Aircation: Escape to The Emerald Coast VLOG: The Pearl Boutique Hotel Review & Recap + Camera Roll

Pristine emerald waters and beautiful European-inspired architecture make up one of the most romantic beach towns on the Emerald Coast of Florida, Rosemary Beach. It's located in South Walton and it's the best way to travel to the Dutch West Indies with features of the European building types that have a warm, Florida touch without ever having to go overseas.

Once you have braved the 5.5 to 6.5 hour drive from Tampa to Rosemary Beach you will find yourself completely immersed and enamored with this quaint planned (community) beach town with a little over 500 homes, private beach access, restaurants, shops, and everything else you would need as a resident.

I spent over a year researching this place and had my room booked for about 4 months in advance. The only hotel in Rosemary Beach is the Pearl which is a small boutique hotel that is pretty pricey. You can however, rent the homes that are priced in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions via AirBnB. This is in one of the top 5 hotels, roadtrips, and Florida spots we have visited.

If you are unfamiliar with the panhandle and specifically the areas from Destin to Alys Beach this is all considered the Emerald Coast. It doesn't feel like Florida at all and that is probably because this area is so close to Alabama.

On a sunny day the emerald green water will blow you away because it is literally that beautiful. Unfortunately, just like on my last trip to Destin it rained every day. I only got sunshine on my last day here which was a huge bummer. On top of that it was Fall so not only was there a 1 hour time difference from the rest of Florida, but it was getting dark at 4:30pm everyday and there was tornado watches.

I hope that one day I find myself back in the Emerald Coast 30A area again more so than Destin and here is why:

1.The absolute charm of Rosemary and Alys Beach

2.The architecture

there are tons of restaurants unlike when I was in Destin 5 years ago. Even if you are not staying in this area I was in, there is a public beach which was called Inlet beach and they too have a lot of restaurants that I did not have time to try.

3.When I stayed at the Henderson in Destin the restaurant was closed for the "season" it was March. Wheras the hotel restaurant at the Pearl was amazing and I will get into that more below.

4.The beach is completely private and already has beach chairs and umbrellas sitting out

Had it been sunny or if the weather had been less temperamental I would have had double the amount of photos. It was also kind of cold so I didn''t even bother with swimwear.

THE ROOM

So, one thing that I have to say, you have to be ready to commit if you are staying here. You have to pay up front and it's non-refundable. That scared me because I have really bad insomnia and I have panic attacks and usually if I am traveling it is because I am suffering of both badly and I need a serious reset along with mental stimulation and one on one time with my husband. Luckily, we both just committed and we made that long trip and actually checked in right at check in time which almost never happens with us.

The room is beautiful and it is huge. The best thing is this freaking balcony. I fell in love with the architecture of Rosemary Beach at first sight. I had to see it. The view from most of the rooms is great because you get a town view or a beach view.

THE VIEW FROM THE BALCONY

I took all these photos on different days. What is funny is all of these "night time" photos were actually taken at 5pm, it was just that dark.

Literally, it was really 4pm and it is like this. I don't know if it is like this every Fall. I asked someone who said she was from the area and she said she doesn't know, didn't think the weather was typical and it actually was pretty weird the whole week we were there.

There was weird humidity that made my makeup oxidize like crazy and it was so hard to take photos with my camera because the lens was always foggy. The pool and roofttop deck at the Pearl is actually really beautiful , but with the rain it pretty much looked like this. I loved this outfit though so I was like let's just take a few photos and hope some are good.

HOTEL RESTAURAUNT

HAVANA BEACH CLUB

So, the hotel restaurant far exceeded my expectations. There is always one thing I get on a trip that is finally gluten free and safe for me to eat and then I only get it once and I am like thinking about it forever after that and for this trip it was these complementary corn bread muffins. I am slapping myself because I should have just asked for more at the table and taken them to the room. I did ask for them at brunch, but they said they are made fresh during the day and only served at night. Well, these were amazing. They tasted like my childhood, but better because my mom's were always dry (don't tell her I said that).

So, we ate at the hotel restaurant twice on sight and three times by room service which will be shown below. Dinner was good in the sense that it was well seasoned and well executed and our waiter was great at checking on what was gluten free; he was also really friendly. They had live music also and it seems like that was the only restaurant in that immediate area that served beer, wine, cocktails and had live music.

My husband was loosing his mind over these Grouper bites which I could only smell and yes, they smelled amazing.

Key lime martini

So, as I always do I spend a lot of time researching restaurants because I have Celiacs Disease I can not eat everywhere. I have to make sure there is somewhere where I can get something gluten free or I end up suffering the whole trip. I have found anywhere there are a lot of elderly people you will find a lot of restaurants that have gluten free options. This whole area was really great with that. I gained 5 pounds on this trip because all I did was eat and lye in bed watching t.v and the rain. The great thing about this hotel is that there are literally three or four restaurants right within walking distance.

LA CREMA

ROOM SERVICE

So, room service was better than expected. Now, I had issues ordering my food because the tablet in my room didn't work so I had to go downstairs both times. Because the tablet was not working by the time I got downstairs at 9:30 they had actually shut the kitchen down even though they said room service was until 10pm. Well, I wanted this burger (and yes, that is a gluten free bun!) and they told me the grill was already cold. Naturally, I would ask for one cooked via cast iron (I am a cast iron girl and I was raised with cast iron). This is how I know the Chef was great, he offered to make it on cast iron before I could even ask. They said it won't taste as good.

There is only one way to make a burger full of flavor and it is on cast iron. Hands down this was the best burger I had had all year long and it was seasoned to perfection. I hate sweet pickles HATE them, but these were pickled with hot peppers so you couldn't taste the sweetness and it set the burger. off. This is legit how I gained like 5 pounds because the fries were also gluten free in a dedicated fryer. My husband and I were lying in bed sharing burgers and fries and we ordered it again two days later and did the same. That second time it was grilled and it was lacking on the flavor and richness that you get with the cast iron. I would have taken a better burger photo, but honestly we started eating it before I could even think to do it.