Vacation Planning Guide • Florida Panhandle • stellamarisgulfcoast.com
Navarre Beach keeps showing up in searches, and for good reason. Conde Nast Traveler ranked it the #2 Best Beach in the United States in 2025, yet most travelers still do not know it exists. It is quieter than Destin, less developed than Pensacola Beach, and home to some of the most genuinely relaxing waterfront vacation rentals on the entire Gulf Coast.
One property in particular has been drawing attention from large families and multigenerational groups: Stella Maris, a five-bedroom, sound-front home in Navarre Beach that sleeps 14 and sits right on Santa Rosa Sound. Its tagline is “Two Waters, One Stay,” and that phrase captures something real about what makes this rental different from virtually everything else on the Florida panhandle.
Below are the questions travelers ask most often when searching for a large-group beach house on the Emerald Coast, answered honestly, including what to do when the Gulf has red flags flying.
Q: What Is the Difference Between a Sound-Front and a Gulf-Front Vacation Rental, and Which Is Better?
Santa Rosa Island, the narrow barrier island where Navarre Beach sits, has two distinct water experiences, and they are not what most people expect to be different. Both sides of the island share the same sugar-white sand. The difference is entirely the water itself.
On one side is the Gulf of America, with its emerald-green surf and open-water energy. On the other is Santa Rosa Sound, calm, protected, and shallow, a body of water separating the island from the mainland that barely reacts when the Gulf has rough conditions.
Gulf-front rentals sit directly on the beach with unobstructed Gulf views. They are ideal for guests whose entire focus is open-water swimming, but they are more exposed, more expensive, and on red flag days when rip currents close Gulf swimming, that backyard water experience disappears entirely.
Sound-front rentals like Stella Maris put the quiet, protected Sound right in the backyard. The same sugar-white sand lines the sound-side shore, with flat and calm water that is ideal for kayaking, paddleboarding, and wading with small children. The Gulf of America beach is eight minutes away on foot.
For multigenerational groups traveling with a range of ages and swimming abilities, the sound-front setup often wins. Grandparents can sit on the porch watching grandchildren paddle. Teenagers can disappear on kayaks for an hour. Toddlers can play in calm, shallow water right outside the door. And everyone still gets the Gulf beach whenever they want it.
Q: How Is Navarre Beach Different from Pensacola Beach and Destin?
All three destinations share the same sugar-white quartz sand and emerald Gulf water. They sit on the same coastline. The experience, though, is genuinely different.
Destin is the most developed, most expensive, and most visited. It has the most restaurants and nightlife on the panhandle, and the most crowds. Beach parking on a July Saturday in Destin is a contact sport.
Pensacola Beach sits in the middle, with more dining variety than Navarre, more history and local character than Destin, and meaningful crowds but not quite Destin-level chaos.
Navarre Beach is the quiet one. Often called “Florida’s Best-Kept Secret,” it has fewer restaurants, less nightlife, and dramatically less beach crowding. Florida panhandle beachfront real estate is premium across the board, and Navarre is no exception. What it delivers in return is the actual beach experience: space to spread out, no parking circus, and water that feels like it belongs to you rather than a thousand other visitors.
Q: Is Stella Maris a Good Choice for Large Families and Multigenerational Groups?
It is built for exactly that. Stella Maris sleeps 14 across five bedrooms, with a layout designed to give multigenerational groups, including grandparents, parents, and kids, enough space to coexist comfortably while still having shared areas that bring everyone together.
The sound-front location does specific work for multigenerational dynamics. Different generations can stake out different water experiences based on energy level and preference, without anyone having to compromise. As part of the By the Sea community, guests also have access to a community pool and hot tub, an additional layer of amenity most standalone rental homes cannot offer. On a hot afternoon when someone does not want sand or open water, the pool is right there.
The result is a property where the 72-year-old grandmother who wants to read by the water and the 14-year-old who needs to be active from sunrise to sunset can both have an excellent vacation, without those needs ever really conflicting. That balance is harder to find than it sounds.
Q: What Water Activities Are Included, and Do I Need to Bring My Own Gear?
No gear needed. Stella Maris includes the following with every stay:
- 1 kayak, launched directly from the backyard into Santa Rosa Sound
- 2 stand-up paddleboards (SUPs)
- 1 pedal boat
- Beach chairs, umbrellas, and beach toys for any beach day
- Large beach wagon for easy gear transport to the Gulf
- Fire pit in the backyard on the Sound for evening gatherings
All watercraft launch right off the property into calm Sound water, with no trailer, no rental shop, and no fee. The large wagon makes the eight-minute walk to the Gulf genuinely easy, even loaded with chairs, umbrellas, coolers, and towels for 14 people.
For fishing, the location is exceptional. Charter services including Lucky Chucky Charters offer pickup directly from the back of the property, launching right onto Santa Rosa Sound for Gulf, bay, and inshore fishing. It is about as close to a private fishing trip as a vacation charter gets.
For those who want eco-tours, guided trips run nearby through marsh estuaries and mangrove islets, with frequent sightings of herons, sea turtles, and jumping mullet. Most guests are happy doing their own thing on the Sound.
Q: What Happens on Red Flag Days? Is the Vacation Ruined?
Red flag days, when dangerous rip currents or rough surf conditions close the Gulf beach to swimmers, are a real part of the Gulf Coast experience, especially in summer. For rentals whose entire pitch is “steps from the beach,” they are a genuine problem.
At Stella Maris, a red flag day is barely an inconvenience. Santa Rosa Sound does not respond to Gulf conditions. The water out the back door is protected, calm, and swimmable regardless of what the flags say. Red flag days often become the best kayak and paddleboard days of the trip, because conditions on the Sound do not change and there is no crowd anywhere.
Layered in with the community pool, the fire pit, the well-equipped kitchen, and the space a 14-person house provides, red flag days tend to become unexpectedly memorable. Big group breakfasts that spill into a slow morning. An afternoon on the Sound. An evening around the fire watching the water. Those tend to be the days guests talk about most afterward.
Q: How Does the Kitchen Handle Cooking for 10 to 14 People?
The kitchen at Stella Maris was clearly designed with large groups in mind. The full setup includes:
- Dual dishwashers, the most underrated amenity in large-group rental kitchens. After a big group dinner, two dishwashers running simultaneously means no mountain of dishes waiting at midnight.
- Full coffee bar lineup, so the first six people awake are not fighting over a single machine
- Air fryer, Instant Pot, and crock pot, ideal for cooking in shifts or handling large quantities
- Griddles, because making pancakes for 14 on a standard stovetop is not a plan
For groups that enjoy cooking together (which is most multigenerational families), this kitchen is genuinely fun to use. For those who would rather skip cooking entirely, private chefs make the whole equation even easier. Chef Josh with Emerald Coast Chefs is a local favorite for large-group dinners, bringing restaurant-quality meals directly to the property so the group can enjoy a full dining experience without leaving the house.
Q: Is There a Pool?
Yes. As part of the By the Sea community, Stella Maris guests have access to the community pool and hot tub. Community pools are, in practice, often a better setup than a private rental pool. They are maintained by professional staff, typically larger, and the hot tub is a genuinely welcome amenity in the evenings, particularly on cooler spring or fall trips.
Combined with Santa Rosa Sound directly in the backyard and the Gulf beach eight minutes on foot, guests have three distinct water options on any given day. That flexibility (“pick your adventure” on a morning-by-morning basis) is genuinely rare in a single rental property.
Q: What Does “Two Waters, One Stay” Actually Mean?
It is the most accurate summary of what makes Stella Maris different from most Florida panhandle vacation rentals. Guests get two distinct water experiences in a single stay.
Santa Rosa Sound is right in the backyard, with sugar-white sand, calm protected water, and a full fleet of water toys ready to launch every single day of the trip. The Gulf of America, with its emerald surf and the classic Florida beach energy, is eight minutes away on foot whenever conditions allow.
Most rentals offer one or the other. Gulf-front houses put you on the beach but give you no backyard water. Interior properties send you driving to the beach. Sound-front properties on the island give you calm backyard water, though not all have the close Gulf access Stella Maris’s location provides.
There is also an unexpected third element that guests rarely anticipate but consistently love: the Blue Angels. Based at nearby Naval Air Station Pensacola, the Navy’s precision flight team flies practice runs on select Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with training routes that frequently take them directly over Santa Rosa Sound and Navarre Beach. Watching F/A-18 Super Hornets scream overhead from a paddleboard on the Sound is not something that ends up on most vacation itineraries. It happens anyway. It becomes a story.
Q: How Do Guests Know Where Everything Is, and What to Do Around Navarre Beach?
Stella Maris uses TouchStay, a digital guest guide that lives on your phone like an app and answers virtually every question a guest might have, before and during the stay.
The guide covers everything: how appliances work, Wi-Fi details, check-in instructions, house rules, and a full inventory of gear. But it goes well beyond the basics. There is a curated set of local recommendations built specifically around Navarre Beach, including where to eat, what to do on and off the water, the best spots for a sunset, where to find live music, and what is worth the short drive to Pensacola or Destin.
Guests access it with a single link, no app download required, and it works on any phone. For large groups juggling different interests across multiple generations, having all of that information in one organized, searchable place makes a real difference. It is the kind of resource that used to require either a thick welcome binder or a lot of back-and-forth texts with the host.
Q: How Do I Book Directly, and Why Should I?
Stella Maris is available for direct booking at stellamarisgulfcoast.com. Booking direct rather than through a third-party platform generally means a lower total cost (OTA platforms add service fees of 10 to 20 percent on top of nightly rates) and direct access to the owners for questions, special requests, or early communication about your group’s specific needs.
For large groups in particular, being able to communicate directly before booking is worth something. You can ask about specific layout details, confirm the water toy inventory, and get honest answers before you commit 14 people to a week-long trip.
Plan Your Navarre Beach Stay
Stella Maris accommodates up to 14 guests across five bedrooms, on the sound-front of Santa Rosa Sound in Navarre Beach, Florida. Included with every stay: a kayak, paddleboards, a pedal boat, a beach wagon, chairs, umbrellas, a fire pit, community pool and hot tub access, and a kitchen built for real group cooking.
Navarre Beach, Conde Nast Traveler’s #2 Best Beach in the US, remains one of the Gulf Coast’s most genuinely underrated destinations. Less crowded, less expensive, and quietly spectacular.
Book directly at stellamarisgulfcoast.com
Two waters. One stay. Zero platform fees.
Stella Maris • Navarre Beach, Florida • stellamarisgulfcoast.com • (850) 400-4105