we arrived the evening before christmas eve 2012 at Grotto Bay a very pretty place lots of neat gardens leading to the beach which is on your doorstep the main building with the restaurant is beautiful with lodges around it there are undergound caves free to walk into and bus stops very nearby we could also go for nice walks quite near by the staff are friendly and helpful and so are the locals quite near the airport but you would never know it recommend all inclusive as we were its an expensive place to visit but well worth it

We came to Bermuda the weekend before Christmas, 3 night stay, for a quick escape to start the holidays. As we learned, Bermuda is very SEASONAL, unlike the Caribbean, so keep in mind that our off-season experience was different than it might have been during the summer high-season.

Temperature varied high-60s to low-70s, with a cold breeze blowing throughout, and the water was similarly cold. Grotto Bay Beach has a nice (small) beach with a lot of available water activities, but in the off-season the bitterly cold water makes swimming and any water sport a pain more than a fun experience. We braved the water every day, more to take advantage of the beautiful clear water than to enjoy it, and emerged red and shivering. We even went snorkelling out to the sunken ship just offshore, which is surprisingly large and on clear days is probably very cool but the cold winds mucked up the visibility for us.
We had to run from the cold ocean to the jacuzzi which, thank god, was hot, because the pool is not heated in the off-season! Cold ocean, cold pool, hot jacuzzi.
Pool side grill and bar are also closed in the off-season, and only one dining hall is open at a time (serving the same off-season menu) so it is an uphill trek to the main bar to get any drinks by the pool. This didn't stop some guests we saw trying to take advantage of the all-inclusive they paid the extra $99/night for, who would take 3 beers at a time down to the pool for efficiency's sake.

Positives:
Room - large comfortable bed, updated modern bathroom
Friendliness - staff was very friendly and helpful
Spa - highlight of our stay, the resort has converted their best grotto into the spa, which is an incredible escape from the world. We had the 60-minute couple's massage, and though they charge an extra $20 to have it in the grotto it was totally worth it. Magical.
Location- the resort is a 5 minute taxi from the airport on a beautiful bay, and the proximity to the airport is barely noticeable. The Swizzle Inn is a short walk where we preferred to eat and drink (see: Negatives: Food) and the Crystal Caves is also very close for a great nearby activity.
Private- it may have been the off-season slow, but hardly anyone was at the resort so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Nice change from the hustle and bustle of New York City

Negatives:
Food - the dining experience at Grotto Bay Beach Resort was sub-par and very overpriced. Arriving on an evening flight our first night, we had dinner at the bar which was reasonable and got the job done. For the rest of the trip, we declined to pay $22+ for breakfast and took our lunch elsewhere on the island. The one night we had dinner in the dining room, we regretted it immensely. They clearly try to balance the all-inclusive and a la carte options by charging ridiculous prices for entrees and skimping significantly on portions. The quality makes sense for a buffet, but not for a sit-down dinner charging $25-40 per entree. The only positive was the bread service. Our soup was served in tiny bowls. We had the catch of the day which was overdone and dry tuna (likely sitting under a heat lamp for god knows how long) served with marinara sauce and underdone boxed couscous. After seeing how small the dessert portions were on other tables, we decided to go elsewhere for our last course. As previously mentioned, the Swizzle Inn up the road is better food and better priced.

Room Cleanliness- everything in our room was clean, but we came back one day while the maid had stepped out in the middle of cleaning and saw that our cups and mugs were soaking in the sink. Signs of lipstick later made it clear that the cups and mugs aren't washed and exchanged, but just rinsed in the bathroom sink and replaced.


To summarize - lovely resort with some ups and downs, but would not recommend Bermuda during the off-season just because of the cold weather.

I'll say at the outset that the hotel's own website doesn't do this resort justice. So I hope my review - and those of others - will help to promote the Grotto Bay Beach Resort.

It is a lovely spacious resort with very well maintained grounds and blocks of apartments dotted around the site. We had a top-floor, ocean-view room directly overlooking the bay, with its own very private balcony. The room was very comfortable, with a decent-sized bathroom and good quality towels and spa bathroom products. Hens and roosters, along with a few cats, roam freely around the grounds. No need to worry about not getting a wake-up call!

The were some issues with the TV reception - which was also apparent in the hotel bar area too - so I'm guessing that was environmental, as it did coincide with a short period of poor weather. And, as others have reported, there is no free WiFi and the high per-device charge for access meant we restricted our web-browsing to cafes, bars and restaurants on the island that offered free WiFi to their patrons.

We were on a room-only deal. We ate breakfast twice at the main restaurant. The $20 buffet was very good value for money, with a selection of hot and cold choices that you would expect to see at high-category hotels in the USA. On our other three mornings, we grabbed a lite-bite at the hotel's bar, which was also frequented by the many flight crews who stay here. We also ate dinner at the hotel on one night. Again, the food was of a very high quality.

The staff are very friendly and personable, especially those in the restaurant.

Do take time to visit the small on-site grotto. A very special place.

The location is perfect. You can see the resort from the airport and, after a long flight from the UK, it was great to be in our room within minutes. You can't really hear the airport from the resort, in part because there aren't that many daily flights into Bermuda.

Four bus routes serve the hotel. Two in fact have the resort as their terminus. So you can be in Hamilton (where you can change for busses and ferries to the west of the island) and the historic town of St Georges very quickly. The reception can sell most of the multi-day transportation passes on offer.

We got a really deal from hotels.com (about a 60% saving) and given the high costs of the other accommodation on the island, the Grotto Bay will always offer a great value for money choice.

We loved this place except for one item, which Ill get to later. I can only guess that this resort has undergone a large renovation from reading some older reviews. Having said that, our stay at Grotto Bay was nearly perfect. First off, the entire staff was very friendly and helpful. They rooms were modern, updated, clean and had everything you need for a perfect vacation. There is a nice private beach with good snorkeling. Very nice pool with food and drink available. Good location with transportation nearby. Only thing we didn't care for was the lack of Wifi. None of the rooms had it and you have to pay for it in the lobby. Most of the resorts have free Wifi in the lobby at the very least.