Posh beach recommendations?

My husband and I are cruising to Bermuda in early October. This is a trip without our kids, to celebrate our 20th anniversary, so I am going to be unapologetic about being super high-maintenance and wanting to do a few splurge-y things. I would love to spend some time at a beach or resort one of the three days we are there, and here is what my ideal spot would have:

1. Beautiful scenery.

2. Quiet, not too crowded.

3. Some shade. I have fair skin, and long exposure to sun between 10 a.m. And p.m. Is not good!

4. Clean and convenient restrooms that are not too crowded and not too far away.

5. Comfortable seating or lounge chairs that we don't have to fight crowds for, whether it's rentals or seating that is already there.

6. Easy access to beverages, not necessarily alcoholic, though that could be nice.

7. Towels or towel rental available. The less stuff we have to lug with us, the better.

Is Coco Reef our best bet? How far in advance would we need to book that? If we book and the weather turns out to b bad that day, can we exchange for another day or cancel?

Are there other beaches or resorts that you would recommend?

Thanks for any advice.

I believe your only options for a cushy place are either CoCo Reef (been there twice on day pass and loved it) or Elbow Beach resort which will rent you a cabana with some serious perks but it's in the $499 range.

Have a great trip!

Coco Reef has lounge chairs, umbrellas, a pool, a restroom complete with shower, lunch with a drink included, a fairly accessible bar, and a beautiful beach. The umbrella provided good shade throughout the day, although we had to move our chairs several times in order to stay in the shade.

Sorry to respond in fragments! You should book Coco Reef as soon as you decide as they do sell out (but it's still not crowded at all). You do not have to pay upon reserving; you pay when you arrive. So bad weather or scheduling problems will have no impact on your wallet whatsoever. They don't even take your credit card number when you reserve. :)

OP, are you saying that you want to book a room at a resort for one of the nights that you are in Bermuda? If so, I would recommend (in this order):

1. Fairmont Hamilton Princess, which has a beautiful private beach across the street with all of the amenities that you require. It is also next door to the popular Horseshoe Bay beach.

2. Elbow Beach

3. Coco Reef

However, there is also the Hamilton Princess Hotel, which is the pink hotel located in downtown Hamilton. It offers a complimentary ferry to the Fairmont Princess (its sister resort) where you can enjoy their private beach. Be aware of that ferry's schedule though, as it does not run continuously. Hamilton has some great restaurants and bars to enjoy in the evening.

Happy anniversary! DH and I celebrate our 30th this month and are going on a Baltic/Scandavanian cruise to celebrate.

However, there is also the Hamilton Princess Hotel, which is the pink hotel located in downtown Hamilton. It offers a complimentary ferry to the Fairmont Princess (its sister resort) where you can enjoy their private beach. Be aware of that ferry's schedule though, as it does not run continuously. Hamilton has some great restaurants and bars to enjoy in the evening.

 

The Hamilton Princess has new owners and they have opened up a new beach club this year on the South Shore at the site of the old Sonesta Hotel which was torn down a while ago. They no longer use the Fairmont Princess beach. They run a shuttle bus from Hamilton to their beach club. About a twenty minute bus ride. Probably not what the OP is looking for. They have day passes but only for Bermuda residents.

If they want a posh experience they should get that cabana at Elbow Beach Resort. That sounds posh. CoCo Reef which some have touted doesn't sound posh. Someone posted they were unable to get an umbrella when they went there. I was reading Tripadvisor reviews of CoCo Reef and other hotels as I am thinking of flying to Bermuda and booking a hotel and the reviews seem to be that CoCo Reef is a bit dated. Yikes though decent Bermuda hotels are $500 a night and up in season. That reminded me of why I have been booking Bermuda cruises....

I recently had the pleasure of spending 3 full days on the wonderful island of Bermuda. One of those days was spent at the Coco Reef Resort on their day pass. Before booking the day pass I scoured the Bermuda site here on Cruise Critic for information trying to decide if the resort experience would be worth the $69pp service fee. After getting a lot of positive feedback we decided to book Coco Reef, and I am so glad we did. It was absolutely fantastic!

I wanted to write up a little review & include some information & pictures from our day there in the hopes that it might answer anyone else who has questions.

Our day at Coco Reef Resort:

We booked the day pass for our first day in Bermuda (Wednesday) I figured now that since both ships (NCL Breakaway & Celebrity Summit) arrive at the same time, the first day would be very hectic and crowded…and after being on ship for 3 full days w/ nearly 2,000 other people we’d need some peace & quiet! Once we were given the ok from the captain we headed out into the Dockyard to grab a taxi. The price for 4 from the Dockyard to Coco Reef Resort was $42 (not including tip)

We checked in w/ the front desk where we received our passes for lunch, towels, & directions on how to access the beach. We were given one towel per person but were told that we could exchange those at any time in the day for fresh towels.

Front Desk

Entry way

Ladies Changing Room

After walking around inside to check out the resort itself we headed down to the beach to grab our loungers & umbrella. The resort is absolutely stunning; my pictures do not do it justice!

Pathway from resort to beach area

I recently had the pleasure of spending 3 full days on the wonderful island of Bermuda. One of those days was spent at the Coco Reef Resort on their day pass. Before booking the day pass I scoured the Bermuda site here on Cruise Critic for information trying to decide if the resort experience would be worth the $69pp service fee. After getting a lot of positive feedback we decided to book Coco Reef, and I am so glad we did. It was absolutely fantastic!

 

I wanted to write up a little review & include some information & pictures from our day there in the hopes that it might answer anyone else who has questions.

Thanks so much and glad to hear you had a good experience. Do you happen to have a copy of the lunch menu for the included meal? Just curious what the choices are.

How was the beach? Was the surf rough, or was it calm there? I am considering going with my 11 yo daughter, and am a little nervous about the lack of lifeguard (although she is a strong swimmer).

It is a VERY long steep walk down though…even longer back up!!! So if you have mobility issues it would be very difficult for you to access the beach. They do however have a golf cart. I saw them transporting some guests; I don’t know however how far they actually can take you down. (That would be something Vince could help answer)

Walking down to beach

View from beach up to resort

We spent roughly 3 hours on the beach itself. There were maybe 10 other guest there on the beach during our entire 3 hours there. It was amazing!

It felt as if we were there alone on our own private island.

Off to the left is some reef/cave type formations that the kids enjoyed exploring.

We also brought along our snorkeling gear so we were also able to get in a little snorkeling also. There is a good amount of sea life especially around the three circular reefs.

Around 1 pm we headed up to the pool area for a dip. The views from the pool are absolutely breathtaking.

There were roughly 4 or 5 other guests off and on during the hour or so we spent at the pool. Again very relaxing experience & a nice change of pace compared to the pool area on board the ship.

I would like to have spent more time at the pool, but the beach really tired the kids out so we headed up for our lunch.

I thought there were plenty of tasty options to choose from…

in fact I had a hard time deciding what to order. So we decided we’d do a little sharing LOL.

I opted for the soup of the day which was a cream of asparagus (super yummy) while DH had the Bermuda Fish Chowder. His won hands down. I’m usually not one for tomato based soups but this was insanely delicious.

For entrees he chose the Cuban sandwich (very tasty)

I went w/ the Bacon Swiss Burger.

This thing was MASSIVE. It had to be a pound of hamburger meat on there! I’m a cheeseburger kinda gal and rarely do I ever not finish a burger…I couldn’t even eat half of this thing it was that big & thick! It had a really good beefy flavor. I was definitely impressed! The bread both sandwiches were on were made in house and very good. They elevated both sandwiches.

The fries w/ our sandwiches were also really tasty. Very nice and crispy!

My daughter got the kids cheeseburger and it was very delicious. She enjoyed it a lot.

Happy girl!

After eating we asked our waitress to call us a cab and within minutes we were on our way back to the ship.

On Friday when we were sailing away from Bermuda headed back to New Jersey DH (who was skeptical at first about spending the extra $$ to go to a resort) looked at me and said “I’m really glad we decided to go to Coco Reef. It was my favorite thing we did this trip to Bermuda” I agree w/ him. I wish that I would have booked the resort for each of the 3 days we had in Bermuda it was that nice of an experience. We are now talking about flying into Bermuda next summer to spend a few days at Coco Reef.

If you are interested in booking the resort here is the information:

Vince Angelo is who I contacted to book my reservation VAngelo@CocoReef.bm

The day pass for Coco Reef Resort is currently $69 per person. It includes access to the resort, its changing facilities, towels, loungers, an umbrella, & a 2 course lunch w/ one alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage of your choice. (I ordered an additional beer (bud light) and it was $6.50 plus automatic gratuity of 17%) In regards to lunch I compared the day pass menu items w/ the regular menu for gratuity purposes… appetizer prices are $8-12 each & entrees were $16-22 each.

Children 12 & under are free however it does not include lunch so that must be purchased separately for them. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the kids menu but it included the following options peanut butter & jelly sandwich w/ fries, grilled cheese w/ fries, buttered noodles or noodles w/ sauce, cheeseburger w/ fries, or chicken tenders & fries. All items were $12 each.

If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer. :)

Thanks for all of that detailed information - it was exactly what I have been looking for!

How far in advance of your cruise did you book?

Thanks for all of that detailed information - it was exactly what I have been looking for!

 

How far in advance of your cruise did you book?

You're welcome.

I made my reservation in May and my cruise was in August. However I emailed Vince about 3 weeks ago to inquire about adding 2 more adults to our party and it was not an issue...not sure if that is because I was already booked or if they had availability or maybe some cancelations.

Thank you! Hopefully, next Wednesday, we will have the same wonderful experience as you had.

How did you get the taxi back? Were there taxis waiting? Or did you need to ask the desk to call.

I never had any interest in going here but your pictures sure have made me think twice about it for my trip next month!!

Your daughter is adorable! Is she wearing Jamberry nails? :)

Thank you! Hopefully, next Wednesday, we will have the same wonderful experience as you had.

 

How did you get the taxi back? Were there taxis waiting? Or did you need to ask the desk to call.

When our waitress brought our entrees to us I asked her to call us a taxi. Within a few minutes of finishing up our meals & paying the taxi arrived. So I'd say ask for one 20 minutes before you're ready to leave and you should be good.

I never had any interest in going here but your pictures sure have made me think twice about it for my trip next month!!

 

Your daughter is adorable! Is she wearing Jamberry nails? :)

Yes she is! They are a little pricey but man do they last a long time!;)

The main reason I booked was I really wanted one day to be relaxing and w/ out a lot of other people. I wanted to be able to sit in a lounge chair sipping a cocktail while the kids played in the water. Coco Reef definitely delivered!

Thanks so much for the great pics & review. Looking forward to going there next week. Does the $69 include tax & gratuity? Did you have any problem getting a cab to the resort? How long a cab ride and how much was the fare?

Thanks again for all your info

It was roughly a 30-40 minute drive. It was $42 w/ out tip...our first driver was REALLY good! He gave us a mini tour along the way so I tipped him $18. The ride back the taxi fare was roughly $45...not sure why....she was excellent as well so I gave her $15.

Taxi to and from was easy peasy. They're sitting right there once you get off the ship!

There was no tax on the $69 and it did not include gratuity. Our lunch bill for my daughters cheeseburger and my additional budlight was a little over $20 because it included an automatic 17% gratuity so I grabbed a regular menu to calculate what the "day pass" meal would've been per person and tipped 20% on that.

Thank you for your review and terrific pictures! Brought back great memories from two cruises when we got day passes at Coco Reef.

I also highly recommend the resort for anyone looking for a quiet and relaxed day at the beach with full and lovely facilities.

For those who prefer an empty, beautiful, stunning beach with no facilities whatsoever aside from the occasional garbage can, I also recommend Long Bay Beach in the Cooper Nature Preserve. It's about as far from the ship as you can get, but you can get there!

I did one day at Coco Reef and one day at Long Bay this summer when I sailed the BA and although they are very, very different in many ways, both are ridiculously lovely!!!

Thanks again OP! :)

I recently had the pleasure of spending 3 full days on the wonderful island of Bermuda. One of those days was spent at the Coco Reef Resort on their day pass. Before booking the day pass I scoured the Bermuda site here on Cruise Critic for information trying to decide if the resort experience would be worth the $69pp service fee. After getting a lot of positive feedback we decided to book Coco Reef, and I am so glad we did. It was absolutely fantastic!

 

I wanted to write up a little review & include some information & pictures from our day there in the hopes that it might answer anyone else who has questions.

Thank you for posting your review.

Thanks for the review, have been reading on doing this day pass, was not sure, but now I am definately doing it when I go to Bermuda next year. Great

review..

Great review, thanks! I just emailed to see if there is availability for my trip!

Do you pay in advance or when you get there? Cash or CC? Is there an outside bar with waitress service on the beach? Or do you walk up? And what about bottles of water, how much are they, or are they even available?

Thank you!

Great review, thanks! I just emailed to see if there is availability for my trip!

 

 

 

Do you pay in advance or when you get there? Cash or CC? Is there an outside bar with waitress service on the beach? Or do you walk up? And what about bottles of water, how much are they, or are they even available?

 

 

 

Thank you!

No money required upfront. We paid cash when we got there. Not sure if they do or don't allow drinks to be brought in. They never asked us...but I did bring 3 water bottles and some vitamin waters from the ship. No there is not a beach side bar unfortunately.