I read a review that this place is a solid 3.5 stars. I guess I agree, I'm just not willing to give them a 4.
The Good.
Beach access at this place is outstanding. They set up chairs and umbrellas for you and it's a very short walk from your room to the beach. The beach area is clean and reasonably maintained. Even during the peak season (when we visited), it wasn't overcrowded.
I don't know about you but when I go to any hotel, I'm looking for comfort. In this regard, the beds were very comfortable and so were the other lounge chairs (etc) around the pool.
The staff was also very friendly and at least addressed the problems we had. The service is good, you certainly cannot ding them on that.
The Bad.
Noise. The walls and doors in our room were paper thin. We could hear EVERYTHING both inside and outside our room, even with the doors and windows shut. Our "Oceanside" room (a room on the Oceanside part of the complex) was really a "poolside" room which was right in front of the "family" pool area. If you're into screaming children during the day and screaming drunk adults in the middle of the night, you'll like this place. But for us, it was awful. Also plan on listening to everybody who even walks by your room, whether they are talking or not.
"Oceanside room". Yeah, the room was on the ocean side part of the property and yeah, you pay a premium price for that (400 dollars per night plus the taxes and fees plus a "resort fee" which is so you don't have to tip... another silly thing, I'd much rather tip because then I know my money is going to the people who served me and not into the pocket of the resort). By this same token, my house faces east so I guess that makes my house an "Oceanside" house as well. There was no view of the Ocean and we couldn't even leave our doors or windows open to listen to the ocean as we didn't want to listen to screaming children all day and all night. This room reminded me a lot of a room you'd get in from of a pool at a Holiday Inn or a Best Western. We had a view of the pool, we heard all of the noise from the pool, it's not an "oceanside" room, it's a "poolside" room.
The little things. You know how every hotel you've ever gone to has a coffee pot in the room? Well, your room at the Sanderling doesn't. They do have a coffee service in every building but don't plan on getting coffee after 10 am because they take it away. We were wondering why there were so few pictures of the rooms on the website. Well, now we know why. The bathroom was nice but did not have a bathtub, only a shower. At 400 bucks a night, I don't get a tub? A previous poster mentioned the water. When we first got there, there was a nice glass bottle of "purified water" for us and according to the management, it's supposed to be refilled everyday. Ours never was. In fact, on the last day they actually took it out of our room and we didn't see it again. Same thing with the nice robes, they actually removed them during the cleaning and never brought them back. Finally, don't plan on a whole lot of extras unless you're willing to fork over major dollars at the Sanderling. They have smores... that they charge you for. For the cost of a "smore kit", you could go to the Harris Teeter down the road and buy crackers, marshmallows and chocolate.
The Ugly
Nothing like a fire alarm (complete with a visit from the fire department) going off for 45 minutes on your first night. We even called the desk who said it was fine and there was no fire. However, the fire department took things a bit more seriously as they showed up and screamed for us to get out of our room. Of course, there was no fire. I'm sure this is not something that happens often, probably just some mishap but still... how do I know that? On that same note, in the (north) building that we were in, one of the doors has an alarm that beeps whenever it is opened. That's all kinds of fun in the middle of the night and serves absolutely no purpose.
For the money you're going to shell out at the Sanderling, I just don't think it's worth it. Not for the room, the spa or the food. Yes, a trip to the Outer Banks is going to be expensive, especially in the middle of summer. But we just keep thinking, "what about this place is really any better than your average Holiday Inn?". To be fair, it certainly is nicer than a Holiday Inn. But for what they charge, it should be A LOT nicer than it is. We are not planning on returning to this property. read more