Sterling Resorts- Sterling Shores, Destin

The place is nice, but if you go with a baby, be sure to bring your own crib. We went there with two small children, and the place is not equipped for that (and it was a two bedroom apartment!). Beside, they charged us a surprise 185 USD for "extra cleaning" since, according to them, we left the place unclean...(We got the bill a month later). My husband called them, they told us we had to clean the place before we leave... and they called themselves a rental place:)).

We booked our trip on the internet and paid for it all upfront. We didn't find out until we got there, that there would be a $140 cleaning fee and also a $40 a night amenities fee. If we had known that, we probably would have picked a different hotel. It was very nice though. The pool was great and the grill across the street was also very convenient. We had a pleasant stay. It wasn't very busy and we had a lot of privacy, which was good because we were on our honeymoon. I would reccomment it, just make sure you prepare for the extra fees.

PLUSES: Great units, wonderful pool, restaurants next door, stores nearby. MINUSES: Aircraft taking off nearby, busy highway in front. This is a large condo (10-story + PH) overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. The building isn't directly on the beach; it's across a small street from the beach. But Sterling Shores has private beach access. So long as you are on one of the upper floors, you can see the ocean fine. (From 2nd floor last time we were here, we couldn't really see the ocean; from 8th floor, we have a fine view.) The pool complex (or "lagoon") is excellent. There's quite a bit of shade, and the pool itself (shaped sort of like an asterisk) is very comfortable. All water is shallow (all 4 feet or less). It's wonderful when you're traveling with a large group, because there's lots of room for visiting, whether people are sitting on the edge of the pool or are in the water. A high-volume in-pool shower provides a visual interest, drowns out background noise and is kind of fun to stand under. Sterling Shores is on busy U.S. 68, but poolside is shielded by the building, so you don't hear much traffic. However, the condo is in the takeoff pattern for a nearby civil aviation airport, so expect one-engine and two-engine prop planes as well as private jets to fly overhead regularly. The condo units themselves are excellent, clean and well-decorated, with TVs in every bedroom as well as in the large living room. Two of the three bathrooms in our three-bedroom condo had spa tubs as well as walk-in showers. High-speed DSL Internet access is available in each unit. (We expected wireless broadband; instead, we had to go downstairs to the office to borrow a DSL modem before discovering that a modem was in a drawer beneath the TV/VCR/DVD. We drove to the nearby Office Max and bought a wireless router that we plugged into the DSL modem to provide wi-fi to our condo.) Balconies are very large. We spent a lot of time at the table out there playing games. Two restaurants are located adjacent to the Sterling Shores. We have made multiple visits to The Back Porch, a bathing suit-friendly seafood joint on the beach itself; I recommend the char-grilled amberjack sandwich and the seafood nachos appetizer (which is quite large!). There is also an Italian-American dinner spot called Grazie, owned by the same company, that we haven't tried yet. The presence of The Back Porch is really a selling point for us; we can walk from the pool to the Porch in two minutes. Sterling Shores is located close to several shopping centers that have a Wal-Mart Supercenter, Publix supermarket and much more. Joe's Crab Shack, Fudpuckers and other restaurants are across the highway. There's no evidence of organized activities, but that wasn't a problem for us. Destin (which seems to draw almost exclusively from among residents of the southeastern U.S.) is a highly developed vacation area, and Sterling Shores is right in the midst of it. Given that, it's a surprisingly peaceful vacation destination (aside from the aircraft flying overhead). We've been twice to this family-friendly condo. I'd bet we'll be back.

The condo that we stayed was absolutely extravagant. Not only was it clean, but it was very cozy. The free movie rentals were a plus as well as the waterfall in the pool. I went with a friend to the beach and I must say that it was very enjoyable. The only thing that could have been better was the amount of activities that were available to do in the hotel, because there weren't alot of younger people there. Other than that, I enjoyed Sterling Shores 100% and I cannot wait to go back this summer!