Beachwalk

Sorry, Beachwalk. The shitty owner of Castle in the Sand just forced me to give your resort this crappy one-​star review. I loved Beachwalk. Great place for kids and families. However, Steven at Castle in the Sand (117 Beachwalk Lane) is a piece of garbage! Complete trash.
This guy is irresponsible, full of lame excuses, has shady business practices and is reminiscent of a used car salesman. Save yourself the trouble and rent a home at Beachwalk from someone else… someone with some integrity. People deserve to know what kind of person this guy is and be forewarned before doing business with him.
In very early January 2015 my family contacted Steven to rent Castle in the Sand for a week in mid June 2015. In that first email to my brother-​in-​law he did state that he was doing some «updating» of the kitchen and bathrooms. Great, right? WRONG! So, Steven had nearly six months to figure this out, but still waited until 45 minutes before our check-​in time on June 19 to let us know his freaking house wouldn’t be suitable for us to stay in because, wait for it… HE’S STILL «UPDATING» THE HOUSE. Really? I DO NOT care why you’re updating your rental property, Steven. I DO NOT care that you had contractor issues. I just don’t give a flip about any of the ridiculous excuses you gave to justify ruining our family vacation! We planned this vacation for months. We did a ton of research on finding the right house. And this is what we get for it. YOU… you and all your feeble excuses. You can try to defend yourself, Steven, but there is no defense. Who in their right mind takes someone’s money and then waits until 45 freaking minutes before they’re supposed to arrive, to tell them the freaking house isn’t ready? Who thinks that’s okay? Guess he didn’t think that maybe a little heads up was in order like a couple weeks out? Maybe a week out? FORTY FIVE freaking minutes?! He’s a coward with bad problem-​solving skills and is completely unethical. Steven’s brilliant remedy for this situation was to put us up in hotel in Michigan City. For real, Steven? Are you for serious? Beachwalk is one of the few redeeming aspects of Michigan City. I’m not spending my vacation in a Comfort Inn in Michigan City, IN. Uh, no thanks. Are you out of your mind? Do you know how much food, luggage, and gear we had packed for a week’s stay for eight people including three children under the age of 5? You’re going to need to come up with something a little better than that, but you didn’t, of course. And then when we didn’t accept his ludicrous offer to be put up in a hotel, he had the nerve to try to defend himself to make it sound like he was going to do us a favor by waiving the cancellation fee for us cancelling our reservation past the cancellation deadline. I’ve got news for you, Steven, YOU cancelled our reservation. YOU did, not us. Don’t you dare blame me and my family for your incompetence! We were forced to solve the problem that Steven created because he did absolutely nothing… zilch…nada to help us find a satisfactory remedy to this fiasco he created. This entire situation really didn’t seem to phase him at all. I don’t even remember an apology of any sort. Not one word from that coward. I guess he thought refunding us our money was good enough.
So yah, Steven did refund us our money (wow, how generous), but not before multiple voicemail and email messages had to be left and sent while we were on our vacation with very few, if any, actually being addressed by him. Essentially, he just ignored our attempts to contact him. I wonder why? Maybe because he’s really shady? My brother-​in-​law finally did get all of our funds back the day before our vacation ended (in a different rental property at the same resort). We found this «replacement» rental OURSELVES. Steven did absolutely nothing to assist in making this debacle right. He did agree (not offer) to pay the difference in the cost for the rental of the other property, which was more expensive, but if it was up to me and lucky for him, it wasn’t, he would have paid for the entire cost of our new rental, not just the difference. He essentially took no responsibility for this inexcusable situation when it was COMPLETELY and UTTERLY his fault…100% on him! I truly believe he was hoping we’d conveniently «forget» about the funds he owed us to cover the additional cost of our replacement rental. It took numerous reminder emails before Steven finally got around to providing us with those additional funds. By the time those funds were received, our vacation had been over for three days. Guess he wasn’t in any rush to make this whole situation right. By all means, Steven, take your time. No rush needed. Guys, he’s a class act, I tell ya!
I would NEVER EVER recommend renting a property owned by Steven. I just hope you aren’t the next family that gets taken advantage of by him. There’s nothing remotely redeeming about this guy… absolutely nothing.

Lovely small community with golf carts great lake and beautiful lake Michigan with perfect sunsets.

Rented a home on Beachwalk Lane right on the Lake here @ the resort. It was beautiful, great neighborhood security on duty 24hrs. We rented Nov-​Dec. 2014 so it was very quiet here this time a year but we loved it that way. Very busy place during the summer! House was beautiful, furnishings were very nice! If we are back in the area we will rent again here. Great family place or romantic getaway.

Beachwalk is a small but great community of rental homes close to Lake Michigan. BW police drove around quite frequently., made you feel safe. Close to lighthouse outlet mall, blue chip casino and stray dog restaurant. Great for two-​three day weekend.

The beach feels safe with police patrolling often around the area. Great place for boats and jet skiing. Great place for a vacation rental to relax and unwind. You can easily have a group party on the beach with permission first. I suggest this place highly since it is not as crowded as the beaches in Chicago.

What an amazing place. So close to Chicago yet so far away from the hustle and bustle. Beautiful homes. Love the colorful hues and the large porches. Exactly what a beach resort should look like. And the beach itself is immaculate. So much stuff for the kids to do. What a great place.

I’m in love with Beachwalk! I never would have guessed such a place was hidden in Michigan City. The houses are adorable, a mixture of colors and styles that gives it an old-​fashioned feel. The streets are a bit claustrophobic as the houses take up the entire lot in most cases, are quite close together, streets are narrow and lots of parked cars. Could be a bit much during busy season but in early June it was fine. Community includes a pool, small swimming beach and fishing at a small lake, playgrounds and parks, and exclusive beach access.
We stayed at The Cottage (found on
) and it was so nicely decorated and stocked with everything you need! Definitely opt for the golf cart if it’s an option — fun and convenient way to get around.
I’d definitely go back although two members of my party said they liked it but they’d look elsewhere in the area outside of Beachwalk. I guess it’s not for everyone, but I’d say give it a shot and see!

Beachwalk is a wonderful community of rentals and homes off of Lakeshore Drive with beach access. I have stayed in a furnished rental home here for a beach week at a reasonable rate. The homes are painted in pastels and many have white picket fences. There is a community pool and community store with a short walk to the beach along a boardwalk. Felt very safe and almost like I lived here!