Holiday Inn Resort Fort Walton Beach

Holiday Inn Resort Fort Walton Beach sits on the Gulf at 1299 Miracle Strip Parkway SE on Okaloosa Island, the barrier island between downtown Fort Walton Beach and Destin’s East Pass. Okaloosa Island is the eastern end of Santa Rosa Island, and most of its hotels are clustered along Miracle Strip Parkway and Santa Rosa Boulevard, with long undeveloped stretches of Eglin Air Force Base land farther west. The resort shares this stretch of beach with several other hotels and is about two tenths of a mile from the Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park, with The Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island a short walk east. The Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center is directly across Miracle Strip Parkway, which makes the resort a common base for conventions and tournaments as well as family vacations.

The hotel has 152 rooms on five floors, including 44 suites, and every room is smoke-free. Rooms are described as beachfront, and many have views over the Gulf. Housekeeping is daily, Wi-Fi is free, and the front desk is staffed around the clock. Pets are not permitted.

The pool complex is built for families. A seasonally heated lazy river curves along the dunes beside a zero-entry pool with a waterfall feature, a hot tub sits nearby, and an indoor heated pool gives guests a swim option on cool winter days. In season the resort runs a kids club and themed children’s activities such as Mermaids and Pirates, plus Dive-In movies shown at the pool, and there is a game room for rainy afternoons. A fitness center rounds out the amenities.

Food and drinks stay close to the sand. Riptides Bar & Grill serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a menu that leans toward casual favorites such as burgers and the kitchen’s BBQ pork nachos, and a beachfront tiki bar pours drinks steps from the beach. The resort has about 2,500 square feet of meeting space of its own and offers wedding packages for ceremonies on the sand, and parking is available on site for a daily fee.

The resort suits families who want a lazy river and kids programming without leaving the beach, along with convention visitors who want to walk to the convention center. The Okaloosa Island Pier, the restaurants and bars at The Boardwalk, and public beach access areas are all nearby along Miracle Strip Parkway. The Okaloosa Area of Gulf Islands National Seashore, a calm sound-side beach and picnic spot, sits near the Marler Bridge at the island’s eastern tip. Destin’s HarborWalk Village is across the Marler Bridge a few miles east, downtown Fort Walton Beach and its Indian Temple Mound Museum are just over the Brooks Bridge to the west, and Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field are a short drive away.