About Us |
Villa Southern Dunes is owned by Di Gorton (back row, with TourGuideTed), her partner Paul Maple (front row left with his & Richard's dad, Ray) and his brother Richard Maple (middle row left, with his daughter Zoe and wife Lucy). We all live in the United Kingdom. We purchased our Florida vacation home back in 2008, after a three-day visit to do just that. On day one of our search, our Realtor found us a layout we really liked - the Cape San Blas - with its two en suite bedrooms and two spacious lounges. Trouble was that, despite the slow market, the house we chose had been sold just one day before! The next day we set out to look at more houses - with the same layout - and eventually arrived at the Southern Dunes Golf and Country Club Community. Unlike the many other communities we had visited, this one had a manned security gate, not an impersonal gate with a code that everyone including the pizza delivery guy has! The second thing to impress us, as we drove through the community, was how green this community was. It helped, having the award-winning golf course running through the community but even so, all of the gardens were well kept and lush. We viewed a couple of houses in Southern Dunes, including a couple that backed on to the golf course, but they weren't for us. We liked the house that was in the quiet, cul-de-sac location. We knew it was the one. We wouldn't have golfers wandering past the bedroom windows early in the morning here, either. We made an offer and in just seventeen days the house was ours. It came with a few bookings and that decided us on becoming vacation rental owners, rather than just vacation home owners. This meant we set about a programme of improvements and changes to the property to serve our future guests, which has continued over years of ownership. Our first changes were to replace the worn yellow sofas with enough seating on large leather sofas for all of our guests. We replaced the existing six-place dining table with a much larger solid wood table that would enable all of our guests to actually sit and eat together - a rare commodity in a Florida vacation home, it seems. The Games Room came later, as did an exterior paint job, new beds, flatscreen televisions in all rooms and more. If you'd like to keep abreast of the changes, please sign up to receive our newsletter, which also includes our latest restaurant finds, as well as theme park and other activities. You can also follow us on social media, on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Our goal has always been to ensure you have the best vacation ever when you stay at Villa Southern Dunes. Our guestbook shows we're doing very well! Want a little look at how we started and where we are now? 
 
 
 
 
 
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