I’m a little behind these days but I finally had a moment to recap our trip to Destin, Fl last month. I’ve had a constant flow of questions surrounding it since we got back, so I thought I would cover it all here!
If you’ve been following along over the years, then you know this is a trip we take ever year with Colton’s family and his best friends whole family as well. This was my ninth time on the family vacation, (not including two years of college spring break there as well) so I have had the opportunity to really get to know and fall in love with the area. You can find some of my older Destin posts, here and here.
Also, I wish I had more pics (I normally have a lot more outfit looks) but I dropped my phone in the ocean half way through the week to save some toy boats and my phone didn’t recover 🙁
shop the looks
Getting There
With a Saturday afternoon check-in date for Destin, we left early Thursday morning with the plan to break the trip up by stopping in Mississippi for two nights.
It’s a 9-10 hour trip to Destin from Houston and since we would be stopping so much on the way there, we felt confident that Teddy would do fine on the drive. So we decided to drive there with everyone and then fly back.
DRIVING SCHEDULE WITH A BABY
- 7:30am Wake Up Time
- 9:00am Wheels up Thursday morning – heading straight for Lafayette, LA (3 1/2 hours from Houston)
- 10:00 Stopped for Diaper Change
- 10:30-12 Nap in car
- 12:30 Lunch in Lafayette (great stop for him to get out of the car)
- 2:45-3:00 Back on the road to Mississippi (2 hr drive)
- Slept most of the time but we had one blow out/diaper change
- 5:00 made it to Pass Christian
Stayed Mississippi for two nights and then its a 3hr drive from there to Destin.
Besides the one blow out on the way from Lafayette to Pass Christian, Teddy honestly did so great! I think that scheduling the long car rides to take place during his normal nap time was key.
We also bought this kids tablet, so that we could play Mickey Mouse Club House on it (his favorite) and it was honestly a life saver. It was super easy to set up, ran off our hot spot and all we had to do was long into our Amazon Prime account to access all the shows.
shop travel essentials
(My travel look for the day – happy to finally be in Mississippi)
Pass Christian, Mississippi
Colton’s best friends wife, Katelyn, has a family home in Pass Christian, so we were introduced to this sweet little Mississippi town because of herQ It’s the cutest little beach town, right over the bridge from Bay St. Louis. There are truly less than five restaurants, and the whole downtown is literally one block long. It’s so cute though and has lots of live music! I love walking the main block and admiring all of the enormous southern mansions that sit across from the beach. They are truly spectacular!
Destin, FL Tidbit
Where We Stay in Destin
We stay in these homes through Compass Rentals and this is the little neighborhood both families have always stayed. It’s a really great area because it’s right in the middle of Destin with easy access to a ton of different grocery stores and restaurants.
The little neighborhood sits right on the private beach, so it’s never more than a 2 minute walk, over the bridge and gazebo to the sand. Every morning/night our beach chairs are set up and taken down for us by the rental company so it’s super nice. We spend the day going back and fourth the beach as we please because it’s just so easy.
I’ll be honest, the homes, while still huge and really nice, are not the cutesy-cottage esq houses that you would find in the 30A area. Over the years, we’ve debated the years we’ve debated moving the trip and hour down the beach or not but have always decided that for our group size (literally over 30+ people this year), our incredibly easy beach access, and 20+ years of planning, it doesn’t make sense. If our group wasn’t so big and we went to more restaurants (we do a lot of cooking and late nights on the beach) we would consider moving it more but it just doesn’t make since for our group or this trip.
I also highly recommend Miramar and Crystal Beach for anyone wanting the 30A aesthetic with the low-key Destin vibes and better prices. We stayed there twice in college.
A Typical Day in Destin
Mornings
Colton’s Dad gets up super early, so coffee is always ready by the time everyone wakes up. Most mornings the guys will go golfing, and while they’re gone, the rest of us will go-to breakfast or we’ll some will opt to go work out instead. At least once, we’ll all wake up super early to go watch the sunrise on the beach before heading to breakfast (this was hard to do this year bc our group was so big) but other than that, we just make breakfast at the house, then pack the coolers and get everything ready for the beach.
Beach Time
The first group normally goes down around 11:00 with the coolers. From then on, until about 5:00 or 6:00 we’re at the beach! Different groups will go up at least once to make sandwiches at the house but other than that, we are there literally all day.
Some days half the group might go up early around 4 to swim in the pool or to shower/start dinner while the other half stays at the beach until almost sunset. Our favorite thing to do is to move the chairs down to the water as the tide changes. It’s not as hot and is truly the best time to be on the beach.
Dinner Time
We go out to dinner once or twice, try to have pizza on the beach at least once but for the most part we cook and grill out at the house. We’ll swim in the pool until dinner, make daiquiris and just hang out.
Night Time
The “kids” (lmao we’re legit all almost 30) go out to Bay Town Wharf at least once (I love the dueling pianos at Rum Runners) but other than that we drink and play card games at the house. We’ll do late night beach walks but mostly chill, drink and talk!
Beach Baby Must Have’s
Where to Eat in Destin
As I mentioned above, this trip we didn’t eat out a ton because (a) our group was so big and (b) because dinners with a one-year-old aren’t the easiest lol but we were able to make it to some of our favorites like, Harbor Dock’s, Camilles on Crystal Beach and Badass Coffee.
Above is a full list of all our favorites from over the years, along with a few that so many of you guys recommended as well!
Until next time! If you have any specific questions surrounding the trip, just leave them in the comments sections below!
xo,
Lauren
