Summer 2022 was off with a bang with our first trip of many others (the official itinerary included this Bermuda cruise from New York City, a road trip from New York to Dallas, an Alaska cruise from Seattle, and an epic road trip across Western Canada in a campervan) with a cruise! This cruise very conveniently left from our (then) home city’s Manhattan cruise terminal and spent 2.5 days in Bermuda.

Day 1 – Unsinkable Whalers

We disembarked the ship in the early morning and were stunned by just how deeply blue the water surrounding us was. We planned to live (at least a little bit) like the locals and use public transportation to get around the island. Right off the cruise terminal in the Royal Navy Dockyard, you’ll find an information center where you can buy bus tokens to ride the local buses. The island is split up into zones, and bus rides crossing over more zones cost more than shorter rides that stay within a given zone. A token good for one 3-zone one-way trip cost $3.50. We had planned to purchase the 15-trip booklet (a much better deal if you’ll be using the bus more than a couple of times), but found out that this can only be purchased in Hamilton which is pretty far away from Royal Navy Dockyard.

Our excursion for the first day in Bermuda was self-guided exploration of Bermuda via a Boston whaler boat! We booked a 15-foot whaler boat for 8 hours from BDA Watersports. The Bermuda Public Bus #7 took us from Royal Navy Dockyard to Somerset Bridge, from which BDA Watersports was only a short stroll away. Pro tip when taking Bermuda public buses: take note of the color of the poles seemingly randomly sticking out of the ground near (also sometimes difficult to spot) the bus stops. Pink poles signal a bus going toward Hamilton, and blue poles signal a bus going away from Hamilton.

BDA Watersports

74HF+MC Hog Bay, Bermuda

+1 441-234-0914

Upon arrival to BDA Watersports, a quick boating “lesson” was provided (this was more like a run through of how to turn the key, how to make the boat go forward/backward, and a reassurance that it was indeed impossible to sink a Boston whaler boat), and we were off! Keep in mind that different Bermuda boating rental companies have different geographic boundaries you are allowed to drive your boat to. BDA Watersports allows you to drive your boat as far south as Pompano Beach Club and as far east as Spanish Point Park. All of the Great Sound and the secluded little islands within it are within bounds and free to roam.

Bermuda Boston Whaler Route from BDA Watersports

Departing from BDA Watersports, we headed north through Ely’s Harbor up to the famous tourist destination of the shipwreck Vixen. The nose of this wrecked ship pokes up above the surface as waves lap against the rusty metal. Lots of tour boats and jetski tours come here and feed bread to the fish, and we were sure to bring along some fish food to witness the leaping fish ourselves. The current around Vixen is quite strong, and even with a life jacket donned I felt pretty nervous that I’d be carried out far into the open ocean. The current also made the water frothy and visibility poor so while snorkeling to Vixen is allowed, it wasn’t that great an experience.

Back in our unsinkable watery home for the day, we continued toward and crossed under Watford Bridge before veering north to New Woody’s (located at 845W+75 Somerset Village, Bermuda) for a fish sandwich. Fish sandwiches are one of the “must eat” foods of Bermuda, and everyone seems to have their favorite spots. New Woody’s makes their fish sandwich with succulent pieces of fried wahoo fish nestled between thick slices of raisin bread and decorated with cheese, coleslaw, and what seemed like a potato salad dressing. It was an interesting but delicious mishmash of flavors, and I can’t but help but love the randomness of this dish.

We were then off to Hamilton, all the way across the Great Sound. This area was filled with pretty choppy waters, and we definitely tested the unsinkable-ness of our boat as we caught lots of air, zipping through…and above…the waves.

Finally having made our way all the way to Hamilton, we purchased that coveted packet of 15 bus tickets, as our group still had two more days to explore Bermuda. These 3-zone tickets are good for bus rides as well as ferry rides.

The town of Hamilton was filled mostly with little shops and bars. The Hamilton area is known more for its nightlife. Hamilton is also home to the Harbour Nights event each Wednesday evening when tourists and locals come together to enjoy cultural performances like Gombey dancers and local food, drink, and craft market goods.

Departing from Hamilton, we returned west across the Great Sound and relaxed on the sand bars in Kings Point. While the water was completely devoid of the fish and turtles I was hoping to see and the sand was pretty coarse, the water was so strikingly blue and little islands so serene that it’s safe to say I wasn’t unhappy.

 

Day 2 – Eastern Beaches and Caves

Our second full day in Bermuda started off bright and early with a 45-minute ride on the ferry from our cruise terminal to St. George. Many cruiselines offer ferries to and from the parts of Bermuda further from the actual cruise port (in our case, the free ferries provided by Norwegian Cruise Line traveled to St. George and Hamilton), so keep that in mind when planning your transportation around Bermuda when in port! Bermuda is surprisingly sprawling and the shape of the island makes transport by bus take quite a long time so ferries help significantly in cutting down transportation time.

Clearwater Beach

Upon arrival to St. George, we used another bus token to ride the #6 bus to Clearwater Beach. Okay, now. Clearwater Beach had THE softest sand ever, so much better than the previous day’s beaches! Clearwater Beach was a super clean beach and not crowded at all. There is also a confession stand with food and drink, with wait staff delivering directly to your sun lounger. We walked along the stretches of beach for a bit before returning to the bus stop to continue our exploration of this side of Bermuda.

Tom Moore’s Jungle

A bus took us to the Crystal Caves area in central Bermuda. Crystal Cave and Fantasy Cave are located near Castle Harbour and are accessible by buses traversing the areas between Hamilton and St. George’s parishes. Crystal Cave was discovered in 1907 during a search for a lost ball from a game of cricket, and visitors have been flocking to see the thousands of stalactites above and disturbingly clear water below ever since. Tours of the Crystal and Fantasy Caves are popular tourist plans particularly for cruise guests visiting Bermuda, but we were more interested in exploring the area on our own. The Caves area is also home to Tom Moore’s Jungle, which is known more officially as the Walsingham Nature Reserve. Tom Moore’s Jungle is a 12-acre reserve of lush mangrove trees, birdwatching hotspots, and natural swimming grottoes. The area rests on a network of caves and tunnels, some of which can be entered and explored right from the walking paths carving through the reserve. These foot paths are wooded but cleared and well marked, and meandering along them will take you to various little caves, little enclaves of ocean, and most famously the Blue Hole swimming hole that historically was home to resident dolphins!

After emerging from Tom Moore’s Jungle, make sure you visit the nearby Swizzle Inn Pub, Bermuda’s oldest pub known for their rum swizzle cocktails. The rum swizzle is Bermuda’s national drink and is generally prepared with a combination of fruit juices (usually orange and pineapple), rums (usually the locally made Gosling’s Black Seal and Gold Seal rums), grenadine, and bitters. Fun fact: to obey tradition, your rum swizzle cocktail is supposed to be prepared with an authentic swizzle stick. These are aromatic branches of the Quararibea turbinata tree that sprout from the tree as straight sticks before ending in a series of spokes, creating a naturally perfect beverage agitator.

Tobacco Bay Beach

The final bus of the day took us back to St. George’s. We had a bit of time left before our ferry ride back to the cruise terminal, so we took off on a 20-minute walk to Tobacco Bay. Tobacco Bay is a very cute enclosed beach swimming area. The beach is very rocky, so beware for your toes or wear water shoes. The rock formations make Tobacco Bay distinguishably photogenic, and also provide homes to lots of resident fish. The tropical pop music, beachy bars, and family friendly atmosphere made it clear why Tobacco Bay wins the “Best Beach” awards year after year.

Day 3 – Pink Sands!

Our final day in Bermuda started off with another ride on the public bus #7. We couldn’t leave Bermuda without visiting the famous Horseshoe Bay! I recommend riding the bus #7 one stop past Horseshoe Bay, so you can visit Warwick Long Bay and several little beaches and coves dotting the shoreline northeast of Horseshoe Bay. Horseshoe Bay is the “big one,” both literally and figuratively speaking, but don’t miss the smaller ones. They are all connected by well-cleared sandy paths a bit inland from the beach and can all be visited easily by foot strolling south from Warwick Long Bay toward Horseshoe Bay. If you’re short on time, just take the bus straight to Horseshoe Bay and be sure to meander on foot along the shoreline heading north to come across the smaller coves as well!

Warwick Long Bay is the beach you’ll find yourself at after departing the bus one stop further than Horseshoe Bay. Warwick Long Bay is one of the larger beaches and had very noticeably pinker sand than Horseshoe Bay! Both beaches had outrageously silky soft sand. Warwick Long Bay was much less crowded.

Both in the water and on the beach, please keep your eyes peeled for the Portugese Man O’ War. “The Portugese Man of what?!” (That’s what I said the first time I heard about these terrifying things.) The Portguese Man O’ War is a colonial organism made up of smaller animals that have to work together to survive, and they work together to form a formidable thing indeed. The Man O’ War features an inflatable balloon that it uses to stay buoyant, and its movement through the water is dependent entirely on the current and waves that push it along. What makes these guys particularly scary is their stinging tentacles that drift about below the surface, growing up to 30 meters long! The Man O’ War uses these stinging tentacles to paralyze its prey of fish and other small marine animals, and a sting to a human causes intense pain. The blueish-purple color of the Man O’ War balloon makes the organism actually quite interesting and almost lovely to look at, but don’t touch it even if it’s washed up on shore! They can still sting when on land, depending on how long they’ve been beached. We saw a couple tiny Man O’War washed up on Warwick Long Bay’s sand but we didn’t see any in the water.

My favorite part of all of our time in Bermuda was actually on this last day, spent visiting the countless secluded beachy coves on the way from Warwick Long Bay to Horseshoe Bay. I loved strolling through the sand and being surprised by little beach after little beach, hiding in plain sight just around the corner hidden behind outcroppings of rock. The absolute best sights were seen at Jobson’s Cove. We stood on the beach completely mesmerized and thrilled at the show before us, watching the giant parrot fish feed on the rocky shoreline. Parrotfish are a protected species in Bermuda, and their protection from fishing allows them to grow to massive proportions. Bermuda’s parrotfish are also responsible for those beloved pink sand beaches. The parrotfish scrape algae off underwater rocks, ingesting tiny invertebrates called red forams hidden in the rocks along the way, and their pink-tinged excrement is deposited as pink sand. Particularly in areas like Jobson’s Cove where underwater rock stretches in abundance under a shallow covering of ocean waves, the parrotfish put on a great show in the shallow water. Their fins and tails even pop up above the surface at times making them look like little sharks, some completely black and others iridescently colorful. As the waves roll in, the parrot fish ride the swell expertly, and the temporarily vertical wall of seawater visible before the wave crashes to the surface allows for fleeting but magical views of Bermuda’s favorite fish.