My contact at Tucker's Point Hotel and Spa in Hamilton Parish, Bermuda, beckoned me into the Point restaurant. The sun was just starting to fade below the hills surrounding the hotel, throwing shadows onto the infinity pool. But sunlight was still playing on what she wanted to show off: the walls.
To be specific, the murals on the walls: an 80-foot-long painting of clipper ships in nine 19th century ports, a job commissioned in the 1960s by Pan Am founder Juan Trippe for the Sky Club of the Pan Am Building in New York. When the Sky Club closed four years ago at what is now the Met Life Building, the murals were purchased by Trippe's son, Edward Trippe, who also happens to be president of Tucker's Point. The murals turned out to be almost a perfect fit for the restaurant, and Edward Trippe finished off the room by commissioning one more port painting, of Bermuda's Hamilton Harbor.
Tucker's Point doesn't go out of its way to celebrate its historical connection to Juan Trippe and the Pan Am clippers that helped make Bermuda such a popular travel destination. But history and aviation buffs should check out the hotel's 10,000-square-foot spa, which contains another subtle nod to genteel midcentury travel: a small screen, tucked into a vintage suitcase, that shows a loop of a Pan Am Bermuda travel video.
The Tucker's Point name and the building are new, but the property is by no means without a history. The location, near tony Tucker's Town, is the site of the former Castle Harbour Resort, which was purchased in the mid-1950s by a group of friends and investors that included Juan Trippe. Marriott operated the property throughout the 1980s and mid-1990s until, as Tucker Point COO Eric Brooks phrased it, "the ownership stepped back in."
The hotel today is part of a larger development that includes fractional ownership, condos and a private club (membership includes access to the links and tennis and beach facilities), and it was rebuilt from the ground up. As a result, the property looked as shiny as a new penny when I visited this spring. It was clean and impressive, albeit missing a bit of the character and patina that come only with age.
Not to say Tucker's design firm didn't add its own quirks. There are some unusual Adirondack chairs ringing the croquet lawn, which hosts a weekly croquet-and-cocktails party. Frilled, pink umbrellas around the spa relaxation pool are a cross between a peony and an old-fashioned bathing cap. There are tented cabanas around the Palm Court infinity pool, and blue-accented cabana-couches around the Castle Harbour pool are reserved for guests with rooms on the ground floor, who can open their sliding doors, cross their patios and be down at their couch and the pool in less than 10 seconds.
Getting to the pink-sand beach is more complicated. Guests are transported via a tram, which takes 10 to 15 minutes (plus waiting time).
The resort seemed big to me, but when I found out there were only 88 rooms, I deduced that everything was simply extra-spacious. My room, for example, could have easily held another bed. Even the corridors seemed large. And between the hotel, the golf course and everywhere else, there seem to be plenty of places for the guests themselves to hide. There were a few people lounging around the Palm Court pool and the beach, but there was nobody vying with me for attention at check-in, and at breakfast the restaurant was completely deserted.
Everyone, however, seemed to show up for dinner. When we returned to the Point after sunset, the tables were filled, with diners ranging from families to businessmen in Bermuda shorts. The Pan Am panels lit up beautifully, the entire crowd was in Bermuda-elegant attire and the meal was delicious, although the experience was not for those who shy away from semiformal dining (jackets are required) and $30-to-$40 main courses. Brooks said the restaurant had been "very successful," with the clientele split evenly among hotel guests, property residents and the public.
Starting out
The resort opened earlier this year, just as the furor over business-travel expenses had reached its height. Business travel booked at Tucker's Point appeared to hold its own, Brooks said (the property does small meetings in the 5,000-square-foot conference area), but on the leisure side, the short booking window kept the resort on its toes.
"In March, we had a decent base of group business because of our conference center, and it was holding, but there was no leisure business on the books; it was scary," Brooks said when we spoke in late August.
But, he said, business "just took off" in mid-May. The resort did 74% paid occupancy in July, and he was expecting to be at about 76% in August, "which is far better than I expected. And we're getting a good average rate." End-of-summer rates started at under $600 a night.
"We are the first top-end product in Bermuda in 35 years," Brooks said. "So when we were talking to the top-line travel agents, [they said] 'Oh, now I can send my clients back to Bermuda.'"
Visit www.tuckerspoint.com.