We stayed with six people including grand parents and kids at the Sandbridge Dunes for a week-long vacation in July of 2007. Our room was a three-bedroom unit on the first floor on the north side of the building, we had a partial ocean-view from our balcony. The Dunes are right in the middle of Sandbridge, at the end of Sandbridge Drive, which is the road leading into Sandbridge. The location is ideal, and the place isn't nearly as big or imposing as the Sanctuary at False Cape at the south end of Sandbridge.

The room itself was nice, but had a few bugs, most of which were cosmetic. The vertical blinds in the master bedroom were falling apart, if we opened them several slats fell off, we noticed that others had tried quick repairs such as using band-aids to keep the slats attached. The hall bath tub drained very slow, making bathing the kids a challenge. The master shower was a cramped stall and the doors kept falling off their track. It had a jacuzzi tub but we never had a chance to use it. There were no cutting boards in the kitchen, and the exhaust fan in the parking garage below the master bedroom rattled incessantly, fortunately it had an off switch so we shut it down at night. There were also a lot of signs of shoddy construction that would make me very nervous about buying one of these units (very poor drywall, stains on the ceilings indicating water leakage above, poor fixture installation, and a few other minor nits).

Still, the room was clean and VERY spacious, we had way more space than we needed actually and tons of closet space as well. The beds were decent, but you might want to bring your own pillows. There were blankets, and fresh linens when we arrived. The room also had games, books, and videos for us and the kids to enjoy. Every room had a ceiling fan.

The kitchen was large and very well stocked with pretty much everything you would need for a week. The furniture was cheap, but usable. The view was very nice. Note that no disposable items are supplied, so bring your own soap, paper products (including TP) and garbage bags. Bring hangars too as these were in short supply.

Each unit gets two parking passes, so those with more than two vehicles will find parking a challenge. One space is reserved in the garage, the other vehicle must park in open spaces outside the garage (either in or outside the gated area).

The pool was great for young kids, but was often full of sand from folks using it to wash off from coming back from the beach. It would help if they would tell residents where to find the foot washes and showers (we didn't see them until our last day, they're on the east end of the building). They cleaned the pool almost every day, but it was full of sand by evening.

There is also a common area and fitness room, but we didn't notice these until our last day.

The overall atmosphere of the resort was very family friendly, mostly we saw groups of parents, kids, and grand-parents. Our children loved the pool and we never had any concerns about noise or rowdiness. Other guests were very friendly. The location is fantastic, there is a narrow road between the resort and the beach, but it is no more than a five minute walk from the resort to a nice spot on the beach. The beach was never crowded, and almost everyone we saw seemed to be with a large family.

There is a small market and restaurant, as well as a pizza place next to the resort, the only other restaurant we saw was Baja at the south end of Sandbridge, but we didn't try it. Up Sandbridge road about 3-4 miles are other places (including the wonderful Margie & Rays) and plenty of shopping. Downtown Virginia Beach is about 25 minutes away.

Our biggest complaint was with the inspection process on the final day. We were told to leave by 10:00 AM and leave our keys on the counter. At 9:20 AM on Saturday an inspector from Sandbridge reality showed up at our door. We asked him to come back but he told us he needed to inspect the place. We ended up letting him in after we got ourselves ready (we were in the middle of getting our kids dressed). Upon looking back, this was a bad idea, we should have called Sandbridge Realty to verify his identity before allowing him in. He could have been a scam artist. I called the real estate office after he left and they told us he should have agreed to come back if we told him we weren't ready. Beware if you are planning to leave at the 10:00 AM checkout time.

So given our experience would we stay again - yes most definitely. The location was ideal, the pool was great, the beach was fantastic, and the room, while not free of bugs, met our needs. Still we'll make sure not to allow anyone in before 10:00 AM next time.