Bermuda! (Finally)

Hello, internet friends!

I’ve tried about three times now to upload Bermuda pictures to show you during your work day breaks, but I’m having trouble, since the photos are coming from both The Lawyer’s computer and my iPhone. 

I know.  First world problems.

Anyway, I’m going to have to do a couple of posts, but hopefully I can put up a bunch of pictures to distract you from how annoying that possibly is.   

Whenever other people do multiple posts of their vacation, I’m usually torn between, “Aww!  Pretty!  I want to go there!” and “STOP TAUNTING ME WITH YOUR HAPPY LIFE!  I am sitting in this god-forsaken library, staring at this stupid screen about stupid medicine and I haven’t been outside all day.  My life SUCKS!”

(Side note:  I feel that way pretty much every time I log onto Facebook.  Why am I the only one in the whole world without fabulous wedding pictures, cute children, and an amazing house?  Some of my Florida friends also have jet skis and boats.  WHY ARE YOU PUNISHING ME, UNIVERSE!)

Fancy camera photo of my chipped pedicure on a ferry ride!

So, first off, the photos here were either taken with my iPhone 4S or The Lawyer’s Sony Alpha Nex-5.  I’d differentiate for you, but it’s going to be obvious by the quality and artistry of the pictures.  Secondly, I’ll try to throw in some information about where we stayed and what companies we used.  I like it when other people give feedback and suggestions for travel, so I’ll try to repay the favor.  It was an awesome trip, and especially for the Washingtonians, a quick, very uncomplicated flight!

Day 1:  It was pouring like a monsoon when we arrived, so the next set of photos will be dreary-ish.  The hotel had arranged a shuttle service for us, but the cabs are very safe in Bermuda.  We took multiple ones during our trip, and the drivers were always really helpful and informative.  They definitely cater for tourists and were basically free tour guides.

The Lawyer did all of the travel arranging for this trip, since I was mopey mope face before we left, and he somehow (bizarrely) thought that I’d be disappointed. 

(He was wrong.)

My family is from the Caribbean, so I assure you that I am used to much more…rugged accommodations.  Think mosquitos and lizards all up in your business, plus no air conditioning.

So, imagine my delight when we opened our hotel room door to this:

 

We stayed at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, which is in the town of Hamilton.  We had a choice between a beachfront hotel, which The Lawyer described as “a little bit Golden Girls” because of the wicker furniture and floral polyester bedspreads, or a hotel in Hamilton.  We ultimately chose this hotel, because although I’d be outside for most of a normal vacation, I anticipated wanting to be somewhere comfortable with steady internet access for Boards studying.

Why yes, I AM wearing Bermuda shorts in Bermuda! 

There are both cheaper and MUCH nicer hotels in Bermuda, but we are on the medical-student-hemorrhaging-money vacation budget. I’d rate our hotel as probably a 3-4 star in the US (still REALLY nice to me), and certainly much nicer than anything I ever stayed at as a kid.  Also, the Fairmont had truly amazing customer service and was running a Buy 2 Nights, Get 1 Free special, which meant that we only paid for two nights of our vacation.

The Lawyer said that there are amazing hotels with private cabanas and glass bottoms to look at the ocean in Bermuda.   Unfortunately, these hotels will be in our budget in approximately 45 years, at which point I will probably have paid off my loans, but will have misdirected emo children who want me to support them while they spend their 20s “finding themselves” in New York.  I will never have nice things!

Thankfully, the Fairmont Hamilton has a sister hotel in Southampton, which is on the water (beach).  Three times a day, a ferry will take you back and forth between the two hotels for free, and you get the same guest benefits at both.

Ferry boat pickup at our hotel!

Where the ferry drops off in Southampton.

This meant that we stayed here...

It may have rained all day, but we were treated to this view at night.

Watching a sailing competition during breakfast?  Yes, please.

....But could also spend the day here, with towels and drink service charged to our room.

There is sea kayaking, snorkeling, and SCUBA diving directly from the beach in Southampton.  If you have children, I’d say the Fairmont Southampton is probably better for these reasons, but also because they have an Explorer’s Club.  Just in case your kids pull a whiny, “I don’t WANT to be at the beach!  I hate this vacation!” and need some other kids to distract them, there are supervised activities all day long.  The Fairmont Southampton is also a much bigger hotel with more restaurants, so you don’t have to feel pressured to leave to go anywhere if you don’t want to.  It also has a huge, beautiful golf course overlooking the ocean.

For a couples’ vacation, though, I’d recommend staying at the Hamilton.  Because it’s in town, you have a much wider variety of late night dining or drinking options, and you can find a lot to do outside of the hotel.  It’s also very quiet and private, which means that your balcony will overlook pools full of adults reading books and not, say, screaming children complaining about being hungry/bored/tired.  (As you can tell, The Lawyer and I believe that we are going to have the whiniest, most ungrateful children ever.  We probably won’t even take them on vacation, in anticipation of their bad behavior.  Incidentally, there were far more loud, drunk adults in Southampton than displeased children.)

Both locations do have stable internet, but in Southampton, that service does NOT extend all the way to the beach.  If you’re going to be studying (me) or have a work call or two that you need to take (The Lawyer), stay in Hamilton.  You’ll still be able to sit on your balcony, or at the pool, without worrying about your internet cutting out.  Plus, you’ll be able to update your blog and Twitter, and don’t pretend like you won’t want to, because I know that you will.

Secret tip:  If you join the President’s Club, your internet is free at Fairmont Hotels.  It costs NOTHING to join and you can do so once you get there.  This isn’t really something that’s advertised (The Lawyer sort of stumbled upon this discovery on an earlier business trip), but non-President’s Club members pay $14/day for internet.  We paid $0.

Finally, I mentioned that we used our credit card points and a flight voucher for the trip over, and that was on US Airways.  I don’t fly US Airways a whole lot, so I can’t comment on their overall service, but the flight was an easy two hours, directly from DCA.  We had no problems on either leg of the trip, and we were happy with their service.  If you’re living in DC, DEFINITELY check into your credit card points, because they CAN pay for a trip to Bermuda, and it’s very easy to sneak away for a weekend with such a short flight.

The view from the airport.  Seriously, just go to Bermuda already!

Part II coming soon!  (With more actual vacation and less information.  Woo!)