It was an important birthday for my dad this year, so we asked him to pick where he wanted to celebrate it and he chose Bermuda! My parents came out to DC and we all flew out together out of BWI. Getting there was a bit stressful, since our taxi almost got in an accident on the way to the airport, but once we boarded the plane it was full vacation mode. BermudAir brought around a basket of giant cookies, which was a nice touch.
We were staying on the north side of the island at the St. Regis. Bermuda is shaped like a big J. It’s also not very big – it only takes about an hour to drive down the whole spine of the island. The capital, Hamilton, is in the center. Bermuda is an overseas territory of the UK and was settled by the British over 400 years ago. It was uninhabited when the British first arrived, so it never had an indigenous population or any non-British version of its history.
The St. Regis was awesome. Traveling with my parents is definitely a more relaxed pace than what I usually do, so we had a lot of time lounging by the pool and the beach, catching up on reading and trying out the various cocktails. Notably, one of the most famous drinks in Bermuda is the dark and stormy, which was invented there and uses local ginger beer and rum.
The first touristy thing we did was visit Crystal Cave! It’s definitely one of the busier sights on the island, and we had to wait in line to get our tickets and our assigned slot to go into the cave. It was a pretty well-organized operation, though, and we got our wristbands and headed in when they told us. The cave formations were nice but the real selling point is the bridge over the beautiful teal water. It was worth the visit.
After we finished up the cave tour, we headed across the street to the Swizzle Inn! The Swizzle Inn claims to be Bermuda’s oldest pub. It was founded in 1932 and invented another one of Bermuda’s most famous drinks, the Rum Swizzle. Obviously, we had to try that too.
Fun fact, we did unintentionally visit the week of Easter, which seems to be a common problem I have. We headed down to visit Hamilton on Good Friday, which we were hoping would be the kind of weekend where everyone was out and about. Instead, it seemed like everyone on the island was up near the north end for a reenactment of the crucifixion, and Hamilton was a ghost town. We wandered around for a bit and then tried to figure out what else we could do.
As it turned out, our best option was to take the ferry even farther south! The Royal Naval Dockyard area had a giant cruise ship docked, and allegedly had some restaurants and shops that would be open. This was still the ferry’s winter schedule, or else I think we would have taken a lot more ferries, but it was nice to get the chance to take one. Fun fact, the ferry uses tokens for the tickets!
After some beautiful views of the southern part of the island, we made it to the Royal Naval Dockyard. We grabbed lunch and did a little souvenir shopping before working our way back north to St. Regis!
In case you thought we couldn’t relax any harder, my mom and I also went to a spa and got a massage! We ended up picking a different hotel’s spa, Grotto Bay, which was fun because it let us explore another resort. This one was also cool because the spa is located in a cave! The view from the massage table was so cool.
We also celebrated my dad’s birthday at the St. Regis restaurant, which was really fun!
All in all, it was an awesome visit to Bermuda! It’s an expensive place to visit, but it’s so accessible from the East Coast of the US and it is so beautiful and welcoming. It’s a great option if you’re looking for a beach trip.