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Also known as the "FUN Place!" The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort & Tiki Bar offers year-round fun, activities, and entertainment for all ages. Located directly beachfront on Front Beach Road, the Sandpiper is a family-friendly resort-hotel with planned activities and entertainment, waterslides, multiple indoor/outdoor (seasonally heated) swimming pools, free WiFi, indoor lazy river ride, on-site Deli, Ice Cream Shop, Gift Shop, Restaurant, Arcade and more. Offering 24/7 resort services, including housekeeping, guest services, and maintenance.
17403 Front Beach Rd, Panama City Beach, FL 32413-6023
The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
4 reviews
Getting there
Car recommended
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The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort is a hit for many families, offering a variety of pools, live entertainment, and coveted beach access. While its rooms are generally praised for cleanliness, some guests suggest that the housekeeping could be improved. The staff's friendliness is often highlighted, although occasional slow service has been noted. Opinions on value are split, with some concerns about hidden costs versus the affordable rates.
The resort's atmosphere is lively, with an emphasis on family fun, though some believe certain areas could benefit from an update. Its prime location garners appreciation for its convenience and tranquil beach proximity. The guest rooms elicit mixed feedback, with some mentioning noise and a need for modernization, while others enjoy the comfort and ongoing renovations.
Location
Convenient
Atmosphere
Lively
Rooms
Dated
Value
Reasonable
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Satisfactory
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I enjoyed my time in Panama City and would probably stay at the Sand Piper again if friends decide to stay there. I gave it 3 stars because upon getting there I had to change my room bc I paid for a view and the view of the first room was partially blocked due to a gable roof that projected pass the room. After settling into our new room and going down to the beach I needed a shower. Once in the shower I realized there was no shampoo provided. I was then told that shampoo was not a necessity and I could go buy some at the gift shop. I was warned by friends that they didn’t provide a blow dryer which some rentals provide and some don’t so I was ok with that. I also felt like they should have provided dish soap in the kitchenettes in order to promote keeping the rooms clean. They did not pick up trash or dirty towels and we had to go request clean ones. They also had roaches at night which I assume they try to maintain bc in the morning there were lots of dead ones. As well as cats that hang around the grill areas. We enjoyed the dances that were put on in the tiki bar as well as the tiki bar. The atmosphere was nice as we got to hang out in the tiki bar with our teenagers without them being forced to leave. We also felt like the pools were clean even though we didn’t really get to use them as we hung on the beach and in town. Not sure if the floats in the lazy river were provided or if you had to buy your own in the gift shop. The staff were really nice and accommodating when they could be.
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Date of stay: May 2024Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Bring shampoo, blow dryer, and dish soap
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandy Piper, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 6 Nov 2024
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us! We’re glad to hear you enjoyed the Tiki Bar, the beach, and the fun, family-friendly atmosphere here at the resort. It’s great to know our staff was able to help make your stay pleasant and accommodate your room change so you could have a view you loved. We appreciate your detailed feedback regarding the amenities, and we're continuously working to enhance the guest experience. We have added shampoo, conditioner, and dish soap to our gift shop inventory for convenience, and your note about blow dryers and daily housekeeping is very helpful as we evaluate our services. Our dedicated pest control team works diligently to minimize outdoor critters, but we know it’s an ongoing effort given our beachfront location. We’d love to welcome you back for another visit with friends or family and are happy to answer any questions you might have. If there’s anything we can do to make your next stay even better, please reach out to our team at (850)234-2154 or info@sandpiperbeacon.com. Thanks again, and we hope to see you back soon!
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This is our 5th consecutive year staying at the Sandpiper. I wish they had a discount for returning guests like us. This was the 1st year the beach service was not allowed to wait on us with food&drinks which is a serious inconvenience for parents. Enforce the smoking only in designated areas please, I hate sitting on my balcony enjoying coffee and smelling cigarettes or weed. We enjoy staying here, there’s plenty for our family to enjoy without having to leave the property, however we are considering something a little more upgraded as the rooms definitely do not reflect the price we are paying for them.
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Date of stay: September 2022Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandpiper Beacon, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 29 Dec 2022
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We appreciate you giving us the opportunity to host your vacation, we recognize you have a lot of choice when it comes to places to stay. We hope that you'd consider staying here again, and giving us the opportunity to show you just how enjoyable a vacation at the "FUN Place!" can be.
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We really enjoyed our time here. Perfect location on the beach. We had a king studio room with an outside hall view (#330) the room was clean, our bed was comfortable and we really liked the Polynesian Show and affordable drinks at the outdoor bar area. The restaurant Coconuts across the street was really good. We were turned away at the on site grill because she said she was backed up so we didn’t get to try it. The ice cream onsite was also a plus. The downside was the outside walls were very thin and you could hear people talking and cats squealing at night and the AC could not be turned down as if it is regulated so it was warm in our room. Overall it was a good stay and we would stay again.
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Date of stay: August 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:They DO NOT supply shampoo, conditioner or coffee in the room. The room had small bars of soap,...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandy Piper, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 13 Aug 2024
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us! We are delighted to hear that you enjoyed all our beachfront amenities and had the opportunity to take in some of our live entertainment. We apologize for the noise and the issue with the AC in your room, as well as the inconvenience at the on-site grill. Your feedback is invaluable, and we'll work to address these concerns to enhance our guests' experiences. If there's anything you need please give our 24/7 reservations team a holler at (850) 234-2154 or email us at info@sandpiperbeacon.com. We can't wait to welcome you back to the FUN Place for more amazing family vacations!
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A very first family vacation with our son. We have been many times before. We had a very cramped room that was supposed to be big enough for 10 people. The new air condition units would not work correctly so we had to go stay in a completely different room for the first night there, and our refrigerator would not stay cold for the first 24 hours. We did notice that there were some updates to the property which were nice. The amount we paid was not worth the size of the room. As for the inconveniences. We are thankful that we were able to be accommodated But it was still an inconvenience with a one year old and three other children in the family with us. Not having guest services come in and vacuum or sweep or bring up fresh linens for an entire week is also a little unacceptable for the amount of money you pay to stay at this resort.
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Date of stay: June 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandy Piper, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 5 Nov 2024
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We’re glad to hear that some of the recent updates were appreciated, but we’re truly sorry for the challenges you faced with the room size, air conditioning, and refrigerator issues. We understand that these inconveniences, especially on a first family vacation with young children, can make things more challenging. While we're glad our team could assist with the temporary room adjustment, we regret the added disruption it caused. Your feedback on the room maintenance and housekeeping is valuable to us, and we will review our procedures to improve guest convenience for future visits. If there are any more areas where we can improve, we would be grateful if you shared your suggestions. You can reach us at (850) 234-2154 or info@sandpiperbeacon.com. Thanks again, and we hope future stays bring a smoother experience for your family.
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Got efficiency unit with kitchen on first floor with walk in shower. Patio with umbrella and 4 chair right outside door. Beautiful beach view. Free Polynesians show with fire right there. Grills were great and cleaned throughly each day I was there (6). In bad need of grassy area dog walk. Going across a busy 4 land road scary at night to take dog to a tiny bit of grass. Great activities for everyone. No maid service. Will bring clean towels. This is an older very family friendly place. It could use some updating. There two places to eat, one full time restaurant across the street and a Tiki bar and hamburger place beach side. There is also a great hand dipped ice cream shop that even does banana splits and sundaes. Officers was staffed 24 hrs a day and handed out towels, beach gear and handled deposits for use of a hair dryers which are not furnished. Neither is any shampoo or lotion. But you can get a hairdryer for a $20 deposit for your entire stay and it is refunded immediately when you return it. Just unexpected.
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Date of stay: June 2024Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandy Piper, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 5 Nov 2024
Thank you for sharing such a detailed review! We're thrilled you enjoyed the convenience of the efficiency unit, the beautiful beach views, and the array of amenities like the grills, Polynesian show, and ice cream shop. It sounds like you made the most of your stay with activities for everyone, and we're glad our 24-hour team was able to assist with any needs. We appreciate your feedback on pet accommodations. While we've been more lenient with our pet policy recently, we understand how a grassy pet area could make visits even more enjoyable for pet owners, especially during busy times. Thank you for mentioning areas for potential updates as well as the deposit system for certain items. These insights are valuable for helping us enhance the experience. If you need anything on your next trip, feel free to reach out to our reservations team at (850) 234-2154 or info@sandpiperbeacon.com. Thanks again, and we look forward to welcoming you and your pup back!
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We stayed in the condos owned by Sandpiper and they were very clean and accommodating with everything that we needed for our week stay. The full view sliding glass doors/windows were really nice and gave us a full view of the ocean. The only thing I would suggest is putting queen sized beds in the rooms instead of double beds because they are not big enough for two people to sleep in. Also, Sandpiper needs to give people who book the condo at least one parking for the building and not have them park over at the Sandpiper parking lot next door. Sandpiper always has great amenities for the whole family to enjoy!
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Date of stay: July 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandpiper Beacon, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 5 Sept 2023
Thank you os much for choosing to stay here with us at the FUN Place! We hope that we checked most of the right boxes for you during your stay, and we are always looking out for ways to improve, so we'll certainly take your feedback on board. We'd love to see you again for another fun vacation, and if there's anything we can do to help, please don't hesitate to reach out and ask us. (850) 234-2154 Thank you so much!
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This is the first time my friend and I have stayed for a month at a property. While we enjoyed our stay and staff and housekeeping were very accommodating, our room was disappointing. It appeared it had not been renovated since the place was built! While we were there they had to replace both the HVAC unit and the microwave. The apartment size cook stove was rusted on the outside and was missing the shelf in it, which housekeeping promptly brought us one. The burners set lopsided so pans would not set level. Everything seemed clean -surfaces, bathroom, etc. but the carpet had ground in dirt no amount of vacuuming could alleviate. Because of Covid the housekeepers do not clean daily but if you call they will bring clean linens and a vacuum cleaner. You change your own sheets and they have large boxes in the breezeway where you place all dirty linens. I use a walker and had asked for a handicapped accessible room on the first floor so we would have a sliding glass door to patio. When we arrived the attendant said all handicapped accessible rooms were in upper floors, which doesn’t make much sense. I was able to make do by installing the temporary suction type handles in the tub. We did have to change rooms because there wasn’t enough room to maneuver my walker because of furniture layout. They have larger rooms but those are reserved for daily clients who pay a higher price. Monthly guests pay a discount price. Our housekeeper, Amanda, was super. Since I use a walker she vacuumed for us a couple of times. We met many nice people from Canada and everywhere! They have a schedule of activities you can sign up for to stay busy if you’re so inclined. Some of the restaurants are closed in January but open up in February. We enjoyed ourselves and will stay here again next time.
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Date of stay: January 2022Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandpiper Beacon, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 23 May 2022
Thank you for choosing to stay here at the FUN Place! We appreciate having you as our guest, and would love to see you again next time you visit Panama City Beach, Florida. We are here 24/7 if there's anything we can do for you. 1-800-488-8828.
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Lobby was clean. Pool were clean. Overall the property was clean and well staffed. On our arrival, my husband was told check in was 4pm then the confirmation email said five. Once we checked in, we went to our room which smelled horrible. We looked past the smell. We had oceanfront view on second floor. We booked a room with two double beds without kitchen. When we walked into our room the smell hit you so we opened the balcony door and that seemed to help, our room however didn’t have what we had booked. We slept in the room the first night, I told my husband I couldn’t take the smell anymore, by the ac the floor was soaking wet, so he called the front desk and they had maintenance come up and see what was going on, they cleared the line and the smell somewhat went away well we left the room and came back and smell was still there but not as bad, we walked down to the beach and pools to let the kiddos swim my husband went to the room to check on the smell but to make sure they did send someone up, he went back to lobby to ask about another parking pass which was $20 a day for an extra one because we had a family member come over for a couple hours to visit someone at the front desk was telling a guest that check in/ check out time is at 10am, this would have been nice to know be we would have left before we didn’t to get there earlier. The bathroom was humid the vent fan barley worked. It had a king size bed and bunk beds. This was okay because we had a 4 & 6 year old with us. Balcony was small especially for the table and the three chairs that were on it. Overall we enjoyed our stay. The Polynesian show was excellent. The indoor pool and lazy river were okay. It was hot and humid in there. Every time we went to get on lazy river there were no tubes, everyone had them in the pools or they were flat. I personally think that it was a little overpriced but our stay was excellent other that the smell of the room. As for the beach chair rentals. We rented 2 chairs and 1 umbrella the cost for that was $55 for the whole day, we didn’t rent them until 3pm and the guy informed us that we had it until 6pm. They started picking up the chairs and umbrellas probably 30 mins before 6. I thought this was overpriced but would have been worth it if we would have gotten them from when they put them out until they picked them up but just for the few hours we had them we should have gotten some money taken off. They offered beach side service and even had someone come out and check to see if anyone needed anything. If we come back with our kids again we will book here again especially for the activities they offer.
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Date of stay: July 2022Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:If your thinking about renting golf cart they do not allow them to be parked on their property...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandpiper Beacon, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 29 Dec 2022
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We appreciate you giving us the opportunity to host your vacation, we recognize you have a lot of choice when it comes to places to stay. We hope that you'd consider staying here again, and giving us the opportunity to show you just how enjoyable a vacation at the "FUN Place!" can be.
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Over all just needs updated! We have a lot of fun here for a small price compared to other places directly on the beach. I've been staying here for over twenty years. We always have a wonderful time. The staff speaks mostly creole-jamacian. They are all very nice and acoomodating. The elevator kept going out by the pool with the slide. The hot tub wasn't working. The lazy river was only about two foot deep instead of filled up all the way. The roof was leaking into the indoor pool near the slide. There was a strong smell of gas in the hallways and near the indoor pool. The laundry machine took our money. There was garbage literally everywhere. In the pools, in the hallways, on the elevators, on the boardwalk, everywhere. The foors in some of the hallways were very weak and washed away by air unit leakage. The ice cream shop was good but there were children behind the counter eating and dancing. The woman working filled up the cups very generously but the sign where the pricing is and the start of the line are at opposite sides so you don't know the cups are by weight an not by scoops until the end. 🤣🤣. I believe this place needs a good remodel and kept better cleaning. I will say there are a lot of unsupervised teens and I'm sure that's why the trash was so bad. We are a family of 4 with 11 year old twin boys. They had an amazing time.
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Date of stay: March 2023
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip:Lots of teens so if you don't like loud it's not for you. W had a great time. Jus needs some...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandpiper Beacon, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 21 Apr 2023
Hi, we really appreciate dreading your feedback. We love that your twin sons had so much fun, but we do agree that we can do better in several areas that you brought to our attention. We have taken this list and will make sure to work on the areas you mentioned so that your next experience is even better!
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I have been staying here since 2007. We love coming here and we always have a great time. One thing I would like to see change is an improved housekeeping. We stayed for 7 days and we had to keep asking for towels, toilet paper, and trash bags. Thank you!
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Date of stay: July 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Take extra toilet paper and trash bags.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sandy Piper, General Manager at The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
Responded 22 Aug 2024
Thank you for sharing your experience with us! We’re delighted that you have enjoyed your stay with us so much over the years, and we truly appreciate your loyalty to the Sandpiper. We’re grateful for your feedback regarding replenishing the in-room amenities and are already working toward a solution that will provide a smoother experience for all future stays. If you need anything the next time you’re in our area, please call our 24/7 reservations team at (850)234-2154, and we will do our best to make your next visit that much more magical. Thank you again for the wonderful review- we look forward to welcoming you back to the Sandpiper again soon!
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There are more places to choose from in the Panama City Beach area.
PRICE RANGE
$263 - $437 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
sandpiper beacon beach hotel panama city beach, sandpiper beacon beach resort, sandpiper beacon beach panama city, sandpiper panama city beach
LOCATION
United StatesFloridaFlorida PanhandlePanama City Beach
NUMBER OF ROOMS
199
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect total costs of the stay, including all taxes and fees known to our partners. Please see our partners for more details.
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Yes, it offers wheelchair access, reduced mobility rooms, and facilities for disabled guests. For specific enquiries, we recommend calling ahead to confirm.
