My lady and I went away on a Christmas holiday at the end of last year. We wanted something relatively close, relatively warm and with no possibility of contracting the Zika virus. The closest international destination that fit the bill was Bermuda.
Bermuda Triangle
When I was a young boy, I had heard of the Bermuda Triangle, where ships and planes went in but often didn’t come back out. I always had a curiosity about what was there. Bermuda is actually an archipelago of islands that have now been connected with bridges and ferries. It is surrounded by reefs just below the water’s surface. It is in the hurricane belt. All of this, with many shipwrecks, is likely the reason for its fearsome reputation. At one point Bermuda also used to be known as the Isle of Devils, probably also due to the over-population of a local noisy bird (cahows) and feral pigs.
Bermuda has a sub-tropical climate. Before booking, we checked the temperature and it ranged from the 60s to mid-70s Fahrenheit that time of year. The flight took only two hours from NYC. It is approximately the same latitude as Savannah, Georgia but about 10 degrees warmer because of the Gulf Stream.
Guesthouse near Hamilton
We found a great little AirBnB guesthouse near the capital of Hamilton. It had everything we needed. The host offered to arrange a taxi pick-up but the check-in wasn’t until 2pm. We were arriving around 10:30am, so we had plenty of time to kill before we could even check in. We decided to look into public transportation options. It turned out there were buses that went to the central terminal in Hamilton from the airport for only $5 per person. Sweet. It was then a short walk to the cottage. The bus took longer than a taxi, making stops along the way, but we weren’t in any rush. Our bus ride afforded us a nice view of this verdant island as well as the locals who got on and off. There was a diverse variety of flora every where we looked with several species we had never seen before.
There is no car rental in Bermuda. It’s probably just as well since they drive on the other side of the road and get a lot of American tourists. The speed limit is 20mph with some unlit, curving, narrow roads and, in many places, no sidewalks. Scooters and small electric vehicles not much bigger than a motorcycle are available for hire. Prices range from approximately $60-$120/day respectively, with the daily rate declining the longer the rental.
Upon arriving to Hamilton we purchased a book of bus tickets. The island has a zone system that I was familiar with since they had the same thing in London where I had previously lived. So we planned out our next few days and decided to stay within three zones and purchased the cheaper book. I think it was $25 and that gave us about 15 rides total.
Upon arriving, our Airbnb host suggested we go the supermarket since it was Christmas Eve and markets were going to be closed for the next couple of days. She was going into town and graciously offered us a ride. Although food prices were expensive, we stocked up. Bermuda being an island, almost everything has to be imported and given that Bermuda has no income or corporate tax, they raise revenue partly through sales taxes.
Hamilton had a number of restaurants, bars and shops although it was relatively quiet the beginning of Christmas week. We often found ourselves at the Princess Hotel which was on the way to our guest cottage. It had shops, bars, restaurants, an impressive art collection, beautiful grounds, marina and waterfront.
Our host suggested we go to Elbow Beach to see many locals come out on Christmas Day.
Elbow Beach on Christmas Day
When we arrived, we saw beautiful, clear, blue water, and a friendly crowd wearing Christmas hats, drinking Dark and Stormy’s or Mimosas and some taking a dip in the ocean. The water was as warm as at Long Island beaches in late summer. There was a DJ by the bar and it seemed like many groups of friends and family came to participate in this festive tradition. It kind of felt like SantaCon, only it was on the beach and people were more familiar with each other. We had never heard of this event and felt like we were privileged to have been able to join this, to us, secret party.
Horseshoe Bay Beach
The next day we went to the famous Horseshoe Bay where we encountered the pink sand beaches and beautiful outcrops of weathered limestone. We learned that Bermuda was formed by a volcanic eruption, which formed a 3 mile high sea mount. During a previous geological period when the oceans were higher, sea life lived and died and the remains formed a sediment that was compressed, eventually forming what is today a limestone cap on top of the islands.
Limestone Cavern fed with rain and seawater
The next day we went to visit some caverns that were filled with stalactites and stalagmites caused by rainwater seeping through the limestone into caverns 80-100 feet below the surface. We enjoyed hearing the anecdotes of how these caverns were discovered and about the geological processes that formed them. Because the rock is porous, there is no fresh water sources on the island, so every home has a system on their roofs to collect rainwater and store it in cisterns.
Bermuda’s main industries are tourism and financial services. Its tax advantages and respected regulatory climate made it a natural tax domicile for international businesses and in particular the insurance industry, which has become sizable there.
The oldest house in the oldest continuously-occupied English settlement in the Americas
St. George
I am a bit of a history buff and Bermuda has played a notable role in early American colonial history. After the Americas were “discovered,” the British tried to obtain a toehold in the “New World” by founding a colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. The settlement quickly fell on hard times due to a suspected drought and a conflict with natives. The colony requested help from its corporate sponsors, the Virginia Company. It sent a mission of 9 sailing ships in 1609 to aid the colony when, in order to avoid a hurricane, Admiral Sir George Somers, shipwrecked the SeaVenture onto the reefs of Bermuda.
Blooming Aloe Vera
The shipwreck survivors successfully lived on Bermuda for 10 months until they could build two small ships to escape the island. The ships were named Patience and Deliverance. The group were originally only going to build one ship but found so much wild boar left behind by previous Spanish castaways, that they built the second ship to bring the salted pork to Jamestown.
Sir George, finding Bermuda quite livable, decided to stay behind and in 1612 founded the oldest continuously-settled English town in the New World. It was originally named New London but today is known as St. Georges. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site. The other castaways continued their journey to Jamestown and replenished that historic town in 1610 after it had already been abandoned once. It is said Shakespeare’s The Tempest was partly based on the story of Admiral George Somers’ wreck on the Bermudan reefs.
Royal Dockyards
On the last day before leaving Bermuda we explored the Royal Dockyards, a former Naval Base. It is the deepest port on the island where the largest cruise ships normally dock. The Royal Dockyards had a Keep that was heavily fortified and armed with big guns as a British outpost off the coast of America. The British no longer use it, however, and it is now the site of the Bermuda National Museum.
The Museum has many historic artifacts covering all of Bermuda’s history, from it’s original sighting by the Spanish Explorer Juan de Bermudez who the islands were named after, to present day. It covers myths and legends, the islands role in the American Civil War (blockade runners and profiteers), the Boer War (POW camps), WWII (capture of a German submarine), as well as, the origins of the many people who make up the rich fabric of the islands. We spent much time there learning about the history of such a small country of only 62,000 people.
Another attraction at that location is Dolphin Quest where people can swim with, you guessed it, dolphins. The Royal Dockyards also has a large marina (with several more all around the island) and in 2017 Bermuda once again hosted the coveted America’s Cup Race.
We found the people of Bermuda to be a friendly, diverse mix with British, American and island sensibilities. With crystal clear blue waters, pink sand beaches, the oldest English town in the Americas, myths and legends, a maritime tradition, interesting history, tax freedom and close proximity to the US, Bermuda is an easily accessible destination that has something for everyone.