Dorothy’s best friend recently turned 30 and to celebrate, Dorothy helped plan a surprise trip to Bermuda with her boyfriend. That would be her friend Alicia’s boyfriend, not her own boyfriend. I digress. The plan was to leave on a Saturday and return on Tuesday, for four days and three nights of a little piece of paradise. (Is that a line from a Coldplay song?)
It turned into a longer trip due to Hurricane Sandy. As we tracked the storm the few days prior, it felt like we were OK to get down to Bermuda and would likely return a day or two later. More on that later, but net-net, we were out of Newark and down to Bermuda on schedule, avoiding the storm in the Atlantic.
We arrived at the Grotto Bay Resort and quickly ran into Alicia and Brad, to her surprise. Amazingly, we didn’t ruin this part through some type of social media mishap or our own mouths. They had arrived about an hour ahead of us but through an early flight with a connection. The game plan was to take it easy on the first day and enjoy the resort/scenery.
Here’s a summary of the resort itself. Grotto Bay Resort is only five minutes from the airport via cab and that will cost you about $6 + tip, so very convenient. Apparently, it is the only all-inclusive option on the island. While generally not a big fan of all-inclusive deals, this was exactly what I needed out of a long weekend. You’ll never guess this, but the resort is right on the bay and has a gorgeous surrounding view. We upgraded our rooms for a bay view balcony, which doubled in importance for smoking cigars of course.
On the property you have the bay with a decent sized beach, a lagoon, a pool, a hot tub, and caves that you can swim in. On day one, we accomplished all of this excluding the caves. Despite the clouds and on again, off again drizzle, we managed to enjoy each part of the water activities. As an aside, there were a few hours of all inclusive drinking going on while we bounced from one area to another, ignoring how cold the water in the bay was.
The food at the resort exceeded expectations. They have two restaurants to choose from each night and slightly altered menus. One is also slightly more formal than the other, but not strongly enforced entering the offseason apparently (some people were wearing jeans and sneakers, etc.). I didn’t have a single bad meal – breakfast, lunch, or dinner – the entire time there. For breakfast, they have a room with a full buffet and the second room has a few items to pick up and run if desired. Weather permitting lunch is served outside by the pool/beach for a change of scenery.
Finally, the service itself was top-notch. Everyone is extremely pleasant, friendly, and accommodating. I don’t have a single complaint about the staff at all. Anything that you wanted to eat or drink, they would take care of. The concierge and employees at the front desk were always helpful, particularly in our need to stay two extra nights because of the problems due to the storm. They could have very easily taken advantage of our extra days but did nothing of the sort.
The only issue I came up with during the entire trip was the lack of Wi-Fi. They have a signal in the main building but it is not very strong. You cannot pick up their signal in any rental/room and it was a little finicky when walking around the main building. I can’t imagine this doesn’t improve over the next few years (hint, hint…).
OK, going back to the trip itself. Day one was filled with birthday celebrations and overall enjoyment that we were on vacation. On day two we tried to sleep in but it didn’t really work to well. After breakfast it was off to the beach as the sun was making its way through the clouds. This also meant that there was an early start to the Guinness consumption. The plan for the day was similar to day one and to stay at the resort and partake in as much as we could. We made it to the caves on day two and this was awesome. Despite the cold water (Brad’s entry into the water was priceless – “Oh, Ow, Oooohhhhhh”) it was neat to be swimming in a cave. You couldn’t tell how deep the water was in many areas and it wasn’t on my checklist to try and find out and wind up getting my foot wedged somewhere that it shouldn’t be.
The second night we decided to frequent the formal restaurant. By our second evening at the resort, we were “well known” by the staff. They knew exactly what we wanted to drink with our meal. Guinness isn’t a regularly consumed beer in Bermuda so before the end of the second night, the bartender told us that they were out and would need to be replenished by the distributor. Yikes! This is probably a highlight and lowlight, right?
At this point in the trip, we became aware of the storm hitting NJ and the damage that was forthcoming. We also knew that we would have to change our flights in the AM. After trying to do this over the phone for a bit on Sunday, it became clear that the better option was to head to the airport on Monday AM after breakfast. In doing so, we seamlessly transferred over to the same flight on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, as that flight was already cancelled.
After returning from the airport, we made our way into the city of Hamilton for a while. Dorothy and I actually only stayed for about 90 minutes or so, while Alicia and Brad walked around a bit more. There are a few monuments to see and souvenir shops to pop in and out of. We actually walked right into the restaurant that Dorothy’s parents ate at on their honeymoon – the Hog Penny Restaurant & Pub.
I’ve failed to mention the wildlife that was seen during our stay. If you don’t like roosters or lizards, don’t bother going to Bermuda. They are everywhere. The resort apparently has two house cats that barely moved and stayed outside the caves for 22 out of 24 hours each day. We found a relatively big jellyfish ashore at the beach, while also seeing pools of fish swimming around us in the bay. Finally, as Brad and I were walking back to the rooms one night, the mother of all frogs was sitting in the grass. Unfortunately, neither of us had a camera on us, but we swear we saw it and weren’t hallucinating. It had to be the size of my head. No, seriously.
The fourth day of the trip was Alicia and Brad’s last full day. They found a different route back to Detroit vs. having to fly into the East Coast. They went to visit the Town of St. George while Dorothy and I stayed back at the resort. When they returned they gave their approval and Dorothy and I put it on our list to-do for the following day. However, it was now time to go kayaking, as it was the first day that we were allowed to use the water sports items – beyond snorkeling – due to the tropical storm warnings the island was under.
The person at the kayak stand told us that we had to pair up and that there were no single kayaks. This was perfectly fine for me, maybe not so much for Alicia. We were instructed to stay relatively close to the shore due to the recent storms. It may have been frowned upon when I asked if we could go across the bay to check out the arch that was on the island across from us. Oh well. Dorothy and I only had one mishap, as she nearly fell overboard, which of course would have taken me out as well. Thankfully, this didn’t happen because I have no idea how we would have been able to flip back over the kayak and both get back on board. That wasn’t going to happen. In trying to master the left, right, left (repeat) stroke, there wasn’t too much sync between us. (Of course) However, we made it back to shore within an hour and managed to not yell at one another the entire time. (Success)
Kayaking was followed by a game of shuffleboard where I managed to leave my latest pair of sunglasses somewhere behind. That’s probably the sixth pair of sunglasses wasted over the past two years. It isn’t even worth buying a pair for more than $15 at this point.
On Brad and Alicia’s final morning, the women went and got massages at the onsite spa. This must have been pretty neat given that it was located in a separate cave, but you’ll never, ever get me to pay for a massage. No thanks.
After we said bon voyage to the birthday girl and Brad, Dorothy and I took the bus to St. George. This felt a little more for tourists vs. Hamilton to us. We walked up and down the main streets, stopped by the yacht club, and strolled through King’s Square. Brad took part in a show in the Square the day before, but it apparently only happens once a week. (For those interested, he was part of a reenactment of what I’ll call the exact opposite of women’s rights. He helped dunk women in water who were prosecuted for nagging their husband. You know, the good ole days … Kidding!) Not too much later we made our way back to the resort to enjoy the final evening of our stay.
We made dinner reservations at the more formal restaurant again. When we arrived, we were treated with some more good news; after a day and a half without it, Guinness was back in stock! Nice! Our waiter was just as excited about this for us as I was I think. Little did they know that we had stashed a few in our room refrigerators for emergency use only on the earlier days of our trip.
All in all, it was a lot of fun to get away. As mentioned earlier, I have absolutely nothing but positive things to say about the Grotto Bay Resort. I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking to go to Bermuda and doesn’t have any problems with all-inclusive plans. Dorothy and Brad were right on the money with planning this trip and I think we all had a blast. (Right?)
Dorothy and I returned home to NJ five days later and immediately came back to reality, beginning to see the damage that the storm took in surrounding towns and areas that I grew up in/with. That’s the next travel entry I’ll be working on over the coming weeks and trying to help “promote” helping out at the Jersey Shore and rebuilding the economy here.
Pictures:
The resort:
The fearsome foursome:
Hamilton:
St. George:
