St Pete Beach Vacation Rental house

Years ago, we stumbled on the quaint and respiteful Pass-a-Grille area of St. Pete Beach. When most people approach the area they come upon the "Pink Palace", the audacious symbol of tourist opulence, the Don CeSar Resort. You know you've reached St. Pete Beach when you see it. Most people turn right into the busy and crowded tourist trap that the beach is; however, if you turn left you enter a very different and desirable end of the beach known as Pass-a-Grille. It's only about a mile long but is a tranquil penninsula of peaceful seaside homes, small inns, shops, a few restaurants and local services. We thought to ourselves, wouldn't it be nice to vacation here? We were tired of the expensive resort/hotel experience. So we decided to see if this idealic paradise had vacation homes to rent. Did we score big time! Marie's home is fantastic. It's an traditional Floridian cottage home that has been remodeled and renovated to please. It is completely self-sufficient, spotlessly clean, with a beautifully updated kitchen, a second bath with stand-up shower and a washer and dryer (bonus!). It comfortably slept us in a master queen with ensuite as well as our son in a second bedroom with twins. If need be one could use the two pull-out couches, one in the family room, one in the living room to sleep 4 more! The kicker though is the beautiful new in-ground pool in the backyard. This sealed it for us because if you know Pass-a-Grille, very few homes have the luxury of a pool. While not right on the beach, this proved advantageous for us personally because of the peace and quiet offered by it's mid-avenue location. You see Pass-a-Grille is flanked by two boulevards: one on the gulf beach side and one on the bay side. Most of the traffic loops around the peninsula this way. In between are a series of very short avenues, each no more than a city block long. Marie's home sits right in the middle of one providing easy access to both the beach and the bay side (each a 60 second walk, literally). The accessability and quiet are key to this location. While our definition of a vacation is to 'fly and flop', to relax, the home is perfectly situated to walk or bike (2 are provided) to a small handful of recommended restaurants (our favourite, The Wharf), a highly recomended market deli (Shaner's for land and sea fare), as well as the shops and boutiques of "historic 8th Ave." Full provisions can be had at the Publix grocer a 5 -10 min. drive up the beach. Highly recommended.