Condo resort on the coast
Guests find it hard to forget they are on the coast at the Emerald Grande Resort at HarborWalk Village, east of Destin. The condominium resort , with 269 accommodations, is on five bodies of water.
“Almost every room has a view,” said Lesan Gouge, the group sales manager. That includes the 1,950-square-foot ballroom. “The worst thing is keeping the focus on the speaker,” Gouge said.
For breaks, balconies overlook the Gulf of Mexico. Other meeting venues include a boardroom and a meeting room for 30, furnished with a built-in bar and comfortable seating.
At the adjoining HarborWalk Village, visitors can shop, dine or take fishing excursions on the resort’s two deep-sea fishing boats docked there. The resort golf course, 15 minutes away, has a clubhouse that can be used for meetings.
Hilton’s roomy party deck
Our group stayed at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort and Spa, the largest full-service beachfront resort hotel in northwest Florida, which underwent a $6.5 million renovation last spring.
“Large parts of these renovations were beachfront and included new deck areas and a new beachside restaurant,” said Valeria Lento, the hotel’s communications manager.
After a fire destroyed the previous deck, a new one was built. The 17,000-square-foot, multilevel venue is made of fire-resistant and environmentally safe composite material.
We learned firsthand that the space easily handles multiple functions. Our small party comfortably shared the deck with three other groups: a sit-down dinner for nearly 150 attendees of a regional utility’s meeting, a reception for 150 attendees of a charity golf event and a nonprofit organization’s reception for 100.
We all sat beneath the warm orange glow of low-intensity lights designed to minimize disturbances to nesting sea turtles, their hatchlings and other coastal wildlife, one of several moves that has earned the hotel a Florida Green Lodging Program Designation.
The 598-suite hotel has also remodeled and refreshed much of its meeting space, which includes two ballrooms, totaling nearly 15,600 square feet; the 1,700-square-foot Sandpiper Room; eight breakout rooms; and a 5,800-square-foot prefunction area. A 106-seat theater is an unexpected hotel feature.
Seagar’s, the hotel’s AAA Four-Diamond fine-dining restaurant and one of only two in northwest Florida, can seat 40 in its Florida room or 10 in its boardroom.
The Hilton sits within the 2,400-acre Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, between the Gulf of Mexico and Choctawhatchee Bay, 10 miles east of Destin.
“We say we have 30 communities,” said Laurie Hobbs, the resort’s director of marketing and public relations.
Complimentary shuttles transport guests around the expansive grounds, where more than 1,300 accommodations in hotels, condominiums, townhomes and private villas are located on both sides of Highway 98.
The resort also has seven miles of beaches, four championship golf courses, 15 tennis courts, 19 swimming pools and a 98-slip marina.
With its two conference centers — the 33,000-square-foot Linkside Conference Center and the 32,000-square-foot Baytowne Conference Center — the property can accommodate groups of as many as 1,600 people.
The Baytowne center and its 13,500-square-foot ballroom are on the resort’s bay side within walking distance of the Village of Baytown Wharf, a 28-acre shopping, dining and entertainment complex. Linkside has a 12,600-square-foot exhibit hall, along with a cafe and a fitness center, day spa and a salon. All totaled, the two conference centers give the resort 24 breakout rooms and four boardrooms.
Innovative team-building are part of the offerings at the Hilton and the Sandestin Resort.
The Hilton’s Beach Olympics pits groups in tugs-of-war, three-legged races, water-balloon tosses and classic childhood relay games, all within view of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort has eight new team-building activities, among them sedate wine education seminars, a variety of golf challenges and the more strenuous fun of a modified triathlon, called the Baytowne Adventure Challenge, in which team members are tested by a three-story ropes course, YOLO boarding and a zip line across Baytowne Village’s lagoon.
“Planners work hard enough, and it’s our job to be the experts on fun and deliver a seamless meeting program that meets the needs of the planners and the desires of the attendees,” said Penny Jackson, group sales director.
Blending family vacations
A selling point to meetings, especially those that include a family vacation, is “the fact we have a beach in our backyard,” said Pamela Watkins, director of sales and special events for the South Walton Tourist Development Council.
“We encourage them to bring their spouses and children, especially in the summer,” Watkins said. “We have a lot of associations that come in the summer and extend their stays.”
“We have nine properties with meeting facilities,” she said. “We have all different levels, from Sandestin to Embassy Suites.”
Tops’l, ranked as one of the top 10 tennis resorts in the country by the U.S. Tennis Association, has more than 400 accommodations and 2,500 square feet of meeting space.
Fourteen clay tennis courts make it “a very active resort,” said Lauren Rich, group sales manager.
Embassy Suites at Miramar Beach can seat up to 250 in its atrium for meals and up to 300 classroom-style in its meeting rooms. A daily manager’s reception features an open bar and food.
“People love that after a long day of meetings, they don’t feel like they are trapped and have to go back to the room. They can network,” said Michell Akkan, catering manager.
Seascape Golf, Beach and Tennis Resort currently has a 4,000-square-foot conference center; a planned expansion will increase its options. The new facility will have breakout rooms, a boardroom and a 10,000-square-foot ballroom.
“We are more a niche and affinity market,” said Michael Whalen, group sales director, “where they work part of the time and play the rest.”
Two village-style resorts sit within a few miles of one another, east of Sandestin on the 18-mile stretch of scenic Highway 30A.
WaterColor Inn and Resort is known for Fish Out of Water — the area’s other AAA Four Diamond restaurant. With a ballroom and two breakout room, the property is favored for retreats and board meetings.
The planned community of Seaside marked its 30th anniversary last year. “The best compliment is it looks like it has been here longer,” said Jon Ervin, director of the town’s rental agency. “It’s meant to celebrate the simpler times, small-town America. We built neighborhoods instead of a resort.”
The town’s master plan stresses individuality. Each house must have a picket fence, different from its neighbors’. All the houses are painted in a palette of soft blues, off whites, soothing greens and creamy yellows.
A colorful splash, Seaside is a fitting end to a tour of this striking swath of sand and sea. As it grows in size, one grain of pulverized granite at a time, the Florida northwest Gulf Coast will continue to grow in notority among meeting planners and meeting goers.
