Visited Easter 2010, booked appartment recommended on Tripadvisor via Vacations Group and turned out to be spoof recommendation. Poor quality apartment, shabby, facing car park and next to lift so very noisy. Complained to office (who later denied we had ever done so!!). Final kick in teeth was we came hope with uninvited guests - bedbugs!!!

We have been going to the Santa Maria for years, and still love it. It is the most comfortable place on the Island in my opinion. The Condo's are clean and nice. The Pool is large and always clean. And we enjoy being able to fish from the docks and seeing the Manatees that live in the canals is always a plus.The grounds are always well maintained. I must say that we enjoy driving to different beaches, so for us staying directly on the beach is not a must. We enjoy going to Lover's Key and even taking a ride to the Sanibel beaches for the day. You can walk to Santini Plaza for restaurants and shops. We were there in June and looking forward to booking another stay in mid September. We have stayed at many places on Ft Myers Beach and always go back to the Santa Maria, you can't get better for the price.
The Santa Maria is not a resort, they are condo rentals across the street from the beach.

This is not a resort but a 40 years old apartment in a bad shape. The pool and other facilities are ok, but the apartment is a junk. There is no in site office and you have to find it 5 blocks away if you need it. The beaches are 20 minutes walking. I wouldn't recommend for an enemy.

When I booked online I was scared about what the place would look like and how it would be. I was driving in and seeing all the other hotels that also showed up online and they looked terrible. When I got to the main office and went in I was greated by a very friendly representative who went above and beyond to assist me. I felt very comfortable with her and my choice of staying here. We picked up our key cards and went down to the hotel. Beautiful! Beautiful! the room was great it actually was a2 bedroom with a den so it was like a 3 bedroom! When we walked around outside we saw manatee's right their floating close to the pier. We were able to ahng out at the pool and even BBQ. The hotel didn't have many guest so we had full use of everything. It scares me to write such a good review cause I feel it will become very popular. On the last day the front desk printed out my boarding passes for me to pick up at the front desk and they were wonderfully nice once again. this was one of the best trips we have taken as a family of 6 ages 44 thru 4! thank you