Sanibel cover
2026BGG rank #5,970

Sanibel

by Elizabeth Hargrave · Avalon Hill

Browsing is free. Ask BoardGameBrain about this game when rules coverage is ready.

Players2–4
Time45m
ComplexityLight
Age10+

About the game

What is Sanibel?

In Sanibel, players walk up and down the beaches of this Florida island city, collecting a wide variety of seashells and carefully adding them to their bags — with your "bag" being a personal player board. As you collect shells, you "drop" them in the bag, letting them fall to the bottom Tetris-style. Focus on the types of shells and where they land, since they score in a variety of ways. Be sure to collect shark's teeth, too, as they're small and can fit in tiny spaces. Movement on the beach is represented by player tokens that start in a line, with a multitude of tiles splayed into zones on the beach. Whoever is at the back of the line takes the next turn, advancing as far as they wish, then collecting tiles. At the halfway point, players loop around and head back to where they started. At the end of the game, players earn points based on which seashells they picked up and how carefully they arranged them in their bag.

How it plays

Mechanics

End Game BonusesOpen DraftingOrderingPattern BuildingTile PlacementTurn Order: Time TrackVariable Set-up

On the shelf

Categories

EnvironmentalExplorationNauticalPuzzleTravel

Questions players ask

Questions to bring to BoardGameBrain

  • How do setup and the first turn work in Sanibel?
  • When does scoring happen and what ends the game?
  • How should the table resolve an unusual timing or rules interaction?