Russ and I really needed a break, and some time dedicated to ourselves… and our trip to Bermuda was EXACTLY what we needed! I’m so excited to share our trip with you guys but I want to share a few little disclaimers about Russ and I first: We are not avid travelers. I’ve been a few places… Russ really only traveled outside the country with the military which wasn’t quite a vacation lol. We are not the do all/see all type of people, either… especially for a vacation without the kids, relaxation and quality time together were our biggest goals. We also aren’t big on crowds… so when we go away we like to hunt out quiet spots to relax and spend time together rather than going for all the huge attractions.
When we decided we wanted to go on an anniversary trip, I started looking at all-inclusive resorts, just because that’s really all I’ve stayed at in the past. I’m not even sure what made me look into Airbnb… but somehow I got hooked on the app and now I have like 125 future dream vacation accommodations saved 🤣🤣 it’s kind of addicting! I found a listing in Bermuda called Vision that looked great, Beverly was a Superhost, and had fabulous reviews (the sparkling clean ones really spoke to me 😉 ). I read that it abutted a place called Admiralty House Park, so I googled that to see what there was to do there. Well.. one of the first reviews I read about the park mentioned Rog&Bev’s Airbnb, and raved about how amazing it was… so that pretty much sealed the deal on where we were going to stay. I am SO GLAD because not only was it the absolutely perfect location… but they are seriously the nicest people, too! Beverly welcomed us with homemade gingerbread and Roger was like a personal tour guide… he always had great suggestions when we ran into him!
PLUS… the flight in from New York was just about 2 hours and on the flight back, Bermuda is a customs preclearance location, so we didn’t have to go through customs in NY when we landed. If you hate the travel part of traveling as much as we do, this was huge lol. I also feel like it would be an easy enough flight with kids for those reasons! (The traffic to and from JFK on the other hand… womppwomppp 🤣)
Bev had communicated with me on the AirBnb app before we arrived to let us know the details on checking in. She offered to schedule a cab for us from the airport but it was the night before by the time I saw her message, so we just decided to wing it and we got one no problem. He didn’t know where the road was, but we quickly figured out that all the cab drivers know Admiralty House Park, and it was right after that. Once we got there, they had a few numbers for taxi drivers they knew, along with numerous other flyers and a laminated book with ALL the info you need on pretty much everything lol, inside our apartment.
The first thing we noticed… DUH. The VIEW is absolutely amazing… I can’t even describe the deep aqua blue color that hits you as soon as you walk through the gate! You are literally RIGHT on the water, with a view of the dockyard far out to the left, and St. George’s far out on the right. There are steps down to the rocks on one side of the yard where you can hang out on a bench, watch the waves, and walk along the rocks. And on the other side, a gate and short path to Admiralty House Park, which besides Rog&Bevs… was our favorite spot of the trip. I don’t even really feel the need to talk about the inside because the outside was like, THAT unreal! lol BUT… the kitchen had everything necessary for a trip (and more). I do kind of wish we rented the other listing, only because it had a covered porch and chaise lounges. (NEXT TIME, HA!) It is a huge home, and Roger&Beverly live on the upper floors. The ground floor facing the water is split into two apartments. The apartment was really clean, as advertised… and ours had a big shower and a TV with enough channels to fall asleep to because that’s how we roll lol. There was always a nice breeze, but the unit also had a ductless AC. There is also a washing machine… But I wasn’t about to do laundry on vacation 🤣. You can walk to a local store, but honestly we bought a few things and never made them lol. 🤷🏼♀️ We pretty much went into Hamilton for breakfast and dinner, and heated up our leftovers the following day for lunch. We had grabbed some snack food and drinks at the store down the road, which was all we really needed! (They had booze, too 😉 although more expensive than duty-free.)
((Just as a side note, ^^^ these pics ^^^ were taken at the end of the week, because when we got there I was so amazed, I forgot to take any, lol! It was set up really cute with a little towel animal on the bed and stuff when we arrived!))
Bermuda is a pretty safe island and everyone was SO NICE. People really seemed to appreciate that tourism is a big part of their livelihood on the island (pretty much everything is imported to Bermuda, there are very few natural resources… which is also why things are more expensive). And people genuinely want to tell you about the best spots and will literally offer to drive you there and show you 5 more spots to check out on the way. I mean, obviously use your discretion and go with your gut… but we hopped in with Rog&Bev or with their neighbor who offered us a ride into Hamilton while we waited for a cab, if they were headed that way!
Also regarding transportation… there are no rental cars on the island. Taxis are metered and slightly pricey especially if that’s you’re sole means of transportation. But they’re all regulated so you won’t get ripped off by a driver who wants to make up a price or anything like that. They were also easy to find in Hamilton and by the bigger beaches, and at the airport. We called and ordered one a few times but dispatch can take long if one of the direct numbers they provide you with isn’t available. We liked Winston, he scheduled with us to bring us back to the airport, too! They do rent mopeds on the island. They also drive on the opposite side of the roads, which are pretty windy, and there are rotaries everywhere. I think we also tend to be more cautious and I didn’t want road rash in Bermuda lol. SO… we didn’t rent a moped. We walked like… everywhere. 🤣 Roger called us “the walkers” ha! We enjoyed it though! It was less than 2 miles into Hamilton and once we had ridden it a few times we decided to go for it. It took about 30 minutes and most of it had sidewalks. And some wonderful locals did ask if we wanted rides as they drove by haha. 🤣💕 All joking aside… after seeing the amount of tourists who didn’t know what they were doing on mopeds, I think we probably could have managed. They also have mini cars that are like smart cars which I guess are relatively new to the island… we didn’t look into it this trip but would definitely consider it for a future one.
ADMIRALTY PARK: SERIOUSLY our favorite spot. Since it was just a short walking path from our Airbnb, we came down here at some point every day. We also watched plenty of boats come over from the dockyard to cliff jump. Pro tip from Roger: DON’T take a cab to the dockyard and pay $80 for the cliff jumping tour… you’ll look up and realize they just took you right back where you came from! We actually didn’t cliff jump, cuz we’re chickens lol but there were people there every day doing it (not too many people). It was definitely a spot locals like to hang out, and the only day it was a little busier was Sunday. They were showing people where to jump… and again, everyone was really nice! Most days, if we went early, there were only a couple other people on the beach at Clarence Cove, which is probably one of the most picturesque spots I have ever seen. (See the video below!) At the end of the path, to the right it opens into this protected aqua blue cove surrounded by limestone cliffs. It was so quiet and relaxing. The other really cool thing – there are old caves and tunnels carved into the rocks that you can walk through and catch some really cool views of the coves. Some people were diving off the cliff and then coming up through a manmade staircase into the tunnels which was pretty cool. There are a bunch of trails throughout the park, too, which bring you up to some nice cliff views and around to a playground. There’s also picnic tables and a grill back at Clarence Cove. This little spot MADE our vacation.
HORSHOE BAY BEACH, which is one of the more popular beaches with pink sand during most of the season, was pretty amazing. BUTTTTT… it was also really crowded. As I said earlier, we’re not a huge fan of crowds, so we got there pretty early because we had read that it can get crowded… and there were still a lot of people. There are bathrooms and showers and a couple snack shacks at the entrance… but there were so many people, we decided to walk down the beach to the left, towards Warwick Long Bay Beach. We found a spot at the end of the main stretch of Horseshoe Bay Beach and hung there for a while… but noticed people taking a sandy path around the rock formations.. so we decided to check it out. The path went on for quite a while with a bunch of smaller paths that bring you to the most amazing coves in between giant rocks. We went down a few and hung out for a bit, and kept going down further until we found one with a nice shady spot, a good breeze, and only a few other groups of people relaxing on the beach. I think the giant rock formations along the beach throughout Bermuda were what made the views so unreal. I have never seen anything like it before. As we walked down towards Warwick Long Bay beach, the sand was just as pink, so you’re not even missing any of the allure of Horseshoe Bay 😉 We also ended our walk in a parking lot with a taxi seemingly waiting for us, rather than heading back and waiting through the longer lines at Horseshoe Bay, which was pretty sweet.
RAILWAY TRAIL – This is the one Roger couldn’t believe we did…. not necessarily that we walked the trail (they’re working on restoring it and it’s pretty cool, but at the moment you can really only walk it in sections)… but that we walked all the way from Front Street in Hamilton to the Railway Trail, then hiked it, then walked back to Front Street for drinks and lunch before getting a cab back to the house. 🤣🤣 We wore sneakers that day 🤷🏼♀️ ha . Also… in case you decide to go on a 10 mile hike without water… you can catch a glimpse of the yellow awning of a gas station on North Shore Road about half way to the Flatts and hop down there to rehydrate your soul. We really enjoyed this walk, and took the time to talk about life…because lets face it, when the kids are around they’re interrupting and questioning every thought you even think about trying to have lol, and it’s hard to have an adult conversation. Flatts inlet up near where we turned around was really pretty. They were working on continuing the bridges over the little inlets, but this was as far as we could go on the trail. We will definitely do this again if/when we go back, and see if there’s more progress!
RESTAURANTS: We mostly ate around Front Street because there are SO MANY OPTIONS! Food is pretty pricey, and a couple meals I had were kind of comparable to what I’d get at home, for like 3 times the price… but others were well worth it! For breakfast, we really liked The Devils Isle. They brew their own coffee and had a lot of delicious breakfast options that were hearty and filling. However, my favorite COFFEE was at a place called BREW, which brew’s their own beer and coffee. The cold brew had us wired and we are pretty serious coffee drinkers lol, so I was impressed. They had breakfast, too, but it was more of quick eats and grab & go. The Pickled Onion which was one of the more popular spots was not all that impressive to us actually! This may have had something to do with the fact that Russ ordered Wahoo Sliders thinking they were Wagyu Sliders. hahaha amateurs. Our FAVORITE dinner was Portofino Restaurant by far. Everything was creamy garlicky delisciousness. We also had drinks and apps at The Dog House one day, which apparently turns into a club at night… but it was nice in the afternoon, food was really good, and our waiter was awesome! Flanagan’s and Astwood Arms were both also really good!
Saving for next time: We didn’t head up towards the Dockyard at all, or go to St. George’s other than when we were at the airport. (So pretty much either END of the island.) There is a ferry that goes between both, and also to Hamilton… which a lot of people suggested checking out, but we never quite made it on one! I also read about some smaller like, Nature Reserve-type islands up by St. Georges that I’d like see. AND the Railway Trail as I mentioned above, has many different sections and they are doing a lot of work to connect them all, so I would like to check out some other parts of that!
We ended our trip by telling Roger & Bev that we are bringing the whole family back next time, so now we are determined to make it happen lol. I’d love to rent both units and have enough room for everyone, and it would be the perfect spot to do that!
If you decide to take a trip to Bermuda, hope this helps you out with some cool things to do, and a great place to stay!! If you stay with them, make sure you tell them Emma and Russ said Hi!!
Also – if you are looking to book your first Airbnb anywhere… try this link for a discount! (I think it only works for first time booking.)