My husband and I stayed at the Blue Dolphin cottages in November, 2012. We LOVED it here. We could only stay one night and hated to leave, we are planning to come again next year. It's so beautiful, tucked into a quiet residental neighborhood. Beautiful palms and landscaping on the white sand pathway to our room, which was #8. Nice front porch with chairs to relax in. The beach is just beautiful and not crowded, they are so hospitable. When we checked in there was coffee and candy in the lobby and they were getting ready to put out iced tea and cookies. In the morning they have coffee and muffins on one of the tables in the pathway, which was so nice. They also offer the free use of their bikes to ride as well as towels for the beach and nice lounge chairs. Our room was comfortable and plenty big. We could easily stay for a week, since there is a kitchen with everything you could need and a little table and chairs. My first time to Sanibel, we found great shells on the beach and enjoyed collecting them. We are so glad we found this place!!!

First time we stayed here. We were a family of six
My husband and I , our two boys and my in laws. We had two cottages. Ours was a very nice and spacious cottage with a sitting area and a separate bedroom with a king size bed. The sitting area had a queen size sofa bed and we had a rollaway for our younger son.There is a full kitchen with sitting area to eat and a very spacious bathroom.
My in laws had a smaller cottage with a full kitchen as well.
You are right on the beach and this is in a residential area so there are very few people on the beach.
There are little tables outdoors and a continental breakfast is set up each morning. This is a small establishment so everyone including guests is very friendly Nd folks tend to chat in the am when coming for coffee .this place is a gem.

Really enjoyed our stay here. Sanibel is great. These cottages are right on the beach at the quieter side of the island. We loved how they had bikes to ride out on. The residences are clean and tidy and very good value.

Couple of things could be improved:

Appreciate that breakfast is a bit of a "bonus" but juice of some kind would have been great. Some days there was oats some days not.

We were in a room next to the laundry and the "venetian" blinds in the bedroom didn't block enough light. Would be better to have a secondary blind/curtains.

Just returned from a week in Sanibel. We have previously stayed in a private home on the island and had never rented. Based on Tripadvisor reviews we decided to stay at the Blue Dolphin Cottages, and what a great choice that was! The location is as close to the beach as you can get. The property is well maintained and landscaped, and the layout of the cottages creates a very friendly communal atmosphere. My wife asked me not to review this gem,so as to keep it a secret. But that would neither be fair to future Tripadvisor users nor to the good folks who run the Blue Dolphin Cottages. We will be returning.