Beachside

Turn off Emerald Coast Parkway at the Sandestin gates and bear south, toward the water, and the resort's landscape tilts toward the Gulf. The live-oak groves and golf fairways of the interior give way to a low line of dunes, and above them a row of alabaster towers steps skyward in tiered, wedding-cake levels, their pale flanks catching the sun over a beach of blinding white sand. This is Beachside, the Gulf-front quarter of Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort - the beachfront district that faces the open Gulf of Mexico, as distinct from the bay-side energy of Baytowne and the quieter interior around Lakeside. It is the part of the resort where the day begins with a walk over the dunes and ends with the sun sliding into the water, and where the sugar-white shoreline is not a distant amenity but the front yard.

Beachside occupies the south, Gulf-facing side of U.S. Highway 98 inside Sandestin, close enough that the beach is a short walk from nearly every door. The sand here is the region's famously fine quartz - brilliant white and soft underfoot - fronting the turquoise, green-shot water that gives the Emerald Coast its name. Behind the dune line the district is not just towers and sand: charming natural lakes, among them Horseshoe Lake, sit among the neighborhoods, and winding bicycle paths thread between them, so that a few steps inland the mood turns green and residential. That position sets Beachside apart from the resort's other quarters. Where Bayside and the Village of Baytowne Wharf gather around the calm of Choctawhatchee Bay, and Lakeside spreads through the interior, Beachside is the beachfront address - the piece of Sandestin that touches the Gulf directly. It is best understood as one district within a much larger world: for the full Gulf-to-bay span of the resort, its layered history, and its four golf courses, the parent Sandestin community tells the wider story, and Beachside is its front row on the water.

Beachside has no separate founding of its own; its history is Sandestin's. The resort took shape from the early 1970s on a 2,400-acre stretch reaching from the Gulf to the bay, its name a portmanteau of Santa Rosa Beach to the east and Destin to the west. Over the decades that followed, the Gulf-front edge filled in with the towers and villa neighborhoods that now make up the Beachside area - the twin Beachside towers among the earliest, with Beachside One dating to 1984. Rather than a single master stroke, the district accumulated in layers, each addition set behind the same protected dune line, until the beachfront read as one continuous community rather than a scatter of buildings.

Two scales define Beachside, side by side. Along the sand rise the Gulf-front high-rises - the tiered Beachside towers with their stepped, alabaster silhouettes and the tall Westwinds building - their upper floors opening to long views down the coast. Set just back from the dune, the Luau high-rise stands near The Beach House restaurant and the community beach access, a tall beachside tower with a short walk to the water rather than a foot directly on the sand. Together these coveted beachside towers form a recognizable skyline over the snow-white shore. Behind them, the land drops to a lower, greener register: Beachwalk gathers furnished townhomes and villas around Horseshoe Lake, each with private drives and patios; Pine Ridge Villas adds Mediterranean-style two-story buildings a short walk from the beach; and Tivoli, or Tivoli Terrace, offers West Indies-inspired two-story townhomes overlooking the landscaped golf grounds. Residences range from compact studios in the towers to larger three-bedroom homes, so the district holds both the vertical, view-first world of the high-rises and the settled, tree-shaded calm of the villa lanes.

Daily life in Beachside orbits the beach. Mornings begin with a walk across a private boardwalk over the dunes to the open sand; afternoons drift between the Gulf-front pools - some seasonally heated, with waterfall features, hot tubs, expansive sun decks, and a seasonal tiki bar - and the natural lakes and bike paths behind them. There are basketball courts and miniature golf for the younger set, dining a few steps away at The Beach House, and, when the day calls for more, a golf cart or resort shuttle to the shops, restaurants, and boardwalk of the Village of Baytowne Wharf, the resort marina, and the four golf courses. Just beyond the resort gates, the shops and dining of Grand Boulevard extend the menu further. The whole rhythm is one of moving on foot, by bike, or by cart between water and amenity, rarely reaching for a car.

Like the rest of Sandestin, Beachside is built for low-car living. Dedicated bike and golf-cart paths and resort shuttles connect the district to the beach, the bay, and Baytowne Wharf, so much of the day can unfold without the highway. When the highway is needed, U.S. 98 runs straight through the resort, putting Destin's harbor and shops a short drive to the west and the scenic beach towns of 30A close to the east. Destin Executive Airport is nearby, with commercial service available from Northwest Florida Beaches International near Panama City within a comfortable drive.

Beachside suits those who want the Gulf itself as their address - buyers who would rather wake to surf and dune walkovers than to a fairway or a bay view, with the full breadth of Sandestin waiting just inland. It draws families and active retirees for the villa neighborhoods on their quiet lakes, and second-home owners who want a Gulf-front tower with the resort's amenities on the doorstep. For anyone deciding among Sandestin's quarters, Beachside is the clear choice for the beachfront: the district of white towers and white sand, the resort's front row on the water.