Azura Bermuda
My last trip of the year took me to Bermuda, where I spent several days on a familiarization trip at Azura, a boutique hotel and residential enclave perched on the cliffs of the island’s South Shore. Trips like this are how I get to know a property firsthand, from the rooms and the service to the details you only discover by being there, so I can confidently match it with the right clients.
A Clifftop Setting
Azura sits in Warwick, about ten minutes from the City of Hamilton, yet it feels wonderfully secluded. The white buildings are set high on a bluff above the Atlantic, so the ocean is the backdrop to almost every moment of your stay. The resort borders the Blackburn Smith Nature Reserve and the Bermuda Railway Trail, a protected walking path that follows the route of the island’s old railway. The stretch near Azura winds beneath enormous banyan trees and makes a lovely morning walk.
If you visit in March or April, keep an eye on the water. That’s when humpback whales migrate past Bermuda, and you may spot them breaching right from your balcony.
Rooms for Every Kind of Trip
Azura offers everything from classic guest rooms to larger two- and three-bedroom suites with a full kitchen and a washer and dryer, making it a great choice for families and friends traveling together. One of my favorite touches: you can pre-order groceries so your kitchen is stocked and waiting when you arrive. For a special night in, private chef services and cooking classes are also available.
A tip: Not every room comes with a soaking tub. If a long soak is part of your vacation plan, this needs to be a confirmed request, and I’ll make sure it’s secured before you go.
My Ocean View room at Azura. I could enjoy the ocean from my bathtub!
Four Pools, Each With Its Own Personality
One of Azura’s best features is that you can choose your scene for the day:
The Ocean Pool sits right at beach level and is continuously filled with saltwater from the Atlantic, with a seasonal Ocean Bar and full-service food and beverage. It’s really a showstopper, and great for those not interested in swimming in the active waves.
The Sky Pool is on the rooftop of the Seascape building, with a sauna, sundeck, and sweeping views over the South Shore reefs.
The Terrace Pool is the social hub, right beside the restaurant and bar where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served.
The Palm Pool is adults-only, a quiet hideaway near the fitness and wellness space.
Below the resort, sandy beach terraces line the water and lead down to Azura’s own stretch of pink sand. Bermuda’s tides reshape this coastline, and during parts of the year the beach itself may disappear. When it does, the terraces and Ocean Pool are the place to be, and Horseshoe Bay is only about seven minutes away by car. Complimentary snorkel gear is available at the front desk.
View from my terrace. There was no beach in November after a storm system, but the pool is swimmable. Beachside food and beverage service is seasonal.
Accessibility
Because Azura is built into the cliffside, much of the property involves stairs. Happily, the resort offers golf cart transfers down to the beach, and the many sandy terraces along the ocean make it easy to enjoy the water without the climb. Main-level rooms with no stairs are available, but they must be specifically requested by your travel advisor and confirmed with the property in advance. This is exactly the kind of detail I handle for my clients, so you can arrive knowing the right room is waiting.
What the Press Is Saying
I’m not the only one who has fallen for Azura. Travel + Leisure recently reviewed the resort and highlighted its private beach, four pools, and the beach-level saltwater pool as standouts. Vogue also named Azura’s ocean-fed saltwater pool in its feature on the most scenic swimming pools in the world, alongside pools in Big Sur, Santorini, and Sri Lanka. And Bermuda itself was just named the #1 island in the Caribbean and Atlantic in the Condé Nast Traveler 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards, for the fourth year in a row.
The Dining: A Major Reason to Stay
In my opinion, here is where Azura truly sets itself apart. I stayed at two other properties on this trip, and I can say without hesitation that the dining at Azura is leagues beyond any other experience I had on the island.
The resort’s main restaurant, SURF, takes its name from the Surf Side Beach Club that once stood on this stretch of coastline. It serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner overlooking the South Shore, and on warm days you can also dine poolside at the Azura Restaurant & Bar. The kitchen is led by Chef Abhik Mukherjee, and my goodness, he is a talent: a chef without the diva persona, just truly eager to blow your socks off. And he did.
Our group enjoyed a seven-course dinner that may have been one of the top three meals of my life. It began with a celebratory Beluga caviar bump, and continued through a surf and turf lobster with a beef tenderloin so tender you could cut it with a fork. Dessert brought gold-leaf chocolate creations and fine chocolates to close out the evening. Every course was exquisite, beautifully presented, and my personal home-cooked meals haven’t felt the same ever since!
Beluga Caviar “bump” at SURF
Exploring the Island
One of the highlights of my trip was a guided island tour, and I’d recommend one to anyone visiting Bermuda for the first time. Our guide, Charmaine, was amazing. It was apparent how much she loves her country of Bermuda, and she brought the island’s history to life.
We started by climbing to the very top of Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, learning its history along the way, and the views from the top were well worth it. Next came the famous Crystal Caves, an underground world of limestone formations above impossibly clear water. You can’t quite catch the beauty in photos, but in person it was magical and otherworldly, and definitely worth a visit. Bermuda has more than 150 limestone caves carved over thousands of years by water and changing sea levels.
Crystal Caves
In Flatts Village, we walked under the bridge where the tide rushes in and out of Harrington Sound, a fascinating thing to watch. Flatts is also home to the Bermuda Aquarium, a great outing with kids.
The tide rushing in and out of Harrington Sound at Flatts. Our tour guide, Charmaine, was so fun!
Charmaine took us to a fabulous restaurant, Wahoo’s in St. George’s. St. George’s is Bermuda’s original town, full of shops, a marina, and the historic town hall. This is where I finally tried the island’s famous fish sandwich, served on raisin bread. It sounds unusual, but trust me, it works. We washed it down with a Dark ‘n Stormy, Bermuda’s signature cocktail of dark rum and ginger beer. (tip: some of the larger hotels offer their own interpretation of this sandwich, but try it where the locals eat for the authentic version.)
Bad photo of a very good traditional Bermudian fish sandwich at Wahoo’s, St. George’s
Along the way, our guide pointed out several of the island’s most popular beaches and golf clubs, along with beautiful gardens and walking trails lined with Bermuda’s famous banyan trees.
A Golfer’s Paradise
For such a small island, Bermuda has a remarkable number of golf courses, and thanks to its mild climate you can play year-round. The key thing to know is that not every course is open to the public.
Open to visitors: Port Royal is the island’s star public course. It’s government-owned, hosts Bermuda’s PGA Tour event, and its par 3 16th plays right over the ocean. Bella Vista, the clubhouse restaurant, is a great stop for lunch. Belmont Hills, Five Forts, Turtle Hill (a fun par-3 course), and the nine-hole Ocean View are also open to visiting golfers. Belmont Hills is just a few minutes’ drive from Azura.
Private, with exceptions: The legendary Mid Ocean Club is a private club, but visitors can play on select weekdays, typically with an introduction. Tucker’s Point is part of Rosewood Bermuda, and resort guests have playing privileges. Riddell’s Bay, the island’s oldest course, is also private. Access rules at these clubs can change, so this is where a travel advisor makes all the difference. I’ll help you secure the right tee times before you go.
Tennis, Padel, and Pickleball
Racquet lovers are well covered too. Bermuda has deep tennis roots: in 1874, Mary Outerbridge first encountered the game here and is credited with bringing it to America. Visitors can book courts at the government-run W.E.R. Joell Tennis Stadium just outside Hamilton, which also has public pickleball courts. Rosewood Bermuda opened the island’s first padel courts in 2025, part of a racquet center with tennis, pickleball, and padel, and many resorts have courts of their own.
Bermuda’s Best-Kept Secret: Diving and Snorkeling
If you love scuba diving or snorkeling, Bermuda may be the best-kept secret in the Atlantic. Known as the “Shipwreck Capital of the Atlantic,” the island is ringed by more than 300 shipwrecks, from warships to schooners to ocean liners, and has more wrecks per square mile than anywhere else on the planet. Over the centuries, corals and marine life have built thriving colonies on these wrecks, turning them into living underwater museums.
Bermuda is also home to the world’s northernmost coral reefs, and most dive sites, both wrecks and reefs, sit in less than 60 feet of water. That makes for long, leisurely dives and plenty of options for snorkelers too. The water is famously clear, so visibility is wonderful.
For snorkelers, Church Bay, near The Reefs, is one of the island’s best spots, with reef close to shore. And remember, Azura offers complimentary snorkel gear at the front desk. I was visiting in November and the water temperature was still pleasant enough to snorkel!
The best part? You don’t have to fly halfway around the world for world-class diving. It’s just a two-hour flight from the eastern seaboard.
And Then There Are the Chickens!
One of Bermuda’s quirkiest sights is its wild chickens. You’ll spot them strutting across golf courses, wandering onto beaches, and yes, crossing the road. They have no significant natural predators on the island (no snakes!), and today there are an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 of them. Settlers first brought chickens to Bermuda as a food source in the 1600s, and their numbers grew when Hurricane Emily destroyed many chicken coops in 1987, releasing domestic birds into the wild. Their descendants have been roaming free ever since, and they’re now part of the island’s charm.
Chickens making themselves at home at Tucker’s Point golf course
Bermuda’s Famous White Roofs
One of the first things you’ll notice in Bermuda is the bright white roofs on nearly every building, and they’re more than just pretty. Bermuda has no freshwater lakes or rivers, so for centuries islanders have relied on the rain. The roofs are made of limestone slate and built in a stepped design that slows heavy rainfall and channels it through gutters into a storage tank beneath the house. The white coating reflects the sun’s UV rays, which helps purify the water and keeps homes cooler in summer. Every home is required by law to have its own tank, and Azura is no different: harvested rainwater supplies all of the resort’s water.
The best part for visitors? Bermuda’s tap water is generally safe to drink throughout the island, so you can skip the plastic bottles and simply refill your water bottle.
Roof systems for rain collection throughout the island
An Insider Shopping Tip
Don’t plan on picking up your souvenirs at the airport. Airport shops are always pricey, but in Bermuda the markup is on another level. And if you’re hoping to bring home a bottle of Bermuda rum, know that some of the rums sold there aren’t local varieties at all, but bottles made exclusively for the airport.
For authentic rum and souvenirs, shop on the island instead. St. George’s and the City of Hamilton have lovely local shops, and it’s worth flipping items over before you buy, since you’ll want to skip anything with a “Made in China” sticker. Then simply pack your treasures in a checked bag for the trip home.
Getting There
Bermuda is about a two-hour flight from much of the East Coast. From the CT/NYC area, BermudAir flies nonstop from Westchester County Airport, and there are nonstops from JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark. BermudAir also flies direct from Atlanta, Boston, Baltimore, St. Pete/Tampa, Orlando, Raleigh, Fort Lauderdale, Toronto, Halifax, and Montreal. Azura is roughly 20 minutes from the airport.
Ready to Experience Azura?
Whether you’re planning a romantic getaway, a family trip, a golf weekend, a dive adventure, or a quick warm-weather escape, Azura is one of my favorite places to send clients in Bermuda. The best rooms book early for spring and summer, so let's start planning.
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