British Colonial Hilton Nassau Hotel Rating: 3.5 Pearls

Bahamas

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The lobby

The British Colonial Hilton is smack dab in the middle of downtown Nassau -- steps from the U.S. Embassy and around the corner from the bustling Straw Market and the crowded cruise ship terminal. It's on the site of the old Fort Nassau, where the infamous pirate Blackbeard was hanged, and is also descended from the first hotel in the Bahamas -- originally built in 1898, reconstructed in 1922 (after the original burned), and reopened as a Hilton in 1999. The grand yellow structure is now a stately landmark along the downtown waterfront.

But the 288-room Hilton is very much a business hotel. The small "beach" is on a saltwater lagoon filled with large boats. The neighborhood feels abandoned and a little creepy at night. And while the guest rooms are functional, and were renovated in 2009 along with the lobby and restaurants, nothing about them really feels tropical.

• Business center offers services like printing and faxing.
• Guests frequently complained that their rooms were not ready at 3 p.m. for check-in.
• Executive Lounge (a private floor available with a room upgrade) provides continental breakfast, private check-in and checkout, light snacks from 5:30 to 7pm, and drinks from 5:30 to 10pm.
• 24-hour concierge desk in the lobby gives restaurant suggestions and helps with reservations.
• Poolside lunch and drink service available from the Patio Pool Bar & Grill
• Room service available from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

View on a Larger Map

The hotel is smack in the middle of downtown Nassau, surrounded by the cruise ship terminal, financial institutions, historical sites and museums. By day the neighborhood teems with the foot traffic of businessmen and cruise ship passengers, and vehicles zooming down Marlborough Street. At night, however, everyone disappears, and it just feels eerie. Even the row of restaurants across the street -- save for a duty-free liquor store and a McDonald's -- closes down at dinnertime. When I asked the concierge for dinner suggestions within walking distance, he was hard pressed to name restaurants that were less than a 10-minute walk.

• Local attractions like the Straw Market, Pompey Museum of Slavery & Emancipation, and Pirates of Nassau are within a block.
• 25-minute drive from Nassau International Airport
• 10-minute cab or ferry ride from gambling, shops, and restaurants on Paradise Island
• $1.25 public bus also stops along the road, right outside the hotel. It is safe, reliable, and a convenient way to visit the island's major tourist hot spots.

The beach

The Hilton is located not on the ocean, but on Nassau Harbor (shielded to the north by Paradise Island).

• Small beachfront has piers on either side -- the resort separates them with ugly walls, and there is gross debris nearby.
• Clean, fine sand; plenty of space to catch some rays
• The water in the immediate vicinity on the hotel is clear and calm, but also quite cold.
• Due to the cruise ship terminal, the main view to the right is of giant cruise ships. To the left, there are shipping piers and the Paradise Island Lighthouse.
• Popular tourist bar, Senor Frogs, is to the immediate right of the Hilton along the water, so there's a lot of noise from rowdy revelers on their deck.
• Lifeguard on duty from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Plenty of free plastic lounge chairs under straw umbrellas
• Guests must sign a release form to borrow a towel.
• Water-sports equipment like floats, kayaks and scuba masks cost extra, but can be rented from the hotel.

• Renovated May 2009
• Some standard guest rooms include a pullout sofa bed.
• No in-room Wi-Fi (just in the lobby); slow and erratic plug-in Internet connection costs $9.95 for 24 hours.
• Flat-screen TVs come with both HBO and Showtime, as well as pay-per-view movies.
• Bathrooms are a bit on the small side.
• La Source bath products by Crabtree and Evelyn
• Rooms do not have balconies. (Even worse, my room on the ground floor was about five feet from the parking lot!)

Ocean kayaks

• Pool is fairly small and basic in its design: no waterfalls or infinity edges, no swim-up bar
• Wi-Fi in the lobby (not in the rooms, unlike at the Sheraton Nassau Beach). Internet costs $9.95 per day.
• No spa
• Spacious, well-equipped, 24-hour gym; all cardio machines have personal video screens. Unfortunately, there's no water cooler, just a drinking fountain, and the drinking water in the Bahamas tends to taste slightly off.
• Self-parking is $6 per day; Valet parking is $10 per day.
• Grand ballroom and meeting rooms decked out with modern audiovisual equipment
• Business Center open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (but can also be opened by request)

The pool

Kids seem to enjoy the Hilton's pool and small beach, but every other hotel we covered in Nassau bested the Hilton on these fronts. The hotel does provide lots of discounts for kids, but I suspect that's because it's tough to lure families. Furthermore, the hotel's entrance is on a busy road in a congested part of town; not much space for kids to run free.

• Free cribs and rollaway beds
• Connecting rooms available
• Kids 4-and-under eat free; kids five to 12 receive free breakfast and half off all other meals, and Portofino has a kids' menu.
• "Very Important Children" kids program provides babysitting on the premises, including toys, books, and games. Cost is $15 for the first hour, $12 for additional hour, and $3 for each additional child. Babysitters stay on the hotel grounds (no off-site field trips or excursions).

The breakfast buffet at Portofino

Because the Hilton is a business hotel and there are lots of better restaurants in the area, food doesn't seem to be a huge focus. But it's expensive ($14.95 to $18.95 for a continental or full breakfast buffet; $20 and up for dinner entrees), and the food, perhaps no worse than at any other hotel, is mediocre nonetheless. Try Conch Fritters across the street, or you can always splurge on gourmet cuisine over at Atlantis.

• Portofino's cuisine is "International with a Caribbean flair," but it's a pretty standard hotel restaurant. Serves everything from surf and turf to salads and pasta.
• Portofino's varied breakfast buffet features a great selection of fresh fruits and grains. Hilton has a weird color-coded food index that's meant to tell guests the nutritional value of each dish (examples include "hi-energy," "low cholesterol" and "indulgence," though everything seemed to be coded as "indulgence").
• Lighter fare is served at the Patio Bar & Grille. Standard continental fare with a few Bahamian dishes (like conch fritters) thrown in.
• Blackbeard's Bar, in the lobby, serves light snacks from 4 p.m. until midnight; Happy hour runs from 4 to 7pm.
• The brand new Bullion Bar, also in the lobby, is designed to look like a swank cocktail lounge.