What a fantastic little cottage adjacent to the beach! Our family of 6 stayed for 2 weeks in January. Our party included 2 teens, an 8 year old and my 82 year old father. We loved our stay. The grounds were beautiful with numerous flowering hibiscus and bougainvillea. The pool was warm and clean and so accessible from the back door of the cottage. We chatted with several of the owners who live in the beachside unit. They were very friendly and and helpful sharing local information. The best part was the location, just steps from the beach. We shelled after a few storms and found loads of fantastic shells. As this was our 5th visit to Sanibel we've become fairly picky in what we collect, but we still ended up packing a lot of shells home including: large lightening whelks, alphabet cones, large shark's eyes, lace and apple murex, horse conchs, tulips, olives, fig whelks, pear whelks, drills, nutmegs, moonshells, urchins... It was nuts. The best shelling was of course after the storms but we also did well wading in the shallows at low tide. So.much.fun! Our kids don't ask for Disney, they'd much rather come to Sanibel and this was our favorite vacation of the 5 trips. We also rented bikes and rode all over the island. Joey's ice cream was delish as was Cips and the Sanibel Cafe for breakfast. We enjoyed the birding at Ding Darling, Bailey Tract and Bailey Homestead (lots of iguanas too). I'd come back tomorrow if I could!
My only suggestions for improvement are replacing the very soft mattresses. Also check in instructions were inaccurate. The key pad is electronic and is located right on the front door. Once you touch the top of the keypad, it will light up and you enter your code. The code is used as your key. There is NO physical key (despite what the check-in instructions indicated). But other than that the kitchen was well-equipped and even included a slow cooker and panini grill.