Hamilton Princess & Beach Club is pleased to announce that it has been named a Nominee Finalist for two 2026 Historic Hotels Worldwide® Awards of Excellence: Best Historic Resort and Best Historic Hotel in the Americas.
The 2026 Historic Hotels Worldwide® Awards of Excellence recognize outstanding historic hotels, inns, resorts and other heritage lodgings for their preservation of historic integrity, architecture, and ambiance.
Hamilton Princess & Beach Club is among more than 320 hotels and resorts around the world identified by Historic Hotels Worldwide® for preserving and maintaining their historic character and heritage.
“We are delighted to recognize Hamilton Princess & Beach Club for being nominated for Historic Hotels Worldwide Best Historic Resort and Best Historic Hotel in the Americas,” said Lawrence P. Horwitz, Executive Vice President, Historic Hotels of America® and Historic Hotels Worldwide®.
“This hotel is part of a select group of Nominee Finalists in a number of categories. It is an honor to be nominated and recognized.”
“We are honoured to acknowledged as a Nominee Finalist in two categories of the 2026 Historic Hotels Worldwide Awards of Excellence,” said Tim Morrison, General Manager of Hamilton Princess & Beach Club.
“Hamilton Princess & Beach Club has been an integral part of Bermuda’s story for more than 140 years, and this recognition is a wonderful testament to our continued commitment to preserving the character, heritage and legacy of this iconic hotel. We are especially proud of our colleagues, whose passion and dedication bring the Grande Dame to life every day, while ensuring her remarkable history continues to be celebrated for generations to come.”
Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, the oldest property in the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts collection, takes its name from Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll and daughter of Queen Victoria. Today, the hotel offers 380 guestrooms, including 51 suites, along with more than 60,000 square feet of versatile indoor and outdoor reception and meeting space.
The hotel’s history continues to be shared with new generations through educational visits from local schools and community groups. Students visit Hamilton Princess & Beach Club to learn about the hotel’s important role in Bermuda’s history during World War II, including the intelligence and censorship operations that took place on the property.
Among the schools that engage with the hotel’s history, one school in particular visits for an experience in the hotel’s Trudeau Room, where they participate in a mini codebreaking session. The room was formerly known as the Adams Lounge, where censors and censorettes worked during the war. Through this hands-on experience, students gain a deeper understanding of the people and activities that made the Hamilton Princess an important part of Bermuda’s wartime history.
The hotel served as both a residence and operations center for approximately 1,500 intelligence officers, academics, codebreakers, and support personnel. Their work involved intercepting and deciphering enemy communications to assist the Allied war effort.
One of the most notable figures associated with the hotel was Sir William Stephenson, a Canadian-born intelligence officer known by the codename “Intrepid.” His legacy lives on at the property through Intrepid, Steak Seafood & Raw Bar, the hotel’s fine-dining restaurant. The restaurant also features a private dining room called Room 287, named after the original hotel room where codebreaking
operations were carried out.
Stephenson’s connection to the Hamilton Princess extends beyond the restaurant. A boardroom on the hotel’s seventh floor also bears his name. During his years in Bermuda, Stephenson rose to become a prominent spymaster and served as Britain’s leading intelligence agent in the Western Hemisphere during World War II. His work in Bermuda caught the attention of Ian Fleming, a Lieutenant Commander in Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division, and Stephenson is widely regarded as one of the figures who influenced Fleming’s creation of James Bond.
Stephenson later spent his final years in Bermuda at his home in Tucker’s Town, which he called GoldenEye. The name would later become famous through Fleming’s Bond novels and was eventually used for the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.
Hamilton Princess & Beach Club is part of the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts portfolio, alongside iconic properties including The Plaza in New York, Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston, Fairmont Banff Springs in Alberta, and Fairmont San Francisco.
Winners will be announced on October 15th, at the 2026 Historic Hotels Annual Awards of Excellence Ceremony and Gala in Williamsburg, Virginia.
