Tag: vacation

Travel

Charter Your Dream Day at Crab Island with Juicebox Charters

by sweetsoutherngracesLeave a Comment on Charter Your Dream Day at Crab Island with Juicebox Charters
Charter Your Dream Day at Crab Island with Juicebox Charters

(This post contains sponsored links from Juicebox Charters. All thoughts, views and opinions are my own.)

What is Crab Island?

Crab Island is a massive sandbar located on the Emerald Coast in Destin, Florida! It is one of the most popular attractions in all of Destin! With it’s shallow, emerald green waters, dolphin sightings and floating restaurants Crab Island is one of the most favored activities, in the area! Did you know that Crab Island been featured on HGTV and Good Morning America?!

How deep is the water on Crab Island?

On Crab Island, the depth of the water is about 1-4 ft. It’s the perfect place to anchor your boat and enjoy the day! Check out my blog post here to read more about Crab Island and local spots in Destin/Ft. Walton Beach area’s.

My husband and youngest daughter had a blast paddle boarding! My number three daughter and I, relaxed on the 2nd tier of the boat, up top! We also enjoyed walking around on Crab Island, visiting with restaurant vendors and vacationers. These views have blown my mind. I am constantly awe-struck of what an incredible place we live in! It’s absolutely beautiful here on Crab Island!

Floating Restaurants on Crab Island 

There are many floating restaurants on Crab Island! From boiled peanuts, to grilled burgers and pizza or Chick-Fil-A! You won’t go hungry on Crab Island!

The General Store

The General Store on Crab Island has floats, sunscreen, googles, dry bags snacks, drinks and more! I think I even saw that they sold T-shirts!

Gulf Stream Ice Cream & Shaved Ice

Gulf Stream sells ice cream on the water, sort of like a boat ice cream truck! They will drive their boat, right up to your boat, on the water! So fun! They also have shaved ice!

 

Pirate Porky’s Pizza & Grill

For lunch, we did pizza & burgers. We decided to take one of the paddle boards over (included in your charter) to one of the floating restaurants! Such a fun experience!

Reef Burgers

Hungry for a 1/2 pound burger at sea? Reef Burgers did not disappoint!

My husband and I tried a burger a it was great! Their employees are super sweet, too!

Kluge’s Barbecue 

They seek turkey legs, pulled pork barbecue sandwich’s, tacos and more! 

Kick’n Chicken

Kick n’ Chicken sells tenders, sandwich’s, wings, ice cream and boiled peanuts!

Chick-Fil-A

You can even get your favorite chicken out here on Crab Island!!! Chick-Fil-A serves you in a boat and will deliver right up to your boat!!

Juicebox Charters

Sail away to the best sandbar in America with a private pontoon charter, guided by a USCG-licensed captain!

Let’s Plan a Trip

Planning a family outing day, a girls weekend, or a couple’s trip? A cruise through Destin Harbor, is the perfect way to explore the beauty of the Emerald Coast. Book your adventure today and let Captain Justin create a tailored and memorable charter for you!

Why choose Juicebox Charters?

The waters are pristine on the Emerald Coast and with Juicebox Charters, you can experience luxury on the open water. Their expert team is dedicated to providing an unforgettable adventure-whether you’re snorkeling in crystal-clear waters, island hopping, or simply relaxing aboard their comfortable, well-equipped vessels.

With a variety of customizable packages, Captain Justin will cater to your every need, ensuring your time with Juice Box Charters is as seamless, as it is memorable. 

Experience and Affordability 

 With over 5 years experience operating a charter boat, rest assured that they have a track record of success in hosting your group.

Competitive pricing without surprise fees.  The cost of your charter includes a luxurious, modern Harris Solstice double decker slide boat, two paddleboards, a full complement of Bote floats, a large cooler with ice and bottled water, an upgraded Bluetooth sound system, beer pong float, games, snorkel masks, net. You really only need sunscreen and towels! Check out my IG Reel for a complete video of our trip, here.

Beach Weekend Marina

Beach Weekend Marina in Fort Walton, is where you set off for your adventure, to Crab Island! The marina has a wrap around patio, which is an excellent way to enjoy a cold drink and enjoy an Emerald Coast Sunset.

Final Thoughts

Crab Island was a blast with  Captain Justin from Juicebox Charters! The best pricing, which INCLUDES all you need for a trip to Crab Island! The boat is super clean and nice, no worries with being uncomfortable. The team from Juicebox Charters was amazing! Friendly, nice, very accommodating!! Our family loved it so much, we plan to go back again before the summer is over!!

Lifestyle, Travel

30A Travel Guide

by sweetsoutherngraces1 Comment on 30A Travel Guide
30A Travel Guide

[This post contains sponsored links. The product featured and linked in this post is provided by Home Exchange , Big Kahuna’s and Vivo Spa 30A – all opinions and reviews are my own.] 

This photo is the gorgeous home we stayed in, in the Blue Mountain Beach area in 30A.

We recently had a fantastic family vacation in 30A, Florida! My family rented a house for the first time, here in June, and we loved it so much! We would love to make it a yearly tradition!

Our youngest daughter made a sand turtle and wrote 30A on it.

30A is a collection of small, unique, gorgeous Florida beach towns. They are nestled quietly between the much busier areas of Panama City and Destin, along Florida’s Scenic Highway 30A.

Blue Mountain Beach

IMG_3407

Within this area, you’ll find the beach communities of Blue Mountain Beach, Rosemary Beach, Alys Beach, WaterSound, and several more! If you’re looking for a vacation destination that has stunning ocean views and white sand, pools, restaurants and is kid-friendly, you pretty much hit the jackpot with 30A! 

How To Get There?

This airport is in Panama City, FL, just a short drive from the coast. Flight options include Delta, Southwest, United, and American Airlines. Once we arrived at the airport, you can pick up a rental car or cab. From there, it is about a 30 minute drive from the airport. 

This is the beautiful home we stayed in, in 30A. I love the aesthetic of the home!! 

IMG_3742

Where To Stay?

There are several different beach communities within 30A! It’s home to Rosemary Beach, Seacrest, Alys Beach, Seagrove, Seaside, Watercolor and Grayton Beach – to name a few. The entire highway stretches 28.5 miles,  so you can check out all the beaches, since they are so close! ALL of the beach communities are stunning, we stayed in Blue Mountain Beach.

The home we stayed in had this gorgeous plunge pool!

IMG_3433

How do I find a house? We use Home Exchange to find homes to rent, while on vacation. We can use our guest points, which means, we get to stay for free! Free in 30A? Yes, all the details are in this blog-The Complete Guide to Home Exchange. You can also check out our reel on IG, about Home Exchange.

Photo of Red Fish Tacos, from their website.

IMG_3747

Where To Eat?

There are tons and tons of great restaurants in the 30A area! Here are the ones that we tried and loved:

Photo of Red Fish Taco’s Fish Tacos, from their website.

IMG_3743

Red Fish Taco

We tried their Grilled Red Fish Tacos and they were amazing! And I’m not a fish taco person! 5 stars!! We also tried their Goat Cheese, Spinach & Black Bean Quesadillas and they were delicious! 

Photo from Red Fish Tacos website-Quesadillas.

IMG_3744

We also tried their Taco Salad Bowl with Tortilla bowl, crisp greens, corn salsa, cucumber, tomato, avocado, cotija cheese, RFT pico, chili lime aioli, black eye pea vinaigrette. Photo below is from the Red Fish Taco’s website. Delicious! Perfect flavors of summer!

IMG_3745

Raw & Juicy

This is a great place to find vegetarian and vegan options with the cutest decor in Alys Beach! Their menu is filled with healthy options like açaí bowls, coffee and cold pressed juices. Open air seating with white and black umbrellas & string lights-inviting atmosphere! Right  past the patio tables, you’ll find a fun playground for kids! 

We tried their Sweet Kale Caesar Salad. It had kale with in-house caesar paste, roasted garlic chickpeas, shiitake mushroom bacon, shaved cashew parmesan and cranberries. It was so good!!

We also tried their Lavender Matcha with Oat Milk with one extra pump of lavender. My taste buds were happy!

IMG_3749

What To Do?

VISIT THE BEACH: 30A is unique in that most houses come with beach chairs and umbrella rentals!  All we had to do was bring a beach bag, back up our e-bikes and head down to the beach.

The picture below was our first day at Blue Mountain Beach. A small, yet, beautiful white sand beach with magnificent clear emerald green Gulf Coast water!

IMG_3375

When To Do?

VISIT THE BEACH: 30A is unique in that most houses come with beach chairs and umbrella rentals!  All we had to do was bring a beach bag, back up our e-bikes and head down to the beach.

RENT A BIKE: Some of the rental houses come with bikes, but if not, you’ll definitely want to rent one for the week! 30A is a  community with bikers, where you can bike from one beach to the next. There are wide sidewalks in between each of the little towns that double as bike paths. One of our favorite activities was biking from our house to the beach!

GO SHOPPING: There are tons of shops along 30A, and you’ll definitely want to reserve a few hours to visit them. Our favorite day was the day we went into Seaside! While you’re shopping, you can pick up a frosé or a snack from one of Seaside’s many food trucks. You’ll definitely want to stop into The Seaside Style, which is known for its corded pullovers and preppy classics. We had a blast and I came home with a few Seaside tee’s!

VISIT THE SPA: You’ll definitely want to take a trip into Rosemary Beach specifically for The Vivo Spa 30A. Vivo Spa 30A is a boutique spa in Rosemary Beach, FL offering a variety of tailored services for guests to feel rejuvenated and relaxed. Vivo Spa focuses on personalized attention, offering a curated selection of services, designed to pamper and uplift every guest. Treat yourself to an exceptional vaca experience! Indulge in their customizable facial treatments, using only the finest Image Skincare or FarmHouse Fresh products. Vivo Spa has expert estheticians that will  work with you to create a personalized experience tailored to your specific skin concerns-fine lines and wrinkles, improve the overall tone and texture of your skin, or simply unwind! Each treatment includes a thorough skin analysis, deep cleansing, exfoliation, mask and moisturizer, and a relaxing massage for the face, neck, and décolleté. You will leave feeling refreshed and revitalized. You can see more in depth of the spa experience with our reel on IG! Mention my name, Shae and receive 10% off!

VISIT BIG KAHUNA’S WATERPARK

We decided to head to Big Kahuna’s Water Park for the day to escape the beach and embrace the cool water!  It was perfect! 

Big Kahuna’s has multiple areas for all ages.  Twister slides, mat slides, tube slides, wave pool, two lazy rivers, and lots of small kiddie slides, sprinkler pads, water toys, and zero entry areas.  

Life vests and tubes are available complimentary. Cabanas and lockers are available for rent.  You cannot bring in a cooler, but there are concessions that have snacks, pizza, drinks, ice cream and beverages.  

We had a great day! Big Kahuna’s is the biggest water park on the Emerald Coast and what a perfect way to cool off this summer! Check out all the fun, here!! 

IMG_3645

Visit Blue Mountain Beach Creamery

Our Pastor and his wife told us about this little ice cream place and it was literally walking or biking distance from our house! Blue Mountain Beach Creamery is run by sixth generation locals. As a small family business, they take pride in the quality of their fresh, homemade ice cream, sorbets, and frozen yogurt. Our favorite flavors were chocolate, bourbon, turtle, and blueberry cheesecake! So, so good!! We may or may not have visited them twice, while we were there! 

Conclusion 

This concludes our 30A Travel Guide. I am so happy our family visited 30A. It’s such a quaint little beach area that definitely hit the spot with our family!!

We took the photo below, as we were leaving and headed back to our own little peninsula. Such a beautiful place to visit!

Let me know if you have any questions about 30A! Or please share your 30A experiences in the comments! We’d love to hear your suggestions of fun places to visit!
❤️~Shae


Travel

A Complete Guide to Home Exchange

by sweetsoutherngraces5 Comments on A Complete Guide to Home Exchange
A Complete Guide to Home Exchange

[This post contains sponsored links. The product featured and linked in this post is provided by Home Exchange -all opinions and reviews are my own.]

I am excited to introduce y’all to a company that makes traveling, easy, safe, fun, and affordable with Home Exchange. If you decide to sign up, please add me (Shae Roberts) as your sponsor in your account-More info below, plus you get 1-2 nights FREE, by adding me as your sponsor and Use my CODE: shae-c3a81!

We began being doing home exchanges last year and it’s our family’s favorite way to travel now. It taps into the economy and offers an authentic opportunity to truly live like a local, which means, often in a home full of beautiful character and personality, like our recent trip to 30A!

It’s also our number one tip for affordable travel tip, as it offers such a unique way to stay, in beautiful homes around the world, without exchanging money with your hosts. 

What is Home Exchange?

Home Exchange is a website that helps you find and swap houses with other people. Home Exchange has over 160,000 homes in 140 countries!

How does it work?

There are two different ways to do exchanges on the site –Reciprocal and Guest Points.

If you want to join Home Exchange, sign up for an account, pay your membership and add me as your sponsor in your account (Shae Roberts) PLUS use my CODE: shae-c3a81! and you’ll get a bonus 250 guest points when you join (enough for around 1-2 nights somewhere!). Use my CODE: shae-c3a81!

You pay $175 a year to be a member, which allows you to create a profile for your home(s). This gives you access to all the other profiles and the chance to exchange with them. You can do as many exchanges as you like each year, and you can list multiple properties.

Reciprocal Exchange

A reciprocal exchange can be either simultaneous or non-simultaneous. You can also off people a spare room in your home, called a hospitality exchange.

Simultaneous Exchange

A simultaneous exchange is where you do a direct seat with another household, at the same time. For example, we can go to a home in Paris and that family can come stay in our home. We could even exchange cars!

Non-Simultaneous Exchange

A non-simultaneous exchange is where you swap directly with someone, but your trips are different travel dates. For example, we went to stay a couple’s Florida Keys home last year and a year later, that couple can decide to come stay at our home.

Guest Point Exchange

Guest points-With Home Exchange; each home on the site has a point value. For example, our house is worth 145 points per night. If someone wants to stay at our house and doesn’t want to do a reciprocal exchange, they can offer to ‘pay’ in guest points instead. We then collect 145 points per night, which we can use to ‘pay’ for other Home Exchange properties.

We’ve used the guest point system a lot. We can open our home to Home Exchangers when we go away, collect points through that. We can then turn around and use those points to stay in all sorts of places, from The Florida Keys to Destin, FL to a historical two week trip, up the East Coast! We would love try traveling internationally soon, too!

Hospitality Exchange

A hospitality exchange is where you offer a room in your house while you’re still living there. You’ll likely share the same living areas, depending on your home situation. The exchange can be reciprocal or non-reciprocal. You can specify all the details of the exchange before finalising it. For this type of exchange, you need to create an individual listing for the room in your home, that’s on offer.

Solidarity Exchange

The solidarity exchange program is if there is a natural disaster or war, you can offer your home or a room in your home, to people affected, and they don’t have to pay any guest points in return. Instead, Home Exchange will offer you some guest points for your home. To be part of this, you join the Solidarity Group.

Why do we love Home Exchange?

I love the community of sharing aspect of it. It feels good to share our home when it’s not in use. I also love experiencing other people’s homes and ways of life. It’s really an incredible experience.

Guess what?! It is an incredibly affordable way to travel! We’ve saved thousands of dollars by using the site, sometimes in a single trip. Spending 9 nights in a 2 bedroom family home in the Florida Keys would have cost us a fortune, if not for Home Exchange.

It’s also amazing for families, especially if your host has kids too. They’ll likely be set with all you need from toys to high chairs to beds! It’s one of our best tips for traveling with littles!! PS-We’ve traveled with all four of our kiddos when they were little! Core family memories!

Where have we stayed?

We’ve done 2 exchanges so far and we have a huge two week trip across the East Coast planned this fall. We will have 3 exchanges total for that trip. Here are a few of the highlights & upcoming trips

Highlights:

  • • Florida Keys Home, right on the water, in the beautiful Marathon! Beautiful marine and sea life! Absolutely stunning views!!
  • • 30A in Blue Mountain Beach, FL, in a charming farmhouse beach neighborhood! Complete with E-Bike’s!

Upcoming:

  • • Fall Florida Keys to East Coast Trip- First stop is the Florida Keys! We are staying in the same home that we stayed in, last fall! Such a sweet family and host!! We plan to stay a week here!
  • • Savannah, GA is our second stop! We plan to spend a weekend here, seeing historical sights.
  • • PA is our 3rd stop! We plan to spend 4 days here, visiting everything historical!!! We head home and plan to drive straight through!!

How do you find an exchange?

The search function on Home Exchange has lots of filters that allow you to hone in on the perfect spot for your exchange. You can be specific and search for exact dates, number of people traveling with you, amenities you’re looking for and the size of the home.

Preferred Destinations 

You can save your preferred destinations in your profile-which means people can see your preferred destinations and offer their home to you. Plus, Home Exchange alerts you when things pop up!

How to confirm an exchange?

Once you’ve sent a message to a host about exchanging their home, the host will reply if it’s available and then you will iron out the details-length of stay, amount of people staying, if it’s a reciprocal or guest points, key, and cleaning arrangements. The guest points are transferred to you immediately. Then it is as easy as approving the exchange! 

How can you trust the people your home exchanging with?

Home Exchange is a community! There is a verification system-to be verified you must send Home Exchange your proof of residence, complete your profile by 100%, verify your email and phone number.

Home Exchange Guarantee

The Home Exchange team accompanies their members and protects all exchanges in case of unforeseen events.

→ Home Exchange commitments to guests : cancellation protection, compliance guarantee, damage coverage

→ Home Exchange commitments to hosts : $500 security deposit, property damage, theft protection

 

Questions about Home Exchange? 

If you have any other questions about Home Exchange, please feel free to reach out!