First, I don't expect great hotels in Bermuda. Bermuda has neglected its tourism industry for a couple of decades and most of the hotels reflect this neglect. It has instead, decided to concentrate on it's offshore insurance industry.

The Fairmont in Hamilton was a notch above the typical Bermudan hotel in that the facilities ar ebetter maintained than most, but the service had "island" quality. Friendly and genuine but lacking promptness and professionalism. paying the extra for hte Gold level rooms or becoming a Presidential Club member is well worth it for the access to free hi-speed internet in the room and in the Gold Lounge. In addition, it offers free access to snacks and beverages almost all day long. (this is a huge advantage given the prices for most things on an island).

The rooms are well appointed, comfortably traditional (not comtemporary, but not stuffy either), the hotel appears to cater to mostly business professionals, as it close to the main town of Hamilton. But for the vacationer, I think that this Fairmont is better than their resort hotel across the bay. There is a regular, free water shuttle between the two properties, you have access to the resort's beach and water activities, you are closer to town and restaurants (taxi from the resort to Hamilton would be almost $40, roundtrip), and the rooms and service are much better.

During my stay, I had the misfortune of losing my wallet at the hotel. The staff was good about finding it and securing it, but did an almost too good of a job securin it, because it them several hours to relocate it several days later.

Couple of other pointers if you're going to take a long stay in Bermuda: Rent a scooter, a taxis are very expensive and if you want to visit some of of the way places, you can anticipate long waits for a taxi; and don't expect anything to be done is much of a hurry, while you may sometimes get very prompt services, it is more likley that you will find very relaxed attitudes - so just slow down and relax your expectations.

I always read these reviews and after reading a few of them, I was worried about our stay at the Hamilton Princess...but luckily I did not experience their problems at all.

First of all we stayed in a "gold room", had a great view, we were in the pool wing, and did NOT have a long walk to the lobby, I am not sure where that last reviewer stayed - perhaps they had a missing leg...but we were the last room at the end of the hall and it was lovely, short walk to the lobby not at all long as one reviewer mentioned, glad to be set away from the busy hustling in the lobby, the lobby was gorgeous, the door men always smiling, and friendly, called a cab for us before we had finished our sentence, the cab drivers were the friendliest people I have ever met, with their darling stories of the island, it was a pleasure to take a cab, so much so we looked forward to each ones personality.

The room was a 2 room suite with 3 balconies, within 20 ft of each pool right out our bedroom door...lovely grounds, babling brook, stocked with huge goldfish swimming under a rainforest type garden and walkway along th water and a beautiful sunset each night. The suite was painted yellow and powder blue, gorgeous relaxing atomospher, lovely Large bathroom with separate shower and tub, and I ordered a bouquet of flowers and bubbles and berries delivered prior to our arrival...the flowers actually matched the room, not sure if that was planned, but certainly appreciated..( the Bubbles and berries price was alittle steep for ok champagne and just 6 chocolate covered strawberries) But Just delicious none the less....

When we left I gave the still gorgeous flower arrangement to the nice lady housekeeper that we made friends with during turn down service when we nearly got locked out of our room. The Concierge were wonderful, making reservations for us for dinner every night. We took the shuttle to the sister hotel in South Hampton to Waterlot Inn for dinner, loved it so much we went 2 times in the 3 nights we were there.. If you visit Bermuda and crave a great steak...This place is melt watering..and banana flambe was awesome....Service was perfect, room was lovely, Water was turqoise, the sun was warm, we could not ask for anything more.

A lovely hotel, The Gold Room we stayed in was great, the breakfast, snacks at tea and appetizers from 5-7 were wonderful as was the Gold Room lounge area and all the employees...I am not sure how they could improve...it was perfect. Perhaps just the confusion taking one elevator to the first floor - walking to another elevator to take to the first floor of the Gold Wing...that was the only confusion...The hotel is a short walk to all the shopping in downtown Hamilton, very convenient for everything. A great Experience...Thanks to having the best boyfriend in the world, we may go back again in September.

This is a prestigiour hotel in Bermuda and the Fairmont group are well known around the world, but beyond the entrance and some of the peopleworking here, the hotel standard is not great and you should not expect the luxcury that you would get at other Fairmont hotels (such as the Savoy in London).
The bedroom I receieved was in another wing of the hotel and being on the second floor it involved going up and down in two elevators and then all along a very long corridor. Once in my average room, it was dark and dingy and really needed some renovation. The hotel claims to have recently been renovated but apart from some signs of wet paint I saw no evidnece of this. The service was okay but nothing spectacular. The menus were limiting and overall the facilities were slightly better than average. For this type of hotel I expected much better. I will go back because I am back in Bermuda every quarter for business and its location is convenient but I hope I get a better room next time.

The Fairmont Hamilton has the advantage of being centrally located in a magnificent pink building the towers above the ocean, the harbor and the island all at once. Most of Hamilton's good restaurants are a stone's throw away. The lobby and shopping gallery are elegant. But,, these are the only points that the hotel has in its favor.

Our room was in the pool wing. It was literally a 10 minute walk from the front desk. The fixtures in the bathroom were falling out. The toilet had a crack in the tank and the flush broke twice. The whole room smelled musty. The carpetting was forest green and the furnishings dark and gloomy -- more fitting for a motel in rainy Liverpool than for the sunny and colorful, island paradise that is Bermuda.

The housekeeping staff were friendly, but our room was not thoroughly cleaned. When we returned to the room in the evenings, it just didn't have that fresh fragrance of a recently cleaned, 5-star hotel room. The sheets were not crisply folded. One one occasion there was a rust stain on one of the towels. This may seem unfairly particular, but I expected more at a hotel charging $ 400.00 per night in the off season.

The heating unit clanked and thundered all night long, keeping us awake. The elevators were some of the slowest I have ever been in.

The concierge, though very nice, was seldom at the desk and could not provide us with helpful suggestions on where to eat on a Sunday evening.

My wife had a massage at the spa, which was totally disorganized. Their answering machine said they opened at 8, but theri doors didn't open until 9. Their only shower wasn't prepped for the first appointment of the day. My wife was told that she should have showered in her room and come down to the spa in her robe.

I suppose that we shouldn't have expected the spa to resemble a five-star resort's because the Fairmont Princess is primarily a business hotel. We did expect, however, to have access to a top quality, luxury spa: the Fairmont touts the privilege of using its sister facility in Southampton, which has a much larger and celebrated spa and a pink beach. But the ferry between the hotels runs only in the late morning and afternoon, making it difficult to use the spa without killing the whole day.

On the third day of our four day stay, we returned to find that our room had not been cleaned. Perplexed, we called the front desk whose staff claimed that we were supposed to have checked out already! We showed them the printout from expedia and they corrected their error.

On the day of our departure, we called the bell captain to retrieve our bags from the room. His line was busy. The front desk staff promised to relay the message to the bell captain, but he didn't come up to the room until I call for a third time and got through to him directly. He claimed that the front desk didn't give him the mnessage.

The Fairmont Princess is incredibly expensive, even by Bermuda's standards. But, it is average at best. It is not in the same league with the Mandarins, Sofitels and Fairmonts of other cities. I wouldn't stay there again. Others who have given this hotel glowing reviews must have stayed in the main wing of the hotel and it must be markedly better than the pool wing. They must have had better luck with the service. But, for the high price,I wouldn't risk the possibility of being unlucky.