I booked Surf Side by reading trip advisor reviews and calling to Bermuda and talking with the hotel manager-BRYONY HARVEY- Dealing with this hotel has been HORRIBLE. First I read a reivew saying that they have a "phenomenon" where their beach is "diminished" Thats an understatement! There is absolutely NO beach and the manager, Bryony, shrugs off any complaints about the beach. I must have heard her say 1,000 times that it happens a couple of times a year. However when I was walking the beach, a 10 min walk away, I met a local who said that "Surf side hasn't had a beach in years" I think that this hotel just tells people their beach is gone sporadically because people are only staying there for a week and won't ever find out the truth. Secondly, I booked to have my wedding on site. Which wasn't a problem until I went down there and all of sudden there was hidden costs everywhere. Bryony tried to charge us for every thing. We met with the restaurant manager (her husband) who wasn't accomodating with food choices and never responded to emails about the menu. The water would run out 1/2 way thru a shower which Bryony acted as if it was no big deal. The food was ok but the price was crazy!
They completely misrepresented themselves. The brochure cover has 3 beaches on the cover (with no beach access) the inside cover shows a couple on the hot tub (haven't had one in years) another photo of the steam room (broken so long waitstaff didn't even know they had one) There is dead plants all over the property, in the lobby stuff is everywhere, there was a dead bird on the sidewalk for two days and no one cleaned it up.
DO NOT STAY HERE..BETTER YET CALL ABOUT A RESERVATION AND THEN DECLINE BECAUSE YOU READ THIS REVIEW! Maybe then Bryony will learn to fix the property. It is not alright to tell people one thing and then not deliver. Does she think that we aren't going to realize once we arrive? I had to relocate my entire wedding and guests 55 reservations. Dealing with Surf Side has been one of THE WORST experiances of my life!

I have been to Bermuda over 30 times. My family and I consider it our second home. We are not fancy at all, and would never consider staying at a large hotel like Elbow, or the Princess. Part of what we value in Bermuda is its sense of privacy and relaxation, not people and parties.

We are also very loyal. Before it was converted to condos, we stayed at the Mermaid Beach Club (now the Breakers) for almost 20 years. We never stayed anywhere else. It was just what we wanted -- great beach, ocean front cottages, and quiet. Also, because we were repeat guests, we were treated wonderfully (upgrades, gift basket, etc). We are even still very good friends with the cycle rental people (Mrs. T and Kevin -- we love you). It was a sad day for us when Mermaid went to condos.

We tried Pompono once and liked it, but it was really far away from St. George and we love to travel the whole island. When we first started staying at Surf Side, we thought we had found our new Mermaid. Surf Side was great - private beach, 2 hot tubs, a sauna and peace and quiet. We stayed there for about 8 years in a row. I will NEVER STAY THERE AGAIN!!!

Over the years I have seen it deteriorate. As the beach washed away (which they have no control over), instead of making the grounds better, they took things away. First the sauna, then one of the hot tubs, then the second hot tub. This year, they took the peace and quiet.

When we arrived, we did not get the rooms we were promised. Then, we did not get our welcome basket (no big deal, who needs fruit, but it was a matter of respect and courtesy for 8 years of continued service). I didn't mind the chipped paint or occasional ant in our room -- we've been to Bermuda and to the small hotels enough to know that it is par for the course. However, the fire alarm was missing from its spot on the wall and there was mold directly over our bed. Again, I didn't even really mind these things.

What botheredd me the most, was that we were there from Froday to Monday and the pool, restaraunt and bar WERE ALL CLOSED from Saturday afternoon to Sunday night. That's right, no beach, no hot tub, no pool. No bar, no restaurant. No warning. Why? because there were TWO weddings happening that weekend -- two weddings that they did not tell us about ahead of time, nor did they compensate us for our trouble.

And our trouble was not just in the closing of the main part of the hotel. We lost our quiet -- Saturday night, from 8:00 - 12:30 a.m. (yes, 12:30 in the [-----] morning) there was disco/party music BLARING from the pool area over the entire hotel, for the reception for one of the parties. I finally got out of bed at 12:10 to ask when the music would be shut off, and the front desk said they didn't know. Who's running this place?!

We didn't let the hotel ruin our trip. The weather was fabulous (thank God, because the roof was mysteriously gone from our deck. When asked about it, they said it blew off in a hurricane 2 years ago. Thay have no intentionof putting it back). I was just severely dissapointed with the lack of respect shown to me as a repeat customer and everone else not with the weddings, who were the only focus of the front dest/management. No one else mattered that weekend.

I will always return to Bermuda, I will never return to Surf Side.

P.S. If anyone knows a great, small, cottage-style hotel, please let me know. I've looked at Grape Bay and Coco Reef. I'd love some info.

We are seasoned Bermuda travelers, and have stayed several times at Surfside. This year, the rooms definately needed some TLC. You can't beat the location and the view, but after that - the accommodations are fair; there is no beach and hasn't been one for at least five years; bugs and some mold are begining to take over; and the hot tub is non-existant. But - the most annoying facor is the take over by weddings, with no warning except a note under the door. When this happens, the restaurant and pool are closed, sometimes for two days. (technically, the pool is not closed, if you don't mind swimming in the middle of a party or wedding ceremony) There is nothing worse than expecting to be hearing tree frogs, and instead having techno-funk blasting at you - until 12:30 at night. If you're heading to Surfside - ask if there is a wedding booked.

Have visited Bermuda now 3 times in the last 18 months. We love the Island
We decided to come last minute and there was very little choice available

I had a choice between this and Pink Beaches - pink Beaches is very expensive, load a supplement for Babies and the location isnt so good so we chose this one - close to Warwick long bay and Elbow Beach

Check in staff - generally quite dour and dont really care, especially the guy on the evening shift............

Room was poor, we ordered what we expected to be nicer than standard - being a cottage.
The place was in need of a basic upgrade and some decoration. The King bed was too singles stuck together and you'd sink into the middle - it was really uncomfortable and really bad

The room had a serious ant problem and we had to use ant spray at all times - including clearing about 100 off the bed (you expect this to some extent being a tropical island

The room itself wasnt clean - if you rubbed your finger along some of the surfaces you would have dirty marks - disgusting

The view is nice - of the sea, but there is absolutely no beach - I spoke to one of the other hotels and they said the beach was washed away in the storm of 2003 and hadnt come back since

Sure there are other beaches - theres one a few minutes walk away but its tiny and you have to go down some long and very steep steps to get there - a sign reads - ''dangerous'' - you certainly wouldnt be able to take a small child down those steps - we tried and gave up

Sure you can go to the other beaches but its nice to have the opportunity to walk along the beach like at Coco Reef - but you dont have that opportunity

We tried the evening meal - it was eddible - thats all, well overcooked I would say

My wife wanted us to leave the 1st night and was almost crying, but we were only staying a couple of nights and there wasnt much point (it was a stopover on the way back from Toronto)

Bus tokens was interesting - they didnt have any bus cards, and had even run out of all tokens - what sort of hotel runs out of these - I can only assume they had cashflow problems


The very front (surfside) is on a steep drop and has suffered erosion of the cliffs - if there is 1-2 more storms they could lose the cottages.....

We have previously stayed at Coco Reef, this is a far, far better quality hotel, with a nice beach and excellent service

Dont even think of staying here if you have children or disabilities - there are lots of steps/slopes
We went with a baby and had a crib, which looked like it was 100 years old - and terrible - we let our baby daughter sleep in our bed with the 'ants'....... yeah not good at all

I would say overall that if you want a positive impression of Bermuda pls dont stay here - we love Bermuda and this really was a bad experience for us that management let the place be run down

The only positive was that on the last day our flight was at 8pm and they let us have the place until we wanted - at no extra charge - but thats a function of the place being half full - it was a nice touch but in no way compensates for this place

I am very disappointed that people can rate this in any way over 2-3 stars - it really is a poor hotel.....