Carillon Beach: Stella By The Sea - Panama City Beach, FL

Clean, pretty, attractive, roomy.

This home is beautiful well equipped and spotless!! It is located in beautiful Carillon Beach just steps to the walkover to the beach. We love Carillon and will definitely be back to Stella by the Sea.

The house is just as gorgeous as the pictures show with all the designer finishes you could ever want. One drawback is that there are really only 2 bedrooms with easy bathroom access. When sleeping in the bedroom on the top floor, one would have to come down 2 flights of stairs to use the restroom. Same with the lofted room that is above one of the king beds, but in that case you are actually coming down a ladder to get to the shared bathroom. This is very impractical for small children and most adults, making the house less practical for families.

While all the natural light that comes into the house is beautiful, be prepared for the bedrooms to be flooded with light at 5:45am each morning because there are no window treatments on the large transom windows that line 2 of the 4 walls. If you don’t relish the idea of getting up that early on vacation, be sure to bring a sleep mask. The other drawback to not having window treatments on the transom windows is that this entire, large house has only one air conditioning unit. The upstairs rooms stay warm during the day and unfortunately, most of the night as well.

Location is great as the public beach walkover is directly across the street but bring your own beach towels because those are not provided. I cannot remember the last time I stayed in a luxury beach house that did not provide beach towels. The 2 beach chairs and umbrella were appreciated and used every day of our stay. The outdoor shower helped us keep sand out of the house and the many outdoor porches were furnished well with comfortable seating and tables.

Surprisingly, there are cameras on the porches and a Ring-type doorbell, which also probably provides audio. They made us feel uncomfortable and I would hope they are not all being monitored. Usually when there are cameras on rental properties, there is prior notification in the listing or information provided ahead of time.

Vacasa did respond by text when there were maintenance issues during our stay, but they did not answer the phone for the day before or day of our arrival when we needed to speak to someone. Guests staying in other Vacasa homes also reported that this is a consistent issue, so I hope that can be addressed because the staff was lovely in person.

Checking out was easy because there wasn’t a long list of required maintenance items to do. The house is impeccably clean and the kitchen had everything one could possibly need during their stay. It is really a lovely home for the right family but I cannot imagine it being comfortable at all for more than 5 people and certainly not the maximum number of guests the house is indicated to sleep on the listing.

This home is stunning and so close to the private beach walkover! The kitchen was well stocked for cooking and all of our family needs! Already planning our next visit!!