My husband and I have stayed once or twice each summer at Sea Colony every year since 2007, and we love it. We usually stay in a condo on Timberlake Court, Sea Colony West, although we have stayed in Brandywine on the ocean side as well.

The condo we almost always stay in is a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom unit with a pullout sofa in the living room. It has a fully equipped kitchen, dining room, washer/dryer, and deck. It's rated a silver unit.

The nice thing about staying on the ocean side, if you choose to pay the money to do so, is of course that you will probably have a view of the beach/ocean from your unit, and you have the convenience of being able to walk from your unit down to the beach.

However, we usually stay on the west/bay side, and we really enjoy it. The neighborhood is quiet, the people are very nice, and you are still conveniently located. We walk to the fitness center in just 5 minutes. We can walk to the Marketplace in under 10 minutes. We could walk to the beach or take the shuttle, but we prefer to drive to the ocean side parking lot because we go for the entire day so we bring a lot of stuff with us.

The beach is a beautiful golden sand beach, and it is private, which means that unless you are a guest/resident of Sea Colony, you can't be there. So it's not as crowded, and you don't have to worry about theft. We often take our things down to the beach at 9 a.m., when the umbrella rental stands open, stake out our spot, and then go to the gym or whatever, and don't get out on the beach until 11 or 12. We've never had anything stolen. This is a non-smoking beach. You can have a beer or cocktail out on this beach, but they prohibit glass containers, and the lifeguards will ask you to get rid of your glass containers if they see you with one. this is obviously for safety reasons. This beach has swing sets for the kids, and there are also pools located in front of the high-rise condos on the beach, so you can take the kids up to the pools if the water is too rough in the ocean.

The Marketplace is a little strip shoppign center where the rental office is located. You go here to check in, but there is also a beach sundries store, a pizza restaurant, a Candy Kitchen, a coffee/ice cream shop, and as of August 2011, a Greek restaurant. This restaurant tends to change every few years so who knows what it will be next summer?

As I mentioned before, there is a fitness center on the Bayside. It has an indoor/outdoor pool, aqua aerobics, a basketball court that doubles as the class studio, they have zumba, body sculpting, spin and step classes. A cardio/weight room that has several treadmills, a few ellipticals, a few other cardio machines, a lot of weight machines, a few benches, and a set of barbells/dumbbells. Small stretching area. Lots of balance balls. It can be very crowded around 8 a.m. and if it rains.

Sea Colony is located just a mile or so south of the main strip in Bethany Beach, where there are dozens of shops and restaurants and a small board walk. (We recommend Patty's Porch, Bethany Blues & Sedona. Unfortunately,the only restaurant that has a beach view is also the absolute worst restaurant. Can't remember the name, but its' a Jimmy Buffet-style restaurant that can't even make a decent burger or margarita.) It's about a 20- to 30-minute drive to Dewey/Rehoboth Beaches for more restaurants and shops, and Ocean City is about the same. We often go to Fager's Island on 60th Street in OC, and that's only 30 minutes.

They also have lots of activities for families,and if you play tennis, this is a great place for you as well. They have tons of clinics and lessons at the tennis center, which is also on the west side of Sea colony.

Sea Colony is a very relaxing little oasis on the Delaware coast. We definitely recommend it!

Stayed in Brandywine building 9/7/11 thru 9/12/11, and overall it was a great experience. The resort was not crowded in the least, the private beach at times felt like it was just for us and the pool seldom had more than 5 people in it at any one time. However I found the activity badge system to be a joke, I spent $60.00 on badges for my family to use the pools, tennis, gym, etc. and no one else there was wearing them and not one staff person asked to see them. Maybe during peak season they are more strict, but it seemed to me like a ploy to get more money out of guests. I would certainly go back, but not during peak season, late summer/early fall was perfect.

Decided to spend long weekend at Sea Colony -beautiful ocean front condo. Lucky to have 2 great beach days ... Life guards too! We have been renting at Sea Coliny for 14 years and are always pleased!

Stayed in a corner unit in the Chesapeake building and loved every minute of it. Beautiful view of the ocean, very clean and spacious. It was off season so we couldn't use the outdoor pool but it did look to be a decent size. I guess the Sea Colony is a gamble because it depends on who owns the condo and how much they take care of it. Overall, it was a very enjoyable vacation.