We just got back from a 5day/4night vacation from Bermuda with my wife, a 23-month old toddler, & my sister. We stayed at the Grotto Bay Resort which I initially had a 3 star impression based on the reviews noted in this site & other travel sites. Well, when we got there I immediately noticed the reasons it was just a 3 star hotel but also noticed that it has the POTENTIAL to be a 4 star or even a 5 star hotel. As far as a 3 star hotel, the front desk and guest services staff needs to be improved a bit by putting them into a more extensive customer service training. For example, while we were there, one of the guest services staff was socializing for 15+mins with her friends while hotel guests were waiting to talk to someone. Another example is that while we were talking to a guest services staff, we mentioned that the lights in one of the caves were not lit but she kept insisting that it was instead of just giving us the satisfaction that it will be check by one of the maintenance staff. A third example, while we were checking in the hotel at the front desk, the female front desk person who was helping us was trying to get the phone number of a delivery man which prolonged our check in process and limited her attentiveness to our needs. Overall, I felt that interacting with the front desk and guest services folks seems very superficial and did not have appropriate care, personal touch, or sensitivity you would get from other hotels at the same price range. In addition, the Palm court and Habiscus restaurants had a limited menu and tight schedule. The restaurant staff was charming and friendly except for a female staff that does the continental breakfast. She was rude to my wife because she came in at the end of the breakfast schedule to feed my son and was only asking for a bottle of juice and 2 pieces of English muffin. Common sense dictates that if a guest is paying $20 for 2 pieces of English muffin and an OJ, you should at least be nice to them. Based on the price range for this hotel, I was annoyed that we had to pay for internet access and there was no free continental breakfast. Also, there was no airport transfers even though they had 3 vans just parked outside doing nothing & it would have cost effective & beneficial for the hotel to take x amount of people to/from airport which was about $24 round trip & tip with a taxi. My thoughts were that if you looked at the differentiators & competitive characteristics to generate more revenue or bookings, the small stuff would have added value while leaving the cash in the guest's hands to be spent on the experience, food, & activities in the hotel. The benefit vs. cost in providing free internet access, better trained employees, free airport transfer, and free continental breakfast would really add value to this hotel which will possible increase its rating to a 4 star. By the way, the continental breakfast in this hotel is not your typical continental breakfast, it is very very limited and expensive which is fine for the on-the-go people but the female staff person just spoiled it for us.
Now, for the positive side, the doormen and bell staff were excellent. They provided taxis and luggage assistance with courtesy, friendliness, smile, and professionalism. The location of the pool, beach, Jacuzzi, lagoon, Caves, and Blue Hole Watersports were satisfactory but we had to get through a lot of stair climbing to get to/from our Oceanview room. For example, there was a long & steep path of stairs (78 steps) from our room to the bayside bar & grill which would be challenging for seniors, kids, and handicap but I did not mind it because I like to exercise but my sister and wife were sucking wind after getting to the top of the stairs. The pool is clean, never gets crowded, and is close to the bar. In the case of the beach, it was excellent for my son because the section we planted ourselves was calm and the lagoon part was also calm and plenty of fish. The two caves under the hotel were amazing to look at and one of the caves you can actually swim in but the water was cold. We rented a funcat at Blue Hole Watersports which is a battery powered small boat that was great for slowly cruising around the beach. If you want to relax but still do some exploring, the funcat or sunkat is an excellent way to go. My son found it a bit tedious and fell asleep during our 30 minute ride because the boat did not go more the 5mph. I also did some snorkeling in the beach, lagoon, and a explored the sunken ship about 75 yards out from the shoreline. The snorkeling was excellent if you were a bigger or just want to explore & adventurous. The hotel facilities, rooms, bathrooms were clean and I was fairly surprise that the Fridge, in-room A/C, and Iron/Board worked very well. One burp in the room was that the remote lock broke the 2nd day we were there probably because of the moisture but it was immediately fix by the maintenance person who was friendly and professional. So, even though this paragraph is short and to the point, it is 80% that makes this hotel's rating a solid 3 stars. Now, if they can just work on the 20% outlined in the previous paragraph, I can see this hotel to be a 4 star hotel and valuable.
Overall, THE ISLAND & PEOPLE ARE FANTASTIC. The people were great except for some folks who probably had a bad day but overall I would take my family back. However, I would venture out to look for a hotel that is a step up to the Grotto Bay and closer to Horshoe Beach. Horshoe beach pretty much made up for the 20% that was lacking at the Grotto Bay. As we enter the beach, the view was just terrific and as you get further in, there is a section on the right hand side where all the local couples with kids plant themselves which was breathtaking because it had calm emerald blue water with lots of fish to entertain the kids. If you have children, you have to get there early to get a good spot at the family lagoon on the right hand (west) end as you enter the beach because it gets crowded by the afternoon. Local & Tourist Families pretty much break ground at the area. The middle of the beach is pretty much good for the singles, teenagers, or couples w/o families because the water is a bit rougher and enjoyable. The far left (east) end of the beach is a step up from the west end. The east end is secluded than the center of the beach which is good for couples. You can also climb the rocks on the east end of the beach to get a better view of the west end part of the beach or explore some of the hidden caves around the shoreline. There are many small hidden caves which the kids would love but be careful as the waves can push you towards the rocks. There is a store at the entry way which rents out chairs & umbrellas. In addition, the grill provides surprisingly good hamburgers and hot dogs. The hamburgers taste like "white castle" hamburger which is great for me -- even my wife & sister loved the burger which says a lot. Another surprising experience at the beach was that the bathroom facilities were better than what you would find in the US. The bathroom had showers and looked clean during my brief use of it. Only negative we had during our time at the beach was trying to get a taxi to get home. I had to walk up the hill and hail a taxi but most that passed by had passengers already or are en-route to pick up passengers. So, it took 12+ taxis to pass by until a nice taxi driver felt sorry for me. Speaking of Taxis, all of the drivers we encountered were excellent and we didn’t feel one bit at risk as if you would feel in New York City. They either provided information or just kept to themselves. We did not feel taken advantage of or even felt unwelcome. However, if you are going to Bermuda, you need to understand that there are two rates: 1) Rate 1 is for the weekdays which is approx. $4.50 and 2) Rate 3 which is for the weekends and it’s around $6. This is pretty much the Bermuda Government rate so there should not be any issues but it’s good to know. We use the taxis a lot to maximize our experience for a short period of time but we would use the bus next time around. Another location we went to is the Bermuda Zoo & Aquarium which was small but it was good for a half day trip. For $10, it has an excellent aquarium display and a small zoo. There are two huge aquariums which were excellent that showed samples of fish found around the island. One fish that stood out was a huge hog fish that was in one of the smaller aquariums. Besides being huge, the hog fish had a pig snout which was a first in my eyes. The zoo was a bonus but limited & small. The kids can pet an iguana or small turtle, see a few large tortoise, & seals but nothing unique. For restaurants, we went to the Swizzle Inn which is a 2-3 blocks walk from the hotel's entry way. It has good food better than the hotel's limited menu but the service was a bit slow though the waitress was nice.
In conclusion, I would rate Grotto Bay a solid 3-stars due to the comments I made earlier but Bermuda overall is a 4-1/2 star vacation. We would visit Bermuda again because overall it is still affordable and less physically draining than going to Hawaii or Mexico Beaches but would look at other hotels that maybe a step up from the Grotto Bay. The currency is peg to the US dollar so no conversion hassles but I'd like to see the Bermuda Government remove the 17-18% service gratuities and make the people work for the gratuity probably resulting to better services.

Liked
Clean & Close proximity of Pool, Beach, Jacuzzi, Lagoon, Watersport services: funcat, snorkel equipment, etc., Caves, Clean sheets, Comfortable Beds, and Room Amenities: Fridge, A/C, Iron/Board worked well, Doormen/Bell were excellent, Taxi were available 99.98% of the time, Available in-room safe, and Immediate fix of security door lock.

Diskliked
All Restaurant Menu is very limited, No Free Internet Access for the price, No free airport transfer for the price and its less than 1/4 mile from airport ($6/taxi), Guest services and Front Office folks socializing instead of customer attentiveness.

I'm not sure if this is how people generally act in Bermuda, but the staff here is UNREAL! Let's see, where do I start....ask the housekeeper for some fresh towels (in lieu of cleaning our room with two double beds) 15 minutes later comes back with ONE towel...no, not a set, not a couple, ONE.

Went to the poolside bar, asked for a menu, the barkeep yells, "THE KITCHEN CLOSED AT 4!" um, so I stood there, and before I could ask for a drink, he proceeds to yell the same thing. I had to ASK if I could order a drink. (p.s. for $400 a night, this should be a freakin all-inclusive resort, drinks night and day!)

at 11am ON THE DOT, the front desk calls and asks why we haven't checked out yet. When my bf said (after the SECOND call in 5 minutes) that I wasn't feeling well, they said, "Well, you just need to know that check-out is at 11!" (Thanks for the concern) They proceeded to call 3 more times within 15 minutes, AFTER the maid BANGED on the door 2 more times. I told my boyfriend that I would just answer the door and throw up at her feet!

Words cannot express the COMPLETE disappointment in the service, dirty hotel, and the ridiculous rates. Not even excited to go to this hellhole or Bermuda again!

The property has some interesting and fun offerings. It has a beautiful beach with white sand and calm, crystal clear water. there's a dive shop right on the property and the bay has a submerged barge - fun for snorkeling.
There are also a few caves on the property two of which can be entered and are impressive since they have crystal clear water that you can swim in.
There's a beachside restaurant so you can have snacks and drinks on the beach, or you can do lunch poolside.
The crowd is mostly middle aged and older - the all inclusive traveler type. We went in the hot tub and a few minutes later a crew of ladies aged 70+ crashed it so we had to leave - no kidding.
The room had a nice bay view. At night you can see the sweep of St George Lighthouse in the distance and in the morning you can see the sun rise out of the water - all while you're laying down in bed.
Yes you can see airplanes parked at the airport across the bay, but there were no flyovers. A lot of people are concerned by the airport's proximity right across the bay, but it honestly wasn't an issue at all, and we're pretty picky about our hotels. It was never a bother. Look at picture titled "view from room" I posted and you can see planes parked on the far right - this is the extent to which the airport is involved in the Grotto Bay experience. The bright side is that the cab ride to and from your flight is short and cheap.
Here are the bad parts about this hotel:
1) the shower had no water pressure.
2) we put the "do not disturb sign" on our door and the maid still entered the room. And they did this two days in a row even after we told them not to do it again the first time it happened!
If you value your privacy like we do, this is something to consider.
The location is alright - there is a popular restaurant, an ice cream parlor, and the famed Crystal Caves in walking distance, but if you want more variety and experiences the cabs will really cost you.
Overall we enjoyed our stay at Grotto Bay, but with so many other choices in Bermuda we're still in search of our favorite.
Bermuda itself is gorgeous, clean, mellow, and a very civilized country. We will return as much as possible.
We went in the beginning of May which turned out to be the perfect time of year - not yet crowded and the weather perfect and comfortable in the low 80s
Oh and coming from New York City it is mind blowing that this paradise is less than two hours away!

We visited Bermuda for Chirstmas week. The hotel was easy to get to. There was also a bus stop right at the end of the property. That made it easy to travel to the many sites. The hotel staff was very informative, friendly, and courteous. They made our stay extra special.