Two years in Bermuda

Getting to and Around Bermuda

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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, particu...Read More

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Eating, Drinking and Shopping in Bermuda

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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,...Read More

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.

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Fairmont Southampton

Hotel | "The Pink Place"

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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 centr...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 2, 2009

Fairmont Southampton
101 South Shore Rd.
Southampton, Bermuda
+441-238-8000

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Crystal Caves

Attraction | "Underground Treasure"

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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 t...Read More

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.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 3, 2009

Crystal Caves
8 Crystal Caves Road, off Wilkinson Avenue
Hamilton, Bermuda
293 0640

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Gibbs Hill Lighthouse

Attraction | "Vantage Point"

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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 (seve...Read More

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. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 3, 2009

Gibbs Hill Lighthouse
Bermuda
Bermuda
+1 800 237 6832

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Bermuda Journals

Two years in Bermuda

Getting to and Around Bermuda

Eating, Drinking and Shopping in Bermuda

Fairmont Southampton

Crystal Caves

Gibbs Hill Lighthouse

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