Sandbridge Beach VA?

[mtemm]

some friends of ours are renting a beach house in sandbridge beach, va, this summer and have invited us to join them for the week. is anybody familiar with this area? good? bad? ugly?

between us we have several young kids (ages 4-8), and from what I am seeing online (trip advisor and such) it seems pretty family friendly. the few poor reviews were concerning the beach and work being done on it, but most seemed to love it there. would love some further info if anyone is familiar with it.

thanks!

 

[KirstenB]

My sister lives off of Indian River Road, about 10 minutes from Sandbridge. Traffic backs up mad, crazy if you go through the I64 tunnel from Hampton to the Norfolk side. A slightly longer, but better route is 464e to 64 if you're coming from the North. Or you could follow 64 E until you see signs for the alternate bridge tunnel in Newport News.

Now that my traffic advice is done, Sandbridge is great for families. It's a long narrow spit of land. In Sandbridge proper, there are few restaurants/bars/mini-golf, etc. However, a couple of miles down the road, and there's tons of activities, including a marine science museum.

Sandbridge is a nice quality family community. Good choice.

 

[mtemm]

thanks! have you heard of any issues with the beaches? the water? there are a couple of reviews on trip advisor that raise red flags on those issues.

 

[matthew&haleysmom]

It is a great place for a relaxing family trip. Traffic can be a nightmare during certain times; however, it never bothers me. Make sure you visit the Marine Science Museum with the kids. It is a lot of fun. My kids love to spend hours there!

 

[KirstenB]

No issues with the beaches. There was controversy 10 or so years ago though. Sandbridge beaches used to be private, no public access whatsoever. Then some wicked storms washed through there, and the homeowners decided it would be good to have federal/state aid funding to replenish the beaches. So now they're several public access points. We were there this summer, and it was great.

 

[mtemm]

thank you! it sounds really nice.

 

[SC Minnie]

We stayed on Sandbridge Beach this past July.

To be honest I don't think I will go back. We enjoyed the Outer Banks of NC more. Our biggest problem was with the house we rented through Sandbridge Realty- they were horrible.

 

[Todd&Copper]

When I lived in VA Bch 10 years ago, Sandbridge was just a beach - no boardwalk, no amusements. A nice place to go to relax and read a book under an umbrella, or swim about, or possibly even boogie board, but kind of dull if you were looking for more.

VA Bch proper is probably a 20 - 30 minute drive away, depending on traffic.

And a number of those homes on Sandbridge Rd. are in not such great shape.

 

[mtemm]

uh oh...now I'm getting nervous. the house we are looking at is from sandbridge realty. sc minnie, would you mind sharing which house you rented? (pm me if you would prefer)

 

[SC Minnie]

And a number of those homes on Sandbridge Rd. are in not such great shape.

Our house was OK at best- It was big and we had rented it for over $10,000 for the week- the realty co stunk. We had 19 people with us. The house was not clean when we got there eventhough the cleaning person had just left (floors were filthy, tables had not been wiped off in weeks or more etc). We called the realty co and they finally sent someone back out to clean. The AC went out in one half of the house. It took 6 calls and more than 24 hours for them to send someone out- took the repair guy all of 20 min to get it fixed ) This was in July so it was very hot and humid making it extremely uncomfortable in that house. There are other things too that we were not pleased with. The house was not maintained well in general especially compared to what we had stayed in at NC OBX.

 

[SC Minnie]

uh oh...now I'm getting nervous. the house we are looking at is from sandbridge realty. sc minnie, would you mind sharing which house you rented? (pm me if you would prefer)

The house name was Sunseeker.

 

[mtemm]

thanks for all the info. so ac is a must even on the beach? we were talking about that last night since one of the places we are looking at just mentions a wall unit downstairs.

 

[SC Minnie]

To me it is- especially in the summer.

We couldn't open the windows either because there was a forest fire smoldering nearby. One of the people staying in the house with us has emphysema(sp?) and couldn't handle the smoke that would have come in.

 

[mtemm]

sc minnie, what did you think was horrible about sandbridge realty? the house you took (looks gorgeous, btw!) isn't one of them we are looking at.

 

[GreatDaneMom]

thanks for all the info. so ac is a must even on the beach? we were talking about that last night since one of the places we are looking at just mentions a wall unit downstairs.

Yes, you want air conditioning if you're here in the summer!

 

[SC Minnie]

The house wasn't as nice as it looks in the pictures. You could really tell it had not been maintained. Like I said earlier it was dirty when we checked in even though the cleaning person just left. The counters, tables, endtables etc still had crumbs on them. The floors were filthy as well. We had to make our own beds- put the sheets on and put towels in the bathrooms- when we got there (they will do this for your but for an extra charge- DH missed that tidbit on the website). The response from the realty co about the AC was the final straw. We called them on Wed morning (so it wasn't like it was a weekend) and kept being told someone would be out in the next 2 hours every time we called- they never called us back to say someone wasn't coming even though they said they would.

We just didn't feel like we got what we paid for. Sandbridge Realty wasn't responsive enough for our liking either.