Review: Rosewood Bermuda

Note: This review skews heavily from the lens of a family trip with a young toddler. 

We stayed for about a week in their Harbour View One Bedroom Suite.

OVERALL TAKEAWAY: The main theme we experienced across the board was inconsistency - both with the hard product and service. There’s a lot of great potential but my wife and I both felt it fell well short of delivering a top-tier experience aligned with the Rosewood brand and its competitors. There's enough pluses that make this place good for families, and its short flight time from east coast (under 2 hours from some cities) continues to make it appealing for us for a possible return trip. However, we wouldn't blindly recommend it to others.

Resort highlight: Access to this private pink sand beach

PROS:

  • The property offers plenty of space and is quite family-friendly.
  • The two kid-friendly pools including one that is reserved for little ones were terrific and our toddler loved them both.
  • The private beach and beach club was a highlight.
  • Our suite itself was another highlight. It was more spacious than we were expecting, well-appointed, and included a really great, easy-to-operate via remote working fireplace which quite hygge in the evenings. The views from the living room and bedroom were magical. Also, while we needed the golf cart that came with the suite for getting around the resort (especially getting to the beach club and golf course), but it was also an easy up the steps to the main area of the resort.
  • The welcome package in the room included toys (large legos) and some beach toys and a bucket hat for our toddler, which was a nice touch.
  • Kids under 3 eat free from the kids’ menu. 
  • Convenient location close to the airport (15 minute drive).
  • Room service at breakfast was prompt.
  • Some of the staff were lovely especially at the "Island Brasserie" restaurant during breakfast and dinner. And also a shoutout to one of the staff at the reception desk who saw us walk by at one point, and ran over to give our toddler a stuffed turtle toy.
  • Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo which is only 15 minutes away is fun for young kids. You only need an hour or two there.
  • Our toddler loved riding in the golf cart.
  • The golf clubhouse area was also a nice spot for letting the kiddos run around a bit for a change of scenary on premise.

CONS:

  • The resort overall felt outdated at parts and lacked the "wow" pizazz we were expecting from the Rosewood brand.
  • Our check-in experience was disappointing—no greeting, and we were left to handle our luggage ourselves. It was very cold and dispassionate. To be blunt, I've had a nicer welcome at a Courtyard Marriott.
  • We were not informed that our child could eat free until our third day. This lack of communication was really irritating to us. The kids menu has prices next to them so we assumed our little one would be charged.
  • The food quality was inconsistent, with some dishes like the lobster salad being nearly inedible and a few sandwiches being overly greasy.
  • Service was indifferent and inconsistent, with minimal personalization and a general lack of attention to personal detail. It felt at times that they were understaffed or stretched thin. The main entrance especially felt understaffed and chaotic at times.
  • Our suite was not cleaned on one of the days.
  • The lack of having a way to communicate via text or app ala Four Seasons at this stage especially in a large resort made things a challenge. I think they would benefit from having a butler-esque service or some way of providing guests a single point of contact for requests via text communication.
  • Some beach chairs were in disrepair and we saw one lady fall off hers as a result.
  • If you are booked into a room that does not come with a golf cart (our suite came with a golf cart fortunately), then you will have to rely on the resort's shuttle vans. The vans seemed to run on a frequent schedule, but this may be a factor for you. For us, having a little one, it was important for us to be on our own schedule and to be able to leave whenever we needed to so our golf cart was critical.

NOT APPLICABLE:

  • Given our situation with our toddler, we weren't able to explore the two adult-only pools, and the other activities (like a boat outing and gin tasting).

HELPFUL TO KNOW POSSIBLY:

  • Transportation booked through the resort is local taxi vans, not luxury SUVs or black cars. Sometimes the taxi vans that showed up made installing our travel car seat a challenge.
  • The on-site ATM didn’t work, so bringing cash is highly advisable if you plan on venturing out and using cabs which mainly take just cash.
  • The hotel was not able to book us a babysitter/nanny. They did refer a local company which never responded to my repeated requests. We eventually found one through my own efforts who was great.
  • The pools do not have proper cabanas. This isn't a deal breaker for us per se, but we do usually enjoy getting these for the extra space to stretch out and sometimes a place where the little one can take a nap or have a quiet time.