Two families with small children stayed in this home and fit comfortably. We had a late July week, the weather was pretty good with some rain. The house was situated with limited gulf views but you are close to the water with a 3 minute trek through the sand to the beach. Nice deck but the patio furniture was uncomfortable and falling apart and the deck wood has seen better days and many nails need to be pounded down. The out side of the house was a little run down, there was a large hole in the front apex of the house which made the house almost look condemned but it did not affect the stability of the house only aesthetic. House was clean, no bad smells... Housekeeping does a great job as we have stayed at many houses on the island over the years and whomever cleans this house did a fantastic job. Kitchen is well stocked. Wish there was a better shower under the house to rinse off but there is a hose to use. Overall if you aren't super picky this house is a good value and really well layed out.

We recently came down for a short fall break beach trip. The house was a great fit for our family of 4 plus my mom and uncle. I really liked that two of the three bedrooms had 2 beds which permitted a variety of sleeping arrangements. The main room of the house is spacious and opens onto the deck, and we spent most of our time at the house split between the deck and living/dining room. In the mornings the kids would go down and play in the little sand "yard" that is visible from the deck, before we all went down to the beach. There is a short walk past 2 other houses to the beach, maybe 50 yards or so. Short enough that we made the trip several times a day. The beach is private and so you don't have to be as paranoid about leaving things if you want to go back inside for meals. This was nice for us as our only previous trip to the gulf was Destin, Florida, which is much more crowded. That said, those 2 houses do obstruct a majority of the direct view of the beach from the house; this wasn't a big issue for us. There is a LOT of sea life in the water here. That combined with the cooler temperatures of early October meant that we did not swim per se, more like heavily involved wading. There were a decent number of dead moon jellyfish on the shore and tumbling in the shallow surf, but manageable. The kids played in the surf just fine and no one got stung. We also saw many varieties of fish and a few small sharks. We cooked almost all of our meals in the kitchen, having brought a decent amount of food with us in a cooler, and picking up a few odds and ends at the island's "Ship and Shore" mini mart. Everyone told us "there's nothing on the island so come prepared" but honestly I found this not to be the case, we went looking for Worchester sauce at the store and found it, so, there you have it. The kitchen in the house is EXTREMELY well stocked with everything you need to make all your meals, not just dishes and basic pans - lots of bakeware, small appliances like a waffle iron and a hot plate, mixing bowls, etc. We really enjoyed everything about this trip and will definitely return to Dauphin Island. We liked it much, much better than Destin!