Blue Dolphin is a great get-away-from-it-all place. It's very quiet, a beautiful setting, newly renovated bathrooms and kitchenettes, and is right on the beach in a peaceful residential neighborhood. All the units are close to the water, but the units with Gulf view are probably worth the extra cost. Although Blue Dolphin has free cruiser bikes, you almost certainly need a car, as distances are great. But Beware: if wifi is important to you, check carefully before you book, because during the two weeks we were there, 90% of the time the only reliable way to get wifi reception was to sit outside at one of the tables near the office, and even then sometimes the connections were very slow. The staff said they planned to get rid of wifi completely (!) because they had paid a lot of money to have a technician come in three times during the time we were there but the "fixes" never lasted for more than a day. Another point: the no-see-ums are out and biting for an hour or two around dusk every day, so bring insect repellant. Definitely use it if you go to the Ding Darling Nature Reserve, no matter what time of day!

Stayed during Christmas week. While the island was booming and traffic was hectic, the Blue Dolphin was our Island getaway. My husband and I felt like we had our own private island. The beach was quiet and beautiful. I believe only 10 cottages to share the beach with. The rooms were comfortable and clean. We left our windows open at night and listened to the waves. No Pool - who needs one, you have the ocean. When we go to hotels we hardly ever see managers about. Not here. The manager was always walking the grounds. Made sure we were in need of nothing. Gave us good suggestions for local photo opps. This is not our first time on the island or the only place we have stayed but it will be from now on.

We went to Sanibel Island for two days/ one night in early November and would highly recommend going here, only you should stay at least 2 nights. Our room was facing the water which was great, and there were bicycles on the premises to borrow. We rode our bikes through the nature reserve, and took walks on the beach during the day, and enjoyed the starlite sky at night. The beach has thousands of beautiful shells. We had 2 twin beds and a smaill kitchenette in our room. The beds are firm and nothing special but the room rate was about $155/night, so reasonable.

Beach and outside areas great. Chairs, umbrellas. But room is not great for 250us per night. Hard beds pillows, no real covers, just an old bedspread. Its ok, but not worth the price. 5 miles from town one way, so bad location for biking, not close to anything. But good if you want to get away. No pool. Breakfast not good, coffee good. Breakfast is commerical grocery bought packaged items, not fresh. Give you plain eng muffins not toasted and no butter. Does give fruit, but no juice.