Two years in Bermuda

I have not met many people in the UK who have been to Bermuda on holiday or indeed have considered it as a holiday destination. The reasons for this could include its reputation as being a bit pricey but mainly I think because most people planning to travel over the Atlantic for an island holiday are going to head for the Caribbean rather than Bermuda, which lies all by itself a thousand miles further north. Since I announced I was moving to Bermuda, I have had quite a few people say they thought it was in the Caribbean but in fact the nearest coastline / land mass to Bermuda is that of Carolina in the US which is about 600 miles away. Consequently, it is a popular getaway for US citizens, particularly those residing on the east coast.

Getting to Bermuda~~~

There are regular direct flights to Bermuda from New York, Washington, Boston and Miami. Slightly less frequent services operate from Toronto, Philadelphia and Atlanta. Most flights take about two hours, I always had a lot of trouble with connecting flights if you cannot travel from these destination, for instance a trip to Las Vegas tends to take about 16 hours.

There is only one direct flight to Bermuda from anywhere in Europe and it is operated daily (most of the year) from Gatwick by British Airways taking about six hours. This can be an extremely expensive fare as BA have the monopoly on the route, although BA seems to have fairly regular flight sales and tickets can often be found for about £400 during the sale.

Your maximum stay as a holiday maker is three weeks. When you land at Bermuda International airport it is imperative that you either trample over your fellow passengers as you make an inelegant and uncontrolled dash for passport control or be prepared for an extremely long and slow moving queue. Bermudians are convinced that ALL visitors are really there to seek permanent residency on their beloved island and are (very politely) very thorough in establishing your true motivation for being there, to put it mildly.

Immigration process over and as a tourist you will be treated with warmth, hospitality and friendliness by Bermudians who will bend over backwards to assist you in whatever way they can. When I lived there, I learned to pretend I am on holiday at all times as locals can be rather less forgiving towards ex-pats.

When to travel~~~

Bermuda has four seasons at the same time as our own (but hotter!) and there can be rainfall at any time. Hurricanes are quite rare in Bermuda unlike in parts of the Caribbean, however a category one hurricane, known as Florence struck during my first few months on the island.

In the hottest summer months, of June to August, temperatures hover just above 30 degrees centigrade. It also will get very humid, at least 80% which can feel quite uncomfortable. Temperatures will start to drop off after October but in the winter it will still be a pleasant 15 to 20 degrees. The main disadvantages to a winter break in Bermuda is that it is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean not the Caribbean Sea and thus the sea cannot be enjoyed all year round, it is best enjoyed from the end of May until September. Additionally, I found that many tourist activities, such as boat rides, do not operate outside the main summer months.


Getting around Bermuda ~~~

As a visitor, you will not be permitted to hire (or borrow) a car in Bermuda but many visitors and even locals get around by moped. These are available to hire for about $150 the first week and slightly less the following weeks. The death rate for moped drivers in Bermuda is ridiculously high for an island of its size with a 30mph maximum speed limit. This is however entirely due to the lunatic riding of Bermudian young men, who think it looks cool to ride lop-sided, one handed, drinking coffee and breaking the speed limit. For some reason the government has not realised this is the issue and blames expat car drivers, who they would happily blame for all the problems in Bermuda. Tourist moped drivers should not have any difficulties on the roads of Bermuda.

Other options are bus, ferry and taxi. There are about four ferry routes that operate between Hamilton and each end of the island and ferries are roughly every half an hour. I did not use them extensively as I found the buses more frequent and useful. There are eleven bus routes in operation, all of which start and end in Hamilton and cover all corners of the group of islands which make up Bermuda. During my first six weeks on the island, before I purchased my car, I relied upon the buses for getting around and I found that they unfailingly run on time, are clean, air conditioned and a thoroughly enjoyable experience as the island is so pretty and the views so good. I would get on Bermuda public transport for pleasure and not because I need to go somewhere. They can get busy near some of the popular beaches at the end of the day.

A one day transport pass for the entire island is $12, a weekly pass is $45, monthly $55 and three monthly $135, it is approximately half price for children except for the one day pass which is the same. Obviously the three month pass is only relevant to residents but I thought I would demonstrate how tourists are subsidizing the locals.

Taxis are generally plentiful from Hamilton and tend to hang around the main hotels as well. If it starts to rain though, they will be snapped up very quickly. Each journey starts with about $3.50 on the clock and a 10km journey will cost about $16. The island is not really big enough to have very long and expensive taxi journeys. A Bermudian dollar is at parity with the US dollar and both notes and coins are accepted everywhere.

Eating, drinking and shopping are three of my favourite past times and the first two are ones that I can indulge to my heart’s content in Bermuda. I cannot enthuse more about the standard and number of restaurants to choose from which seems completely disproportionate to the size of the island and the population. After living in London for eleven years, I thought that the choice of restaurants would be one of the things I would miss most, now it seems inconceivable that this might have proven to be the case. In fact I always felt spoilt for choice.

The capital of Bermuda is Hamilton and here you will find many international style of cuisine, for example; Italian, French, Thai, Japanese, Mexican and Middle Eastern as well as more eclectic style. I have found the standard of food to be high in most restaurants I visited.
There are also several pubs / bars serving food which I have also found to be excellent quality. The first pub we ever visited was the Pickled Onion on Front Street and this remains a firm favourite. You do not get many cheap meals in Bermuda and to provide a very crude guideline to prices we generally pay about $10 -$15 for a starter and about $20 - $30 for a main course depending on the particular establishment. Wine is readily available from all regions and I believe slightly cheaper than in the UK, you should have no trouble whatsoever finding a very nice bottle in a restaurant for about $30 although of course you can pay more if you wish.

Outside Hamilton a lot of the restaurants are found in the large hotels and it is normal in Bermuda to go to a hotel restaurant, something I would not often do in the UK, unless possibly I am a guest at the hotel. Several of the hotel restaurants will have dining rooms either overlooking or even on the beach, for example Lidos at the Elbow Beach resort and Aqua at the Ariel Sands Hotel. These two have particularly stunning settings but there are others.

Many of the guidebooks talk about how expensive dining can be in Bermuda, but most tourists to Bermuda are from the US, where the cost of living is lower and the guidebooks seem to be geared towards them. Whilst I find many aspects of life in Bermuda expensive, I generally found the cost of eating and drinking out not that much different to the UK.

My other favourite activity, shopping, is not one that I could really enjoy regularly without a couple of hours on a plane first. But it should be noted that was my opinion as somebody living there, as a visitor it is easy to spend a day browsing Hamilton’s shops, possibly more. At the Docklands, on the far west of the island, there is another shipping complex mainly geared towards tourists, I bought home some lovely Bermudan pottery and crockery here before I left for good. There are pleasingly few of what I call tourist tat shops, a larger number of quality gift shops, several jewellers and a few designer clothes shops. Whilst you may find some extremely beautiful mementos of your trip to take home, you are highly unlikely to find any bargains.

To conclude on shipping and dining out, if you are looking to holiday on a shoestring then Bermuda is probably not a destination that you ought to consider. Hotels do not come cheaply, you won’t be able to pick up any bargains in the shops and you will also need to have comfortable funds for your food and day to day incidentals.

In normal circumstances, I would be unlikely to book a stay in a hotel a mere few hundred yards from my own home. However when we joined the golf club at this hotel, we were presented with a non-transferable voucher for two nights accommodation. On a small island like Bermuda, it is very common for locals to make use of the various hotels’ facilities, I have done so on countless occasions and so this is a hotel I feel I know very well.

Arrival~~~

The hotel is based in Southampton which is towards the west of the island. The journey from the airport will take about 35 to 45 minutes and will cost about $50 or $60. The journey into Hamilton, the main shopping and restaurant centre, is about 20 minutes assuming it is not rush hour. Triple that time if it is, there are only two roads into Hamilton so they can get pretty congested.

The hotel with its pastel pink exterior is easy to spot being situated on one of the highest points of the island. It is set back a long way from the road though, in fact there is a golf course between hotel and road. I drive right up to the hotel, but I do feel sorry for the hot and bothered tourists tramping uphill to the entrance after a long and tiring day of sight seeing. I should add that there is a little trolley bus that runs between the hotel and its annexe on the beach and it is possible to catch this from the main road as well if you can time it right.

The hotel has an impressive entrance and there are always several friendly and courteous bellmen at the door meeting, greeting and attending to luggage. The lobby is large and impressive and I would describe the style as traditional English with lots of rich colours and dark wood. To the left is the open plan Jasmine lobby lounge, where that traditional style continues, lots of big comfy sofas and an open fire place.

Reception is to the right. I have been to the reception desk precisely three times, to check in, check out and a week before my planned stay, I popped in to confirm my booking with vouchers was acceptable as I had not been filled with confidence by the person I spoke to over the phone at time of booking. The reception desk service is certainly very friendly, but it is not smooth and lacks the level of professionalism one might have expected upon walking through the door. I personally would be happy to forgo a little bit of the friendliness for a little bit more efficiency at this particular reception desk. My three experiences were all quite a chore and very time-consuming, I happen to know this is par for the course at this hotel. Welcome to Bermuda.

Accommodation~~~

We booked a "Fairmount Room" with ocean view. It was a large and comfortable room, decorated in pastel shades and the furniture was bamboo or wicker with flowery patterns dominating. Not to my personal taste but a popular style in Bermuda and seemed fitting.

As well as a large king size bed, we had a sofa, armchair and of course a desk. I thought all the furniture and décor was in very good condition, although the TV was pretty old and it provided only the most basic TV program package, meaning about eight pretty dire channels. The room had a balcony, large enough for two chairs and a small table and we found it a nice place to have our breakfast each morning. As far as I can tell and I have been to the hotel many times and driven past it twice a day, every room has a balcony and according to my internet research they are all of a similar, generous size, 450 square feet to be precise. There are different prices for similar rooms however and the higher priced rooms come with the best views.

We had an ocean view room, as the hotel is on one of the narrowest parts of the island you can see the ocean both to the north and to the south depending on exactly where you are. The ocean views to the south are over the beautiful golf course and are simply stunning from this high vantage point. We got an ocean view to the north coast, which we liked but it is definitely not in the same league. We already have unspoilt views of the Atlantic from our south facing home, so it made a nice change to be looking to the other way. But for anyone else, if you are in an ocean view room ask for it to be facing south.

On our first night we decided to stay in and have room service, after all we can go out any time. We also had room service both mornings. The orders arrived within about 30 minutes each time and were always served with a smile and some friendly chat. No complaints about the food either, served with solid silver cutlery, and all the trimmings like warmed bread, iced water and suitable condiments.

Amenities~~~

The main hotel is not actually situated on the beach, but there is a separate beachside complex which you can either walk (estimate about 15 minutes) or take the trolley bus to. At the beach, there are tennis courts, outside swimming pools and plenty of sun loungers both around the pool and on the beach which is just in front of the pool area. I have never spent any time here but have passed by on many occasions and it has always been a bit too busy for my liking. There is a restaurant down ehre overlooking the sea and it is also possible to get snacks from the immediate poolside area.

The hotel's golf course lies between the main hotel and the main south shore road. It is kept beautifully and I still admire it and the little pink golf buggies being driven around every time I pass by. The course is not for very serious golfers as each of the 18 holes is a par three and there are not many holes longer than 200 yards. I think this makes it a great course for both novices (like me) and for holiday makers that would love a round but are not regular players and might be intimidated by a full size course. A round is $60 and the buggy another $20.

On the first floor is the gym, hairdressers and the Willow Stream Spa which is beautiful and value for money. A gripe is that hotel guests are not allowed to use the gym or the general spa areas without paying an additional fee, which is $15 for one day unless a spa treatment is booked. This is not something I expect a hotel to be charging extra for and I would be aggrieved to pay this kind of room rate only to find gym access excluded.

There are several restaurants in the hotel, some in the main building and others separate but nearby. Two of the three top restaurants on the island are part of the Fairmount Southampton. The first is the Newport Room on the ground floor of the main hotel, the best restaurant on the island as far as many are concerned. The Waterlot Inn is another fine dining restaurant situated in its own building on the water's edge away from the main hotel. And a less expensive and more family orientated alternative is Bacci, an Italian restaurant located beside the golf club house. I have also eaten in the Jasmine lobby lounge several times, it offers quick snacks like sandwiches or salads. I find it a very comfortable lounge, lots of big sofas and there is an open fire place, but service is often inattentive.

Bermuda is extremely popular for international conferences, particularly in the financial services world and the Fairmont Southampton and its sister hotel in Hamilton have pretty much cornered the market. I have attended several of these conferences myself in both hotels and can confirm that they do it very well. They have spacious and comfortable facilities and can accommodate hundreds of delegates at once, the technology required for speakers and presentations always works without a hitch and they do a good job to ensure that the tea, coffee and lunch arrives when it is supposed to and there is enough to go around.

To wrap up~~

Room rates vary a lot depending upon the time of year and can be anything from $250 to $600 a night or even more. This is more than a hotel, it is a resort offering a whole range of amenities and I would be more than happy to spend a week here on holiday if I could afford it and if I didn't live a few hundred yards away.

The Crystal Caves and the nearby Fantasy Caves are a popular attraction in Bermuda and a must in my opinion. In 1904 two boys were playing cricket when their ball fell into a hole in the ground, upon retrieving it, they discovered the caves. The family who owned the land immediately began to explore and develop the underground site and it opened as an attraction a few years later.

The caves are situated on the east of the island and on the main road towards the airport or St Georges. It is thus very easy to get here as several bus routes pass by (1, 4, 10 and 11 I believe). I have also found it extremely easy to find a taxi round here, probably because of it being on the way to / from the airport. The caves are open every day from 9.30am until 4.30pm. Tickets to enter both cave systems are $20 for adults and children over 5 years about half price. It is possible to just enter one set of caves, but I personally think that it makes sense to see both whilst you are here. The caves are not enormous and you will not spend much over 30 minutes in each system.

You are not allowed to wander around the caves unescorted, so you will have to wait until the next tour starts. Literature claims this is every 30 minutes, but I do not think this is the case as we waited for longer than this. I suspect they wait until there is a reasonable sized group of people waiting to go in.

We went into the Crystal Caves first. The caves are about 120 feet underground; I did not find the ramp and steps down (or indeed back up) especially difficult as somebody in reasonable health and with sensible shoes on. Much of the cave floor is covered by a huge blue- green lake, the water is crystal clear (hence the name of the cave) and it is 55 foot deep. It is possible to see right to the bottom. Wooden bridges are built over the water so you can move around the cave and look into the water and look up to the rock and calcium formations hanging from the roof. The guide provides a reasonable commentary as we move along. I did find the bits about the history and the geology interesting but I do not know why it is always necessary to look for shapes in the rock, i.e. an elephant, a tortoise etc. It always seems to be the case in caves I have visited the world over.

When the cave tour is over, it is necessary to leave the system altogether and then walk across the grounds to the Fantasy Caves entrance. This entrance is more difficult, the steps are steeper and people of below average fitness and children may find it difficult to navigate. These caves are in some ways more impressive than the Crystal Caves though, the colours are more vibrant and the stalagmite and stalactites are more impressive and certainly more numerous.

With both cave visits over, the nearby infamous Swizzle Inn is close by and an excellent choice for lunch or if you are not ready for lunch, then I would highly recommend the ice cream parlour opposite, it has a lovely range of ice creams and sorbets and you can eat in or on tables outside.

In the middle of the Atlantic ocean and some 600 miles from the US coastline, there is a 20 mile by 2 mile stretch of islands making up Bermuda. The islands are surrounded by coral reef and it is no real surprise that in days gone by shipwrecks were very common in the area. Indeed, if one looks a map of dive spots in the vicinity there is a clear ring of them all around the island. To date there have been 300 shipwrecks in the waters around Bermuda.

In 1844 the construction of Gibbs Hill Lighthouse began and it opened for business two years later. The lighthouse is made of cast iron and the oldest of this type in the world. It is still fully operational but is open to visitors (seven days a week 9am – 5pm) and in my opinion offers the best views of Bermuda and photo opportunities.

The lighthouse is situated in Southampton to the west of the island. Visitors can easily travel here by bus, the number 7 from Hamilton travels the length of the south shore road and is probably most convenient. You should alight at the Henry VIII the pub from where it is about a ten minute walk. As the lighthouse is on one of the narrowest parts of the island, it is also accessible from the number 8 bus, which travels along the middle shore road.

The lighthouse is on a hill that stands 250 feet above sea level and the structure itself measures another 117 feet high. Tickets to climb the lighthouse are purchased in the gift shop and it is a nominal fee of a couple of dollars. With ticket bought, you may start the 185 step climb to the top. It is not a particularly difficult climb, probably sounds worse than it really is and anybody in reasonable health would manage it. There are platforms along the way if you do need to take a breather though and little windows all the way up to take a peek out. At the top, you can step out onto the platform around the edge and walk the circumference, there is an iron railing for protection. It was windy one of the days I went up and I could feel the lighthouse swaying, but I still felt very safe.

From the top it is possible to see most of Bermuda and of course out to the Atlantic Ocean. I have heard that at certain time of the year, one might see whales migrating but I did not have that good fortune. The beam of light emitted can be seen by ships from 40 miles away and from aeroplanes from 120 miles away for a plane at 10,000 feet.

Back at the bottom, there is a reasonably well stocked gift shop and I have bought some items here. There is also a very nice tea shop offering a good selection of meals and beverages, for reasonable prices.

Just across the road from the lighthouse there is a viewing point known as Queens View. It was where Queen Elizabeth II stopped to admire the scenery herself during a visit some fifty years ago. There is a memorial plaque here and the look out points across the northern shore.

It is well worth taking a morning to travel over to Southampton to see the lighthouse.