According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, over 80 percent of the Emerald Coast's 4.5 million visitors each year visit Destin.

[7][8][9] He built a New England colonial home at the location of the Moreno Point military reservation.

The city of Fort Walton Beach is located to the west at the inlet of Santa Rosa Sound into Choctawhatchee Bay.

The early pass appears (at the East end of Destin Harbor) in early maps and surveys from Spanish, French, and English surveyors,[12] such as Thomas Jefferys's 1775 map The Coast of West Florida and Louisiana.

These islands were large enough to inhabit sea grass, small shrubs and nesting seabirds.

The entrance to Destin Harbor, a lagoon between the beaches and the main body of the western portion of the peninsula, is located just north of the East Pass jetty.

The lagoon is formed by a sand spit named Holiday Isle; many condominiums have been built along the harbor since the 1970s.

[18] A 2019 report by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection listed sections of the beach as "critically eroded".

[15] Otherwise, the city has not developed a plan to address sea level rise and coastal erosion.

[15] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 13,931 people, 6,377 households, and 3,576 families residing in the city.

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection estimates that more than 80 percent of the Emerald Coast's 4.5 million yearly visitors travel to the region to visit Destin.

[4] Visitors can charter fishing vessels from the harbor,[25] and there are 12 beach access points in the city.

[27] The sand comes from the Appalachian Mountains, and is made of finely ground quartz crystal giving the appearance of sugar.

[4] Visitors play a large part in Destin's economy – the city's population of around 12,000 balloons to 40,000 during the tourist season.

[4] Real estate in Destin, Florida, is comprised in large part by privately owned vacation rentals, consisting of condominiums, beach homes, townhomes, resorts, studios, cottages, and a few bungalows.

Sandestin, located to the east in Walton County, is a popular golf and beach resort.