My experience at The Ultimate Girls Getaway in Bermuda

 by guest Jane Phillips

My friend Corry and I recently had the opportunity to indulge in the girl’s weekend in Bermuda October, 2006. We were not disappointed.

We arrived in Bermuda at about 12:30 p.m. local time on the Thursday afternoon, which gave us enough time to catch a cab from the airport to the Fairmont Southampton resort, where our event would be taking place, officially beginning the next morning.  We had the afternoon and evening to relax and settle in.  I enjoyed the pool and Corry had a facial at the Willow Stream Spa. 

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast, we headed to the kick-off party with motivational speaker and comedian. Comedian Zandra Bell provided us with hilarious but truthful insights on just about everything, from men to pantyhose, on her own journey for self-fulfillment.

Now what girl’s weekend would be complete without a shopping trip?  After Zandra got us all revved up, we were ready for our trip to Hamilton on the ferry for High Tea at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess and an afternoon of tax-free shopping before heading back to the Southampton for wine tasting with Little Black Dress Wines.  High Tea was an indulgence of delicious tuna, egg salad and ham sandwiches, scones and Devonshire cream, chocolate coated meringues, and other decadent desserts of which I forget the names. 

On the agenda for Friday evening was a Bermuda Beach Party at the Beach Terrace Cabana on the resort’s private beach.  A live band was the entertainment and they got everyone dancing with their infectious reggae and Caribbean sound.  Dinner was a wide variety of salads and antipasto, along with hot items, such as barbequed jerk spiced steak, hibachi grilled citrus chicken and red snapper filet.  For dessert, a wide selection of desserts and a chocolate fondue.

Saturday was another full-filled day starting with Michelle Cederberg’s Live Out Loud presentation “But, I’ve Never Climbed Everest.”  In her keynote presentation, Michelle shared her own success story in a presentation that is designed to steer people, in particular women, away from the small thinking in their lives in order to achieve their goals by changing their way of thinking.  The next seminar, The Medium Mind, was hosted by psychic medium Shannon Sambells.  This seminar taught the participants how to develop their own intuitive and psychic powers and to learn to listen to that inner voice.

After lunch on the Great Sound Lawn, which was another delicious spread of assorted wraps, salads and desserts, followed by a Spa at Home seminar by the Willow Stream Spa and then to finish the seminars off, Strippersize with Jessica Power Cyr.  Jessica’s class involves learning a routine with a chair using a fusion of cabaret, jazz and stripper style movements to create a “diva driven approach to fitness.”  Unlike pole dancing classes, in which participants have to take it in turns to use the pole, everyone participates all at once with their own chair, enabling the more shy and inhibited to feel comfortable performing in a group setting.

Saturday evening was the official Pajama Party.  We all congregated in our favorite PJ's for champagne and photographs, before sitting down for a delectable five-course dinner.  The feast was followed by an evening of karaoke (Zandra Bell aka Shirley Best and myself hogging the microphone) and a demonstration of the afternoon’s strippersize routine.  Saturday’s party was a fun way to end the weekend, however it was all over too soon!

Beautiful Bermuda

Bermuda is only about 22 square miles, and full of twisty, narrow roads on which you drive on the left-hand side with a speed limit of 35 kilometres per hour.  One is unable to rent a car in Bermuda, however you can rent a moped, which is an excellent and fun way to get around what is actually several islands linked by roadways and ferry routes.  Public transit (bus and ferry) is excellent and there are also a lot of taxis.  The Fairmont Southampton Princess and the Fairmont Hamilton Princess also have their own ferry for use by the guests.  Guests at one hotel are welcome to use the facilities at the other and the Fairmont Southampton has a trolley bus to shuttle guests down to the ferry terminal and to the resort’s private beach.

Bermuda is full of lush green foliage and candy-like houses of assorted colours and their unique white roofs, many of which are the holiday homes of the rich and famous.  Our cab driver from the airport told us that Bermudans are allowed to paint their houses any colour they want with the exception of black and bright red.  The roofs are white and unique in that they are designed to collect rainwater, Bermuda's primary source of freshwater.

The wonderful thing about the Pajama Party was that participants were not obligated to attend every seminar and every event.  Corry and I had decided early on that we wanted to get off the resort and see some of Bermuda during our stay.  We skipped the wine tasting in favour of a trip to the Crystal and Fantasy Caves (www.caves.bm).  Bermuda was originally formed millions of years ago by an underwater volcanic mountain range which is now extinct and capped by limestone.  As a result, it has lots of limestone caves full of an enchanting world of stalagmites and stalactites.  We only had time to go down the Fantasy Cave which was named due to the interesting shapes of the rock formations.   

On Saturday afternoon we skipped Spa at Home and Strippersize for a relaxing horseback ride along the beach with Spicelands Riding Centre (www.spicelandsriding.com), taking in Bermuda’s blue sea and pink beaches.

Bermudans pride themselves on their friendliness and wherever we went we encountered friendly and content people.  Vehicle horns are not a sound of impatience – Bermuda did not appear to suffer from road rage despite narrow and twisty roads – car horns are used primarily as a greeting.

The Fairmont Southampton, Bermuda (www.fairmont.com/southampton),

A fabulous location for what had to be the ultimate girl’s weekend.  I cannot imagine a better place to indulge in good food, good times, good shopping, pampering and relaxation than this luxurious resort.  The resort had it’s own private beach, excellent restaurants and shops, golf course, outdoor and indoor pool, a trolley bus service to the beach and the ferry dock, and a ferry to the sister hotel, the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.  

The Southampton also has a Willow Stream Spa (which are also in many, if not all, of the other Fairmont Hotels and Resorts) and to really indulge, Corry and I also had to have a spa treatment.  I had a 90 minute pampering session called Willow Stream Elements which is a full body treatment consisting of the four elements - a mud wrap, a mineral bath, a facial massage and a massage.  I left the spa feeling rejuvenated and well-pampered, my dry Alberta skin a little less thirsty than usual.

The package included three nights accommodation in the Fairmont Southampton, all arranged activities, and all organized meals and gratuities.