About Us & Reviews
Our Story
It all started in 2011 when we visited Mexico Beach for the first time and found our lot near the beach. Over the next five years and many visits, we fell in love with this close-knit community, and we started building our home. The house reflects our own personal style, and we chose every detail ourselves. We hope you enjoy Sand By Me as much as we do!
Mark & Cathi O'Tyson

Home Away From Home
Sand By Me is designed and equipped like a personal home because we stay there frequently. We’ve visited many vacation rentals, so when we built our own, we tried to include everything we wished we had when staying in other vacation rentals. Everything you need in the kitchen from a griddle for making pancakes to a juicer for squeezing fresh lime juice for your margaritas. Soft, quality linens. Extra hangars in the closets and plenty of hooks in the bathrooms for hanging up towels. We want our guests to be as comfortable as we are when staying in our vacation home.
What Our Guests are Saying
We stayed at Sand by Me in Mexico Beach during the last week of February 2021. Our stay was comfortable, relaxed, and memorable. The house is new with comfortable beds, very adequate kitchen amenities, a stainless steel outdoor grill with side burner, internet access, and a south-facing screen porch. Local markets sell fresh shrimp and fish, and the grocery store in Port St. Joe is close by and well stocked. The house is on a quiet street and we took many walks down to the beach, located only one block away.
Mexico Beach is rebuilding from Hurricane Michael. I would say don't let this change your plans. While restaurant selection is a bit limited in Mexico Beach, there really is no lack of places in Port St. Joe, and the house is really setup well for meals at home. The location was perfect for use because we were looking to avoid the spring break / party atmosphere of some other Florida locations. And the beach at Mexico Beach is the best. It is wide, flat, firm sand and you can walk for miles. During our time in Mexico Beach, there were not many others on the beach.
We have rented vacation properties numerous times all over the USA. Sand by Me ranks at the top for us.