Silver Shells Beach Resort & Spa — Attraction in Destin

This is a great family oriented resort with an awesome heated pool, good set up, and great beach. We stayed here for a week (Saturday 3/16 to Friday 3/22) after booking through VRBO with a very nice couple. Your condo style unit will vary based on who you go through, so my review will focus on the management company for our unit (Compass Resorts) and The Silver Shells Resort itself.

Compass Resorts: We were very happy with our dealings with compass. It began after booking through VRBO when Compas contacted us with the ability to add other guests (spouse, other family members coming, etc) so that they could see resort info and access the unit info. They have a nice app which answered all of our questions, provided some local information, and made contacting them with any questions a breeze. The day before our arrival they sent us an email and app notification that we should be able to check in the next day by 5pm at the latest and to contact them when we were 1 hour away. Later that day they contacted us to let us know our unit was ready early (2pm) and we could arrive whenever we liked. Upon arrival the check in was very quick and they gave us our room key fobs (2 were ready and they gave us 2 extra at our request), resort wristbands, and an explanation of entering and exiting the resort, beach, and unit. Our only other dealings with compass were for a maintenance request which was quickly fixed later that day. Overall they were great!

Silver Shells Resort: The resort was great and very family friendly. Everything was very secure with one guard stand road access point (unless you have a clicker for the other gate) and each building requiring your key fob to access. The buildings have underground parking for every unit (some units multiple) and above ground parking for extra vehicles. We stayed in St. Marrten and our building had 4 elevators which accessed 2 rooms per floor (one front entry, one rear entry). This meant that the maximum number of units for each elevator was 22 units, but it was no where near that busy during our stay. We met a few silver shells employees (security, maintenance, pool supervision) and they were all nice. The main pool area is a gigantic area lagoon style and was heated to 85 degrees during our stay (air temp was 55 in the morning and 65-72 in the afternoon). They had a good sized hot pool as well. We very much enjoyed the pool area and again it was very secure. To get to the beach there were multiple walkways over the sand dunes including one that has a bar and grill with a deck area right on the beach. Every unit has a view of the ocean, easy elevator access to the ground, and only a couple hundred feet to get to the sand. The beach itself is plenty large for the guests at the resort, but isn't so huge you have a big trek to the ocean. Our unit (and most) included 2 beach chairs and an umbrella for free and you could reserve extra if desired. You can bring your own beach chairs, but they have to be behind (or to the sideof) the provided ones. You cannot bring your own umbrellas as they can be a safety issue due to wind. The only negative I can say about the resort is the workout room didn't have any cardio equipment. It had a ton of lifting options, but no treadmill or bike. We were lucky and we could run on the beach or the non busy sidewalks around the area, but if it had rained that would have been disappointing.

Overall, everything about the resort was great and we are already thinking about returning...

Stayed in St. Criox 802 …It was okay. It would have been a lot better if it wasn’t for the people below us playing their music and partying. I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t after 10pm and if I didn’t have an 11 month old with a bedtime of 8pm. I’m fine with some noise… it’s another thing to have a constant loud blasting music going on directly underneath you and waking up your baby on the hour. He slept through our roof being redone so that tells you how loud it was. We couldn’t say anything until 10pm. It threw him all off schedule, made him grumpy, it was bad. I called compass resorts one night and the lady said there was nothing she could do about it. Then our very last day we found out about the Guard Shack… they helped us out but compass could’ve told me about them. To add to that during the day we could hear a bunch of construction going on above us… baby slept through it but I couldn’t and it made my husband and I so mad we couldn’t enjoy ourselves in the hotel. Our comforter had a blood stain on it and other stains on it and they didn’t and couldn’t provide a replacement so we switched it with the other one in the other room but they really need to replace the comforter sets. They’re gross. Compass did provide us with clean washed extra pair of sheets and offered a hospital blanket… but a hospital blanket? come on…. The first day our baby was crawling around and ended up with black knees and black tops of his feet after a couple of minutes. When I say black, i mean straight black… his knees have never been that dirty ever. So I don’t know if the floor was mopped? So i sweeped and mopped it all over again myself. It looked just like the pictures and it was pretty but I think the floors are just getting a sweep in between guests. They do have an awesome pool and a great beach bar that offers food as well. I’ll probably never stay here again but I would’ve really enjoyed it if it wasn’t for what I had stated above. As a whole it just felt kinda gross and more like a party hotel vs. a quiet getaway with sleep. Big plus was the private beach and free chairs and umbrellas. This place just didn’t work well for us. It does have its pros but the cons outweighed...

Our family of 5 just stayed (in the St. Maarten building) at Silver Shells and plan to return to Silver Shells resort! My husband found this resort by looking at Google maps, and though we were impressed by the photos we found online, our arrival in person exceeded our expectations. All the staff were great, from the people working the check-in desk, the guards at the gate (shoutout to Cliff!!!), and the maintenance folks (minor problem with tv). Each room has semi-private elevator access, and the convenience of getting directly to your condo cannot be overstated with that semi-private elevator! I’ve vacationed many places and none had this feature-we are spoiled for life now. The condo we chose (602) was beautiful; not sure how recently it had been updated but everything looked brand new, including the kitchen appliances. The balcony was a great feature and the view of the ocean was amazing. To access the pool area, you go down the elevator and take a short walk through the garage. Accessing the private beach was easy as well, it's a short walk from the pool area. This was one of the cleanest beaches I can recall visiting-the sand was WHITE and almost spotless, hardly any debris from the ocean. The “Sand Bar” is nearby and the staff there were amazing too! Drinks were very good (our favorite bartender of the week is Cherish, she was so nice to us), as was the food was (the pork sliders were solid). Though the wind didn’t die down for us to enjoy the glassy Destin water I was hoping to see, there was plenty to do to keep us busy: gym, new pickleball courts, pool, hot tub, and lots of shopping nearby. Plan to bring or buy toiletries like hand soap, body wash, shampoo, toilet paper, etc. Each bathroom had two small soaps and a roll (or two?) of toilet paper. We needed more to get by, so went shopping at the Wal-Mart that was just across the road. We stayed here late-April/early May so it was NOT crowded (huge plus for us). We all loved staying here and highly...