Sandy Neck Beach — Attraction in Barnstable

This was our second time staying at Sandy Neck Motel. We stayed there three years ago for one night and had a good experience and so booked there again, for one night. However, I didn't look closely at the taxes/fees this time when I booked and I should have. Last time, the only charges besides the room cost was the taxes and a water protection fee. This time, in addition to the taxes and water protection fee, we had to pay $10 for a 4th person (for a room with two queen beds), $30 cleaning fee, $4 guest channel fee (we never even touched the television). So, on top of a $180 room cost, we paid $76 for taxes and fees. So the taxes and fees were over 42%. These taxes/fees were listed in my booking, so the motel was upfront about these additional charges. The motel advertises itself as a vacation rental property but it is still a motel room. That's it. So paying $30 for a cleaning fee and $4 for a guest channel fee feels wrong. The motel itself is nice but I really don't like paying...

Off season April 2023, approaching low tide, cool and breezy. Parking that day was free and plenty of spaces. Some construction going on, bathrooms being upgraded. Steps from the parking lot to beach not yet replaced after winter storms. Beach condition, wide band of rocks at high tide mark, wide swatches of sand available. People looking for whales, walking dogs, rockhounding. Rocks included lots of quartz, quartzite, granite, chert, basalt, puddingstone, all rounded and glazed by sand. We did not take the trails through the dunes, but they looked like nice trails. Traffic around Bourne and Sagamore bridges was atrocious. Poor traffic control, I would blame the engineering firm that set up...

I did not have the best experience, first we had never gone there, they did not explain anything about the trail to us only that it was 3.3 miles of walk we walked 4 hours until we noticed we were lost we had pass the camping area they said we were in site 5 but did not say that the sites were on 4 and we walked to trail 5 and nothing we literally walked to the lighthouse looking for the place to camp until we called them to pick us up they were super cool and they arrived fast but I think the reception has to explain better how is the trail and where we need to go and give the option of going thru the beach which is much faster...