Ryan and I LOVE taking our family on vacations and even more so, staycations.
Especially since we moved to the beach!
It is the best of all worlds. We do not have to drive far, he doesn’t have to take off a full day of work and it doesn’t take quite as much planning or packing. When planning our final beach hoorah, before the cooler weather finally arrives, we wanted to do something super fun for our kids. There have been times we do mini mommy and daddy getaways but this time we really wanted it to be our whole family. Between juggling work, soccer, school and life – taking time to just hang out and connect with each other gets pushed, too easily, to the side. We did some research on best places to stay in our area with young children and Sterling Resort’s – Splash Resort
was one of the most recommended and I could totally see why.
We arrived at Splash to a colorful and exciting resort that had everything a kid could dream of. Waterslides, splash pads, dumping water buckets, lazy river, two pools, hot tub, etc. Braydon didn’t really understand why we were staying in a hotel for fun but from the moment he saw the resort area in the back through the windows, he was sold and wanted to move in there.
Naturally, from the moment we walked in and got into our room I heard “Mommy, pool please” for the next 45 minutes until we could get in our swim suits and get down there. We had a gorgeous 3 bedroom suite with a full kitchen, and additional mini kitchen and 3 bathrooms. We had a corner room with two balconies that overlooked the gorgeous gulf, the sunsets were unreal. You can see one of them in the pics below – and trust me – it doesn’t do it justice. The room was plenty big enough to fit two families, so if you are traveling with friends request a corner room!
Our mornings were spent at the splash pad and lazy river and afternoons in the pool and waterslides. There was also a poolside restaurant and bar, Riptide – where we had lunch and delicious pina coladas. I was thankful for this because mommy didn’t want to have to pack lunches for everyone when we were in vacay mode! If you have picky eaters or sandwich lovers – you could totally take a cooler down to the pool if needed. We actually did that for Walker’s milks!
The beach had an adorable boardwalk (very short one – it’s right on the beach) with lounge chairs, umbrellas and there were even jetski rentals. We didn’t get to do the rentals because we were a little nervous with our boys but if you have older kids – they would LOVE it!
The resort is located conveniently close to Pier Park, it was about a 4 minute drive. We took the boys over there both nights for dinner, Dave and Busters and train rides, which I am sure you saw if you follow on snap chat. The boys were in a fun zone, beach paradise for days and Braydon is still asking about the pools and when we can go back!
Thank you Sterling Resorts for having us.