Dunes of Panama
An Overview and a Video of our trip with drone footage
Our family has a deep love for Panama City Beach, Florida! And if you have been there you can see why!
Panama City Beach is a gorgeous spot to visit with the family. With miles of beautiful sugar sand beaches and gorgeous “Emerald Coast” water, you will be enamored with the view! If you get tired of the beach you can enjoy lots of great shopping at the stores at Pier Park. Or you can find one of many family attractions, the Ripleys museum or Wonder Works, or even Gulf World.
When we began this search for our condo in PCB we needed something bigger than our normal favorite spot. With 10 of us staying in one condo unit we were afraid we would have to settle on something we weren’t wild about. Finding a 3BR condo that wasn’t a fortune might prove to be a challenge.
But we found a great spot! Actually, we couldn’t believe it was available for the dates we wanted as well as being in our price range.
We had never stayed at the Dunes of Panama, but we were excited to try it out. Our previous PCB trip had been just off Thomas Drive as well. Dunes of Panama address is 7205 Thomas Dr, Panama City Beach, FL 32408 You won’t miss this gorgeous complex!
The Dunes Common Areas
The Dunes was built in several phases and our condo was in the newest building, E. The entire complex is huge and I have to admit we didn’t see all of it. Before we went on our trip we were ecstatic that there were so many amenities, but we, of course, are beach bums and didn’t really care about much other than getting in some time with the sand and sun. But….
The Dunes has
Volleyball
Basketball
Tennis courts
Shuffleboard and more!!
There are stores located on site; Sneaky Tiki at building B&C pool area, and Sud’s Weezers located at building E in front of the pool.
The Dunes complex is large with 3 gulf front pools; 2 are located in front of buildings B&C and one in front of building E. The pool you see in the video is from the one located in front of building E. In the pool area there is a restroom (that was always clean), plenty of tables and chairs, and a gazebo.
I know there was so much about the Dunes complex that we didn’t see because we didn’t have a need to explore further.
The Dunes is a gated complex and has security on premises. Every part of the complex felt safe and secure!
Check-In
Our condo was easy to check into. When booking with VRBO it seems that you have a different check-in method for every stay. With this particular unit, we rented the check-in was with their management company located in Dunes. When we booked we paid the VRBO fee as well as put down a refundable deposit. The rest of our money was due at check-in. (Some VRBOs require that you pay it all ahead of time.) The management company was helpful and even let us check in an hour early since our room was ready. (I know this is all about pure luck and only available when the unit is clean and ready.) You can find some great Dunes of Panama units for your vacation here.
Building E
Luckily in front of the building, there is a covered area perfect for loading and unloading. The carts were just inside the building behind the elevator bank, so we were able to get right to work. Having a covered area was perfect as it was raining when we arrived (thanks, Hurricane Nate). The parking area was well lit and is just in front of the building. No having to cross roads and you can walk out the front door of the condo and see your car.
There is a gym in Building E, I only needed a treadmill, so it had everything I needed.
Our 3 bedroom Unit (the Pelican’s Perch)
We were insanely excited when we found this unit in our price range for the days we wanted. We wanted each couple to have their own rooms on the trip, and this was available with Pelican’s Perch. AND the best part…. each room has a view of the ocean! and not just a view… each room had balcony access!!!! I didn’t know how much I would LOVE this! But boy did it LOVE it! Waking up and looking out to the ocean is perfect. Check out these rentals at Dunes of Panama.
Entering the unit there is a lot of space by the front door…. this is key… we had space to all take off our shoes, lay down our beach toys (cuz I don’t care how well you wash them off, there will still be sand tracked in) and not trip over it all as you are entering or leaving. They even had shelves located by the door so that we were able to somewhat keep it all organized.
Turning down the hall to the left you come to a full-sized washer dryer… y’all know how much I love my washer/dryer on vacation. Next was a full bathroom with a tub/shower combo.
The first bedroom has a full sized bed with a twin size sleeper chair. This room has a private balcony with chairs. This room was perfect for our family members that didn’t have children yet. They were a little further back and could get away from our louder bunch.
The second bedroom has two beds with balcony access to the full HUGE balcony that wrapped around the rest of the unit.
The third bedroom was on the other side of the unit. It had a king-sized bed with access to the full balcony. The bathroom was to the front of this bedroom, making it perfect for everyone to use.
The second bathroom has a beautiful shower, toilet, and sink. And there was a second sink area located outside the bathroom. This was awesome! At bedtime, we didn’t have to crowd the bathroom for teeth brushing but had a lot more room.
All three bedrooms had walk-in closets! There was so much room we could put our suitcases in the closets and not walk all around them with them in the way. y’all know when you travel to the beach you come with a lot of stuff… it’s nice to have a spot to put it all. The view from each of the bedrooms was unreal. Being able to get up in the morning and walk out on your balcony straight from your room was so magical. While two of the bedrooms and the living room all share the same balcony, it is shaped in such a way that you do feel like you get a little privacy if you want.
The sofa in the living room folded into a bed, making this condo able to sleep 11! And it is large enough that you won’t feel like you are on top of each other.
The kitchen was well equipped. We like to cook up easy meals when we are vacationing so that we don’t have to spend time getting ready and going to eat. (We are seriously beach bums.) This kitchen had everything we could have wanted. Crock-pot, coffee pot (that brewed full cups and K-cups), dishwasher… everything!
There were some board games in our condo, and we had all brought some games. It was perfect for the adults to sit at the table with our game while the kids had a game going in the living room. We played a lot of Monopoly while we waited for the storm to pass.
There are chairs and umbrellas for this particular unit.
This unit is just shy of 2000 square feet and space is unreal.
The Emerald Coast waters and sugar sandy beach of Panama City Beach had us all just falling deeper in love with the ocean and our beach stays.
The Dunes was a very well kept and clean area. We very much enjoyed our stay there and can’t wait to get back.
The owners of the condo we stayed in were amazing through the entire process. They answered all of our questions quickly and thoroughly.
Have you stayed at Dunes of Panama yet? I would love to hear about your experience.
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