Sanderling Resort Outer Banks

I had a great time

I felt compelled to write a review well after our stay just because of how terrible our experience was at this resort. We booked a suite and found it to have sand in the pull out couch and bugs all over the walls. Apparently the bugs are midges which are harmless, but still felt disgusting. My children were so excited to go to a beach resort; however this quickly turned into a nigh**are. Sometime in the late afternoon, we started hearing banging. Figured this was some sort of maintenance. I received a call on the phone not too long after that we were being reported for being too loud. I have no idea what this was about as we were just sitting around watching TV. The banging continued seemingly to get louder and with more frequency. We decided to leave and get dinner and come back later. Well, as soon as we returned in the evening the banging started again. This time I went down to the front desk to complain. The front desk said that they had received a call that we were the ones being disruptive and asked me to stop. I was dumbfounded. We literally were just existing in the room not doing anything. The banging continued into the night. I immediately went back down to the front desk and told them we would be checking out in the morning. We were supposed to stay for 3 nights and left after 1. To this day, this was the absolute worst hotel experience I have ever had. We booked a suite that cost $850+ a night and never have had such a dirty room and poor customer service. You could not pay me to return here. The way the front desk did not protect my family from someone that was clearly targeting us, was insane. It felt like the world had turned upside down and that I was going crazy. How could someone harass my family and the hotel take their side? Would not recommend this hotel in any sense. Definitely would not take a family here.

Both my wife and I are in our 70’s (71&76). Not having ramps or an elevator made getting around fairly difficult for us. Also, the wooden exterior hand rails gave my wife slivers several times. I suggest either having painted metal rails or some kind of a TREX rail system. The rest of our experience was fine. J. Lindberg

We were in Duck to celebrate our wedding anniversary (56) and were only there for lunch. We live near the OBX and eat out there often. We had not been to Sanderling restaurant in several years. We arrived at 3PM. There customers at 2 tables, otherwise empty. We waited at the restaurant entrance for several minutes and finally phoned the restaurant to let them know we were waiting. We were finally seated by a pleasant server. She took our drink order(water) and our appetizer order. We received our water followed by our appetizer and gave our food order( the Mahi sandwich special) . Our server disappeared, we were the only people in the restaurant. After about 10 minutes, we needed water refills. I took our glasses to the bar and waited for the bartender to notice me. “What do you need, bud?”, his exact words. A server came out of the kitchen just then and he asked e her to fill my water glasses. We got our sandwiches, tasty, tiny, and very unremarkable. Not what I expected for a $19.00 sandwich. Anyway, everyone was pleasant, the location is great and there are many excellent restaurants on the OBX. It will be several more years before we return to the Sanderling Restaurant, if ever.

Beautiful resort

We were so excited to try the Sanderling for a quick trip away, but we were disappointed in every way. We arrived on Monday around 1pm and told our rooms would be ready very soon. We walked around the property and over by the pool was a bag of trash that had been blown around including a used pregnancy test and used pads (disgusting). We decided to head to the beach. At 4pm (check in time) we asked about our room and were told they didn’t know when it would be ready. At this point the kids were tired and sandy and wanted somewhere to relax. We didn’t end up getting into 1 room until 5:15, and the second until almost 6. The room was generally clean, though dated, but was missing bags in the trash cans. The room with 2 double beds had nothing but 2 sheets with a thin blanket in between (not what I’d expect in a 4 star resort). The second day we were gone nearly the entire day (8-4) and housekeeping had not come. They finally came close to 6pm, but at that point we were settled in for the evening (we have small kids). The second night we ate at the Lifesaving station which was a horrible disappoin**ent. The salad lettuce was white and disgusting, the fries limp and cold, and the “crab” dip was all cream cheese. Overall, I wanted to love this place but I actually feel like we got ripped off. They are clearly horribly understaffed which is not their fault, but then maybe they should only book the number of rooms they can keep up with.

What happened to the Sanderling? We stayed here several times in the past and loved it. We went to check in today we were greeted by a very unfriendly staff. We arrived at 2:30, and we told check in was at 4, and it would probably be later since they had a lot of rooms to clean. He said they were 60% occupied yesterday and didn’t get the rooms cleaned. I asked about the 40% that were not used and if I could just switch to one of those. He said, no since I booked using Travelzoo, he couldn’t move me. We were told we could use the pool and hot tub, but told they no longer have an indoor pool and the outdoor pool is not heated. They said we were welcome to use the hot tub (see picture). We went to the beach where there were dirty towels everywhere and no chairs. Since we had time to kill, we went to the spa and were told the steam room in the men’s room was broken and again saw dirty towels everywhere. We got a cup a coffee to sit outside and wait for our room and saw bugs crawling over the coffee machine and tea. We decided to go to Duck Coffee shop and wait. We didn’t receive notice that our room was ready until 4:45pm…at that point we were decided not to stay. Very disappointed in The Sanderling. Happy Easter to us ☹️

This hotel is truly pet friendly. They welcome dogs on majority of the property with the expectation of pool and gym. However, they do charge you a 300 USD pet fee per stay per room. So if you are only staying for a night or two, it’s really pricey. For this fee, they provide you some convenience items for your pet…. So it’s a nice little souvenir to take home too. We came during the off season, some amenities are not open. Seems to be a nice place to vacation in the summer time with many activities.

Very nice place. Greeted with a hot coco bar. Kimball’s restaurant was good- only downer was when the heat came on sounded like the room next door was running a long shower all hours of the night in the building we were in