We were in Duck to celebrate our wedding anniversary (56) and were only there for lunch. We live near the OBX and eat out there often. We had not been to Sanderling restaurant in several years. We arrived at 3PM. There customers at 2 tables, otherwise empty. We waited at the restaurant entrance for several minutes and finally phoned the restaurant to let them know we were waiting. We were finally seated by a pleasant server. She took our drink order(water) and our appetizer order. We received our water followed by our appetizer and gave our food order( the Mahi sandwich special) . Our server disappeared, we were the only people in the restaurant. After about 10 minutes, we needed water refills. I took our glasses to the bar and waited for the bartender to notice me. “What do you need, bud?”, his exact words. A server came out of the kitchen just then and he asked e her to fill my water glasses. We got our sandwiches, tasty, tiny, and very unremarkable. Not what I expected for a $19.00 sandwich. Anyway, everyone was pleasant, the location is great and there are many excellent restaurants on the OBX. It will be several more years before we return to the Sanderling Restaurant, if ever.

A couple of disclaimers - we stayed in the main building, did not see the inside of the other buildings and did not take advantage of the spa. First, this is a five-star location and really the only choice if you aren't aren't renting a house in Duck. Just my wife and I this time so a room is all we needed. Highs - location, location, location for Duck and Corolla, restaurants and beach access. Our room had a remarkable bathroom, third floor view of the sound with deck and fireplace. All wonderful. Lows - the building and room furnishings, decor and carpet are CRAZY old and tired. Every piece of furniture in the common areas is either damaged or stained. That was very disappointing. The only on-site food is the Lifesaving Station which is over-priced, slow, and just OK. The unrelated Paper Canoe Restaurant across the street is REMARKABLE, however. We had a fire alarm at 3:00am one of our nights and the staff person on duty was clueless about what to do. The staff was really underwhelming overall. Very few smiles, everyone looked tired and it seemed to us that the facility is very understaffed. No changed linen in (4) days, (1) room refresh. Would we stay here again, yes, in the same circumstances, but everyone be warned - this is not a 4 or 5 star experience.

We were so excited to try the Sanderling for a quick trip away, but we were disappointed in every way. We arrived on Monday around 1pm and told our rooms would be ready very soon. We walked around the property and over by the pool was a bag of trash that had been blown around including a used pregnancy test and used pads (disgusting). We decided to head to the beach. At 4pm (check in time) we asked about our room and were told they didn’t know when it would be ready. At this point the kids were tired and sandy and wanted somewhere to relax. We didn’t end up getting into 1 room until 5:15, and the second until almost 6. The room was generally clean, though dated, but was missing bags in the trash cans. The room with 2 double beds had nothing but 2 sheets with a thin blanket in between (not what I’d expect in a 4 star resort). The second day we were gone nearly the entire day (8-4) and housekeeping had not come. They finally came close to 6pm, but at that point we were settled in for the evening (we have small kids). The second night we ate at the Lifesaving station which was a horrible disappointment. The salad lettuce was white and disgusting, the fries limp and cold, and the “crab” dip was all cream cheese. Overall, I wanted to love this place but I actually feel like we got ripped off. They are clearly horribly understaffed which is not their fault, but then maybe they should only book the number of rooms they can keep up with.

What happened to the Sanderling? We stayed here several times in the past and loved it. We went to check in today we were greeted by a very unfriendly staff. We arrived at 2:30, and we told check in was at 4, and it would probably be later since they had a lot of rooms to clean. He said they were 60% occupied yesterday and didn’t get the rooms cleaned. I asked about the 40% that were not used and if I could just switch to one of those. He said, no since I booked using Travelzoo, he couldn’t move me. We were told we could use the pool and hot tub, but told they no longer have an indoor pool and the outdoor pool is not heated. They said we were welcome to use the hot tub (see picture). We went to the beach where there were dirty towels everywhere and no chairs. Since we had time to kill, we went to the spa and were told the steam room in the men’s room was broken and again saw dirty towels everywhere. We got a cup a coffee to sit outside and wait for our room and saw bugs crawling over the coffee machine and tea. We decided to go to Duck Coffee shop and wait. We didn’t receive notice that our room was ready until 4:45pm…at that point we were decided not to stay. Very disappointed in The Sanderling. Happy Easter to us ☹️

The resort has the potential to be amazing, but it is very outdated and needs a lot of TLC. Our room was not very clean and smelled really musty. There was a dirty towel and trash on the stairs inside our building the whole time we were there. We had to get air freshener for our room it was so bad. This should not have been the experience we had for the price we paid. Security is not very good either. The outside doors of the building to the rooms were always unlocked, even overnight. Due to the weather and time of year we we’re not able to use many of the amenities, but the ones we could use were not always available, but we were still charged the full amenity fee every day. They told us there would be a fire at the fire pit each night and two of the four nights we stayed they did not light it. We were also told there would be bathrobes in our room and there was not nor was there updated information about the resort or what was available to us left in the room. We did not see one worker our whole stay except for checking in and at the Lifesaving Station restaurant. It was the only restaurant open on the resort. The restaurant is very overpriced for the quality of food we had. We did take our leftovers to eat later, but there was not a microwave in the room so we could not heat up our food. Many places on the Outer Banks were still closed this time of year so it was very inconvenient not having one. There were also kids at the adult tranquility section the one time we went to use it. We’ve stayed at many five star resorts over the years and this was not even close to a five star as advertised. It is 3 stars at the best, but has the potential to be better with updates, especially to the rooms and cleanliness.