The Henderson Park Inn, or HPI, is fabulous. Although we live only an hour away in Navarre, FL we stayed at HPI in Oct, 2012 for my birthday. We had a wonderful, relaxing visit but decided that it was a bit pricey for us and would only go back for a very special occasion. The special occasion came much quicker than we though! We received an email from HPI with reduced prices for mid-week in Jan/Feb. We decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a week early and booked a room for 3 nights.

We were impressed with the staff on both visits. Everyone from housekeeping to the chef at breakfast to the bartenders at the included happy hour to the front desk staff go out of their way to make sure you are enjoying your visit.

So much has already been said about all of the things that are included in the room rate, so I won't repeat a lot of that here. We really enjoyed the included lunch. You pre-order on the night before from a menu of sandwiches and salads and can pick up the box lunch in the dining room anytime between noon and 2 pm. During this time, there are several kinds of cookies, a variety of fruits, lemonade, and ice tea. Since we often weren't hungry during that timeframe (still full from breakfast!), we used the refrigerator in our rooms to store the sandwiches and then warmed them up later in the microwave.

Although Destin can be crazy, especially in the summer, HPI is tucked away on "old" scenic Hwy 98 right next to the state park. Probably the quietest place you can find in Destin and still easy walking distance (less than a mile) to all of the shops and restaurants in Destin Commons.

For both on our visits, our rooms were on the 3rd floor of the main building. As previously mentioned, the balconies on this floor are very small. We really appreciated that we were alerted to this when we called to make our reservations. No surprises! We did not find this to be a problem since HPI has a huge deck that is never very crowded.

Both times,we enjoyed talking to the other guests at the included happy hour and at breakfast. Many of the guests have been to HPI numerous times. Count us among them! We have already booked our third visit for our anniversary in January, 2013!