorated very nice and the floor plan very well laid out. It was exactly as the virtual tour on-line. Other than bringing our own clothes and other items for the trip we felt as if we were coming home to our own home. The location was perfect for walking or driving to the beach...one of our very favorite things to do. Other amenities such as restaurants, grocery stores and fun shops to complete our Christmas shopping was very close. My son, daughter-in-law and two grandson's live in Crestview - so the distance for all of us to come back and forth visiting was quite suitable. We loved the convenience of driving to other close sight-seeing areas as well as the location...we were far enough away from the main highway and yet close enough to access it when necessary. Thank you for sharing your beautiful home with us and making our 2010 Christmas an awesome family Christmas at the beach!!

We are all between the ages of 21-26. I live in Destin but decided it'd be nice to stay at a vacational rental for my 22nd birthday. This stay was amazing. The kitchen had everything we needed. The beds were comfortable. The couches were great. Loved the bathrooms.The pool was amazing. We grilled out on their community grill. Since it is off season, there was nobody else out there so we had a lot of privacy.I loved the coziness we felt while staying there. I would def recommend this to anyone!

Almost everything was perfect. There was plenty of room our 3 kids and mother. The kitchen had great appliances and everything you would need for a beach vacation. The only issues we had were some cleanliness issues and the upstairs master BR had issues. The upstairs deck was very dirty and there was an active wasps nest. The upstairs TV had an issue where the center of the picture was in focus, but the rest was blurry. Because of this, we took the TV from the sitting room each night and moved it to the bedroom. I called twice about the TV but it never got fixed. One thing we noticed because of this, was that the cabinet that had the TVs were extremely dirty. Once we saw this, it kinda emphasized the fact that several areas were dirty. We also found a jewelry box in a bathroom drawer and called ,so I am hoping the owners got it. Also, there were 3 Dvds that had no remotes. I am not sure if they were supposed to have them or not, but I wanted to let you know. All 3 were memorex DVD players. Also, we found the head board in the upstairs master bedroom had come off the wall. Not trying to be picky but that is what we saw. From a positive, the house was beautiful and comfortable and the pool was within a 1 minute walk. We didnt utilize the tram for the beach, instead we just drove which was easier for us.

Did not have any major problems. No one was at the community except the day I left. A large family of 100 people came and rented 4 or 5 houses. I know they did not follow the rules for people allowed in rentals. The beach access in only two blocks south of the back gate. If you go to the main beach road and take a left and go about half a mile there is a nice parking area. The rooms are nice and my 85 year old grandma made it up the stairs easy enough. Could use one more couch down stairs but still good enough when every one is doing their own thing. The Destin Common and many other shopping centers are next to the community. Go do one of the dolphin tours while you are here. The pool is great not heated though. My 5 year old did not care. Once you do a lap you are good to go. I had a great time and relaxed the way you should on vacation. The only thing the company needs to do is provide a guest book. I like it when you can read where other people that stayed at the house are from and what they did. Go enjoy the Emerald. Ross Bowden

The Emerald is a lovely vacation home. It was a perfect fit for our extended family - two couples with tween daughters, and grandparents. The pool was the BEST! We also used the community grill and dining area for cook-outs twice during our stay. The grills were a bit hard to light, and had to be scraped off before 1st use, but we managed. We really liked having the tram service to the beach, and could have walked the three blocks or so, but riding was better. The location was great since we were right in the heart of everything. The Destin Commons just across the highway, Silver Sands Outlet 4 miles away, the beach within blocks, and all kinds of other activities within minutes. The house itself was so comfortable & relaxing. Great layout and use of space, comfortable furnishings, wonderful cookware & kitchen "stuff". About our only complaint was that the refrigerator was not making ice properly. But we just bought bagged ice, and didn't worry about it. Overall, a wonderful place & we plan to come back when we can!

It was a pleasure to stay at this property.

We were very happy with the Emerald. It was a short walk to the beach and we absolutely loved the pool! The house was comfortable, clean, and roomy enough for the five adults and two children who stayed here. Two things I would improve: better equip the kitchen with commonly used items such as another cutting board and a chef's knife and keep the common grilling area clean and in better repair. Also the AC did not do a very good job keeping one of the rooms (the one with the twin beds) cool. Overall, we were very happy and would stay here again.

I have stayed in Southern Resorts Properties for the past 5 years and every year has been great! The Emerald is a beautiful property and the pool area is fantastic!!!

WE WERE THERE THERE FROM DEC. 31ST 2008 TO JAN.4TH 2009. IT IS A VERY NICE AND COMFORTABLE HOME AND IN A GREAT AREA FOR JUST ABOUT ANYTHING.

Very nice home ,great for a larger group of people.Extremely clean home and community with a great pool.Will definately stay again.

I was put in charge of finding a place for our family members to spend a long weekend while attending my son's wedding in Destin. Hotels in the area are fairly expensive, and I searched for a more reasonable alternative and a place where we all could be close together. We also needed to be close to the other attactions of Destin. We got lucky when we found the Emerald. It was perfect for our purposes and the price, when divided by the four couples was much less than the nicer hotels. The furnishings and amenities were "top Drawer". The appliances were like brand new. The cookware and untinsils were the best. We hadn't even counted on the beautiful pool area but found it to be very child friendly (perfect for my two year old grand daughter) and beautifully kept. The family was very pleased with my choice and we're planning to return again next year.