We were looking for a pet friendly beach condo and stayed at Maravilla 2402. The Maravilla is across the street from the beach, but there is nothing but beautiful pristine beach on the other side of the street with private beach access for Maravilla guests. The condo building is "U" shaped and our unit was in the middle section #2 which has balconies facing the beach. The top level (4th floor) has the best views since there are some palm trees lining the streets which may obstruct some of the views from lower levels. The side sections (#1 and #3) do not face the beach but some of those units might have beach views. The street is easy to cross and the traffic yields to pedestrians at the crosswalk. A pair of beach chairs with an umbrella is provided free for the guests and they just ask that you tip the guys who set them up at the end of your stay. Our unit was clean and well equipped. The 3 of us plus our little dog were quite comfortable, but more than that may have been cramped. The master had a nice king bed, adequate closet space and a private bathroom. Our 12 year old used second bedroom, which had a queen bed that took up most of that room and had very little storage and no closet. The second bathroom was across the hall. There were 3 TV's in the condo and several channel options. There is a pool beside the walkway as you go toward the beach and another further away behind the back parking lot. We enjoyed the beach so much that we never even tried out the pool. It was not very large and seemed a bit crowded during our stay, and there were no shaded areas or umbrellas there to sit out of the sun.

The views to the beach were wonderful. The sand was sugar white and the water was beautifully clear. Along the condo side of the beach road is a nice wide pedestrian and biking trail that goes for miles. It is great for joggers, bikers and walking dogs. A dog walk area is also provided behind the Maravilla parking lot. There are strict rules about picking up behind your dog, which is a plus since we never had to worry about stepping in anything as several dogs were staying with other guests.

There are some great restaurants just down the road and just a short drive away are shopping malls, banks, grocery stores and anything else you may need.

One of our favorite things we did was rent bikes from Bikes-R-Us. They deliver and pick up for free and charge a reasonable daily or weekly rate. We loved riding along the beach road early mornings and evenings when it wasn't too hot.

My family and I just went to Maravilla for Thanksgiving. The unit 2206 was clean, decorated well and amply supplied with everything we needed for the week. The floor plan had a very friendly layout with access to the balcony and ocean view from both the living room and the master bedroom. The unit had two large bathrooms, ceramic tile flooring and a view to die for. This unit is pet friendly, which we loved. One pool was closed for winter but the other pool was heated and had a hot tub. Most of the beach amenities (umbrella and chair services) were closed but the unit had a laundry closet full of beach chairs and beach toys. We were absolutely blessed to have 75 degree weather in November, so our stay was even better than expected. I would recommend this unit to ANYONE going to Sandestin! We plan to go again in the spring!

Where do I begin.........we rented unit #2206. We rented through VRBO and the website of this unit (by owner) looked and sounded amazing. Upon arrival we found very little of what was advertised. West Indies decor was extremely cheap. The dust was very thick on nearly everything. We had to purchase 10 lightbulbs when we arrived. Remote controls had duct tape to hold batteries in - we even had replace one with our own batteries. The vacuum cleaner had the same duct tape holding it together. The owner advertised a closet full of toys and beach items........most of them were broken, dirty or didn't exist.

The unit advertised NON SMOKING. There was a large bucket on the balcony full of nasty cigarettes. The unit was suppose to have two beach chairs and an umbrella. There was one chair. We called the owner and his words were "sorry, those things disappear sometimes". This is one of the reasons we rented this unit - we needed the umbrella. He offered to let us purchase a cheap chair and umbrella and he would pay us back. It's been a month since I sent him a SASE to return our DEPOSIT nor payment for the items. He won't respond nor return calls. The icing on the cake was toward the end of our week - the power went off. We waited many hours and finally went to the office. We were told the owner NOT PAID his power bill for the month! We were told by the office this was not the first time this had happened in #2206!!!!!! We had to contact owner to pay his bill. Our yearly vacation to Destin was becoming more and more disappointing.

I must say this is the first time we were actually anxious to leave Destin and get back home!! We are still waiting for our desposit, payment for the chair & umbrella or a return phone call. Please don't be fooled.!

Maravilla is a nice resort, just pick another unit!

We rented unit 1103 at Maravilla for a week in June. This was our third year in a row staying at Maravilla. Our reservations were made through Southern Resorts. The cost was about $1700 including all taxes and administrative fees. It was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath unit and easily housed our group of 4 adults and 3 kids. We were able to get into the condo at 4 PM sharp. You can arrange to arrive earlier for a $50 fee.

The unit was clean and in good shape. Standard Florida condo furnishings. The dishwasher was missing a roller on the rack but it worked and you just had to be careful rolling out the tray. We had wireless internet access, which was very useful. Our condo had some tiny ‘sugar ants’ around the kitchen sink, but it wasn’t an infestation and the resort company gave us some window cleaning solution to spray them – the ammonia kills them.

The beach at Maravilla is very nice consisting of fine, white sand. Beach boys Matt and Jeremiah were helpful on the beach in getting your spot set up. They start setting up for the day in the morning and will assign spots at 9 AM. We always sent one member of our group down to the beach just before 9 AM to get a spot that was convenient. Each condo unit gets one umbrella and two beach chairs. They rent sea kayaks for $16 and hour and, I believe, $28 for three hours. The sea kayaking was fun. I’d recommend doing it in the morning when the Gulf is calmer. We had some problems with sea lice and jellyfish a couple of days. Some people were stung but it wasn’t very serious or painful.

Our group consisting of two families with kids ate at Pompano Joes, Crab Trap and Fudpuckers. They were all basically the same food and pretty good. This was our first time at Fudpuckers and I was surprised at the good quality of the food. We went at 5PM to eat there and the wait was 15 minutes. When we left the wait was 1 ½ hours. All the restaurants were filled with tourists – because that’s who stays in the area! My wife and I ate at the Beachwalk Restaurant and enjoyed their upscale fine dining.

We once again had a very nice stay at Maravilla in Destin and would stay there again.