Elbow Beach Resort & Spa

Ashley always bugs me about posting from the guys point of view and, given that I’m feeling very relaxed in Bermuda with no pressure from work, I figured that I would acquiesce and give her a little break from blogging.  Yesterday was wonderful.  After a smooth Jet Blue flight, we arrived in Bermuda at about 11AM and proceeded directly through customs to our resort.

Our room wasn’t ready when we checked in so we took the suggestion of the staff and headed down to the beach for lunch.

Despite the fact that the Rum Swizzles and Piña Coladas looked amazing, we wanted something light and didn’t want to drink yet so we ordered two seafood salads.  They were simple yet amazing,  The shrimp, calamari and mahi-mahi were abundant and the shaved fennel and mesclun  greens were perfectly complimented by the simple dressing of olive oil and fresh lemon juice.

We had the waiter call the front desk and were informed that our room still wasn’t ready so we decided to explore the grounds. 

We had already seen the beautiful pink sand beach and thus trekked up the steep hill to the pool / fitness and spa area and did a full circle back to the front desk where they told us that our room was indeed ready.

The bellman graciously escorted us to our room and watched our astonished faces as he opened the door.  Evidently, we were upgraded to an amazing 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite which, at  over 1200 square feet, is bigger than our little 700 square foot New York apartment.  In addition, we were greeted with some delicious wine and cheese with a welcome note from the manager.

 

After unpacking, we made a split second decision to indulge in an 80 minute couples massage. While Ashley LOVES spas; I haven’t ever been as big a fan which, from my experience, seems to be a fairly common male / female dichotomy.  That aside, I agreed to join Ashley for a couples massage as the Mandarin Spa is known as one of the best in the world.  In addition, I’ve punished my muscles lately through a fairly intense workout routine and I knew that a long deep-tissue massage would probably be good for me.  Guys, let me just say that I HIGHLY recommend this experience.  You and your lady are given a private room in which to relax for thirty minutes before the massage therapist comes in. 

In our private room, this particular spa (I’m not very experienced but Ashley said that it was the nicest she’d ever seen) had, a sauna, a steam room, a tub that was filled with oils and salts when we arrived, and a day bed just for “hanging out”.  Those thirty minutes were pretty awesome.  After that, the pain began.  All joking aside, the 80 minutes were filled with “good” pain which worked the knots out of our muscles that we didn’t even know we had. Some of these knots have probably been a part of me for at least five years and by the end we both were in a state of euphoria. It was the perfect way to start our vacation.

Feeling so relaxed, we decided to hop in the pool after the massage to swim a few laps. While my wife thought I was crazy, since we had just finished our massages, I was craving a mile swim. Ashley joined me for a 1/2 mile swim before deciding that her place was on the lounge chair.

Though the clouds were quickly rolling in, we decided to head into Hamilton for their Harbour Nights celebration. We have to head off to dinner now, but here is a sneak peak into our night.