Hotels in Bermuda

Bermuda offers a wide choice of lodgings, ranging from small, casual guesthouses to large, luxurious resorts. Facilities vary greatly in size and amenities within each category.

Choosing the Place that's Right for You

Accommodations in Bermuda basically fall into five categories:

• Resort Hotels: These generally large properties are Bermuda's most lavish, offering many facilities, services, and luxuries -- but also charging the highest prices. The lowest rates, usually discounted about 20%, are in effect from mid-November to March. The large resorts usually have their own beaches or beach clubs, along with swimming pools; some have their own golf courses. It's cheaper to choose the Modified American Plan (MAP) dining option than to order all your meals a la carte. However, if you go the MAP route, you'll be confined to the same dining room every night and miss the opportunity to sample different restaurants.
• Small Hotels: This option might be just the right fit for those who hate megaresorts. Bermuda's small hotels offer the intimacy of upscale B&Bs, but with more facilities. At a small hotel, you might feel more connected to the island and its people. Another plus? They're often cheaper than the big resorts.
• Cottage Colonies: This uniquely Bermudian option consists of a series of bungalows constructed around a clubhouse, which is the center of social life, drinking, and dining. The cottages, usually scenically arranged on landscaped grounds, are designed to provide maximum privacy and are typically equipped with kitchenettes for preparing light meals. In many of the cottage colonies, breakfast isn't available; you can go out, or buy supplies the night before and prepare your own meal. Most colonies have their own beaches or swimming pools.
• Housekeeping Units: These cottage or apartment-style accommodations (often called efficiencies in the U.S.) occupy landscaped estates surrounding a main clubhouse. All of them offer kitchen facilities -- perhaps not a full, well-equipped kitchen, but a kitchenette at least where you can whip up snacks and breakfast. Most offer minimal daily maid service. Generally, housekeeping units are simpler and less expensive than cottage colonies.

• Guesthouses: These are Bermuda's least expensive accommodations. The larger guesthouses are old Bermuda homes in garden settings. Generally, they've been modernized and have comfortable guest rooms. Some have swimming pools. A number are small, modest places, offering breakfast only; you may share a bathroom with other guests, as well as have to "commute" to the beach.
• House Rentals: Widely available on websites like Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway, and FlipKey, these are the least expensive accommodations in Bermuda. On these sites one can easily find studio or one-bedroom apartments for less than $100 a night (like Panatola Studio with water views for $95 a night) and full cottages with multiple rooms for around $200 per night (like Watercolours, a two-bedroom waterfront cottage that’s owned by acclaimed local artist Carole Holding who’s been known to gift renters signed artwork from her collection). Expect all the comforts of home and then some: many feature cushy island amenities like pools, beach access and lush tropical gardens. With the introduction of the Twizy—Bermuda’s first electric-powered rental vehicle—some homeowners have even installed on-site charging stations, so consider homes with dedicated “Oasis Points” if you’re planning on zipping around the island in a four-wheeler. Like other watery destinations, homes closest to the beach (or with ocean or harbor views) will likely be the most expensive, but deals abound for travelers who don’t mind being landlocked.

Rates & Reservation Policies

The rates listed throughout this website are real-time prices culled mostly from popular third-party booking sites, such HotelsCombined.com and Booking.com. The exceptions are some of the small inns and guesthouses listed  below, as they don’t appear on the major booking engines. That’s not a mark against their quality; these places do such good business that they don’t have to rely on “third party” sites to stay full (and they don’t have to pay commissions which means they can offer better prices to their guests).

The rates listed in this chapter do not include taxes and service charges, which can increase the nightly fee. All room rates are subject to an 11.75% government occupancy tax, plus a tourism fee and service charge, which will be automatically tacked onto your bill (some hotels charge 10% of the bill, while others charge a per-diem amount). Keep in mind that the service charge does not cover service at the onsite restaurants and bars; for those you’ll be paying a 17% gratuity for food and beverage bills, so don’t be sticker shocked when the final tally arrives.

Bermuda’s peak season is in the summer months of June, July and August, when the weather is warmest and its hotels are their fullest. However, deals—and equally pleasant conditions—can often be found in the handful of months just before and just after these months. Called shoulder season, room rates can drop some 40% despite the fact that the weather will be quite temperate (about 60°-70°) in April and May or September and October. Another way to save: book a package deal that includes hotel and airfare. See airline sites, Expedia, Priceline and the like for these types of deals.

For the purposes of grouping hotels in this chapter, any hotel with rooms costing more than $400 a night in hish season is listed as “expensive”. “Moderate” hotels are those costing between $250 and $400 a night. And anything less than $250 per night is classified as inexpensive (alas, those are the parameters in pricy Bermuda). Note that some hotels offer a wide range of room types, and with them a wide range of prices. So it may be possible to score a $300 a night room if you’ll forego a water view, in a hotel where the majority of the rooms are $400 a night. Ask.