La Quinta Miramar Beach-Destin is one of the newest builds on Highway 98 - a Del Sol prototype property that earned the brand’s own design award - with 126 crisp rooms across four floors just off the Emerald Coast’s sugar-white sand. Kings, two-queens, and sofa-sleeper suites all get the light-wood, ocean-art treatment, and the day starts with the free Bright Side Breakfast spread. There’s a seasonal outdoor pool against the tower, a fitness center, an on-site bar pouring from 1 to 10 PM, and the Bright Side Market for late-night snacks. Pets under the brand’s limits stay free of drama, and parking costs nothing.

The public beach access at Miramar Regional Beach sits about a ten-minute walk down the road, and Pompano Joe’s serves Gulf seafood on the sand a half-mile away. Silver Sands Premium Outlets - one of the country’s biggest designer outlet centers - is five minutes inland, Henderson Beach State Park’s dunes are eight, and Destin Commons’ shops and restaurants sit just past it. Big Kahuna’s water park makes an easy thirteen-minute splash day, HarborWalk Village anchors the fishing-fleet end of Destin at eighteen, and the whole Grand Boulevard at Sandestin scene is ten minutes east.