4 Days in Bermuda Recap

Hello all.

I wrote this recap pretty quickly compared to some of my previous ones. Why? As you can tell from the main photo of this trip – the weather was NOT doing me any favours. I had some bad luck last year in France and Costa Rica……feels like that all over again. But this one was actually worse because it is a beach destination, with not much else to do? So yeah. Sad girl summer because WHY IS IT RAINING IN TORONTO AND BERMUDA? Is it me? Am I the problem? Crazy.

Hope you enjoy this quick recap, and if you’re interested in how much everything cost, click here.

---

Friday, August 4th

We flew with West Jet to Bermuda and I have to say, it’s super awesome we can get to such a beautiful destination within 2.5 hours. It took me damn near five hours to fly to Vancouver, so this was a total win.

Once my mom and I landed in Bermuda, the customs process went really fast. I don’t think we were in line longer than 10 minutes or so and I also think this island may have the nicest customs people I have ever met. (I would go on to determine that ALL the locals in Bermuda are incredibly nice human beings.)

Prior to flying to Bermuda, I found out they have their own ‘Uber’ but it is called ‘Hitch‘. I had it downloaded from before we landed and that is what we used to get around the island all weekend. We called our driver from the airport to take us first to the grocery store near our AirBnB.

The reason we went to the grocery store prior to our AirBnB is that I had read how much food costs around Bermuda and after our Bahamas experience, we knew maybe just having some food at home would be clutch. Have to say, the grocery shopping wasn’t particularly cheap either, but I’m happy we grabbed some small things to keep in case of late-night-hunger.

Now, it was VERY hot when we landed. I saw on Google Maps that the grocery store was ‘only’ a 20 minute walk from our AirBnB. So dumb. So so dumb of me.

This shit was like down one hill and then up another steep ass hill, in this temperature, with our carry-ons on our backs and our groceries in hand. Very dumb decision. Do no suggest. 0/10

Just stick to ordering that damn Hitch to your destinations because absolutely the fuck not.

We eventually made it to our AirBnB and I can’t wait to tell you about this place.

Please see photos below.

Our AirBnB was in the back of someone’s yard and it was just a bunk bed, fridge, TV and AC. To be honest, that was perfectly enough for my mom and I. Although, both of us aren’t exactly the smallest people so we were slightly worried about how much weight a rickety bunk bed could hold. Thankfully, no accidents for the three nights.

The more cumbersome part of the stay was that the bathroom is not accessible from the room we are sleeping in, we have to exit and take three steps outside to enter our bathroom. This doesn’t sound so bad (and didn’t, I knew all this prior to booking) until it is 3am, pouring rain outside and you have to go use it. This produced many laughs, I can tell you that. The bathroom was at least big and clean. No complaints with that.

What lead me to this choice? Well, for one, the cost, duh. This weekend JUST SO HAPPENED to be a big cricket match weekend in Bermuda. The cost of places to stay was astronomical, and I can’t imagine it is MUCH lower any other time. Now, the second reason? The view and location. The place may be simple and small, but the views were incredible. The location was also pretty great to accessing various parts of the island.

We spent (I think) majority of our budget on transport, because that USD conversion will fuck you up. I know the island has buses, but again, the weather didn’t help much with that option. Also, we did try walking but there are some parts that didn’t have sidewalks and with only narrow driving space on the roads – we weren’t really trying to test our luck like that.

This is why having a place to stay in an accessible location was important. Still spent a fortune on transport though. Unavoidable for me it seems.

If you want information on the AirBnB, you can click here. I’d suggest this place for anyone also traveling on a budget, maybe smaller human beings or someone going solo. Yes. Bring slippers for the trips to the bathroom though. It’ll come in clutch.

Because the flight is so short, we were able to land, pick up groceries, drop items at our AirBnB and catch a Hitch to a beach by 1pm.

Driving from one end of the island where the airport is and then making it all the way to the famous Horseshoe Bay, you will notice how beautiful Bermuda is IMMEDIATELY. Oh my goodness. You can tell that the government here takes good care of the land. It is so manicured and clean. My mom and I were so impressed by that. Kudos to whoever the agriculture people are, some good work is done here. Locals as well, keeping it so clean!

Now. To some waaaay more beautiful photos. Here is Horseshoe Bay Beach.

I think because we arrived so late in the afternoon, the beach wasn’t maybe as busy as it usually is. Plus, I know with the cricket match, a lot of people were on the other side of island attending that.

Photos don’t do enough to showcase this beach because you can’t adequately photograph this pink sand. It is actually pink! So beautiful and so clean.

The cost of a chair was $20 USD and the cost of an umbrella was also $20 USD. That was a real quick way to spend $60 USD. Sheesh.

I don’t know what the beach is like when there isn’t storms nearby, but unfortunately for us the waves were INSANE everywhere we swam this weekend. I am a big person, and I am a strong swimmer and these things took me the hell out. I don’t know what the waves had against me, trying to get me arrested for indecent exposure and shit.

Pro Tip: avoid those stringy bathing suits for this beach. I had way too many close calls , and there are children nearby! Not good. Would have fared better in a one piece.

If you’re not a particularly strong swimmer, really be cautious. Big shout out to the lifeguards on this beach as well. I’ve never ever seen such active lifeguards in any place I’ve visited. They were so on it and constantly running into the water to warn people to not venture too far out and about how dangerous the current is.

There is a little area on the right of the beach as soon as you enter that is shallow and had no waves at all. This is where all the little kids were swimming, so if you’re not comfortable in the big waves, you do have an area to relax.

I eventually got hungry and decided to venture over to the restaurant by Horseshoe Beach.

I should have known what I was getting myself into buying food here after the damn costs of the beach chairs.

For two fish + fries and two bottles of water? $70.00 CANADIAN. SEVENTY DOLLARS. I know our dollar is shit, but goddamn. I could catch my own fish for that amount.

The fish was good, I’m not downplaying it. But listen, don’t come to Bermuda and be a broke bitch.

I can see why so many people came with their own coolers and portable chairs to the beach. They were way better prepared than we were.

We stayed out until pretty late at the beach because their sun sets really late. Another really cool thing about here, I’m so accustomed to like 5pm darkness on so many islands. But not here. Had the whole long day to enjoy the sun.

Great way to end the day.

---

Saturday, August 5th

Today we woke up early to make our little sandwiches for breakfast and get to walking, again.

We were off to Coco Reef Resort Bermuda. This was only a 25 minute walk from the AirBnB, and it wasn’t as bad today since it was 830am and not middle of the day heat. Plus, yay on saving money not using a car!

I regularly talk about how I’m too broke to afford some of these per night prices for fancy hotels or any hotel in high priced destinations, ahem, like Bermuda. This is why I’m a big believer in getting day passes for places.

The day pass at this resort was $110 USD per person and it is from 9am to 5pm. This includes use of the pool, the beach, chairs/umbrella and lunch is included as well. I think the price is still STEEP, but we thought it would be nice to have a quiet place with a nice beach today.

The beach is beautiful. The walk to the beach may even be MORE beautiful than the beach itself. The staff was also lovely. We thought this was about to be a really great day of relaxation.

Unfortunately, the waves at this beach were also beating us up.

They were even worse than the ones the day before at Horseshoe Bay. It is a real shame because the water and sand on both of these beaches was so pristine, but there was no relaxing in the water. You were fighting for your life every single time you went into the water.

A bigger shame? The damn weather.

We saw the clouds and winds slowly changing and at about 1pm we decided to go inside for lunch and see if maybe it would pass.

The lunch was very very basic. Again, lovely staff, but damn, I rather pay my $70 CAD for that fish from day before at this rate. It was sausage, chicken, rice and some veg. The desserts were at least decent, I especially liked the brownies.

For that $110 USD price tag per person, I expected a tad bit more choices. It was just these items. That is it. Meh.

Then the rain began. I mean torrential downpour.

Beach day was done by 130pm. Real damn waste of $220 USD, truly. The beach was nice, but we only got to enjoy it for four hours and then have a basic meal, and then had to go home. No more beach.

We obviously couldn’t walk home now, had to pay for transport because the rain was getting really crazy, really fast.

Made our way back to the AirBnB just to sit and watch Netflix. Waste of an afternoon in paradise.

I think at about 6-7pm the rain finally died down.

There was only one specific meal I wanted to try while in Bermuda, figured this was our opportunity to go there. We ordered a Hitch and went to Art Mel’s Spicy Dicy.

Gosh. This famous fish sandwich at Art Mel’s. You must eat this. No one could tell me that ONE sandwich was enough for two people though? We got two of them and it was toooo much. These sandwiches are massive. Must get. But maybe only get one. So delicious.

Our driver gave us the heads up that there would be nowhere to sit (and stay dry with the on and off rain) so he dropped us off in a more central location in Hamilton.

This is where we managed to get a seat at a really nice rooftop bar called The Birdcage.

The employees here were so sweet, they let us eat our sandwiches on their rooftop – and we ordered our drinks from them. I know in Toronto establishments don’t want you coming in with other people’s food, so this was really great of them.

I think this bar is BEAUTIFUL and it is a shame it was raining again. The view was great and the vibes were nice. I tried the famous Swizzle and also their Dark ‘n Stormy. I like them both! I am a rum drinker, so all of this was great for me.

While the rain stayed away for a bit, my mom and I decided to walk a little down the main strip in Hamilton.

I wish it was dry outside because it really is a nice little strip of bars and shops to gallivant and check out.

Please make sure to also read about the cool looking white limestone roofs in Bermuda. I know I can’t fully explain them, but they are the reason tap water on this island is drinkable. We drank it all weekend and had no tummy issues. I think the limestone is brilliant.

We took a pretty lengthy walk, we thought we’d be able to get back to our AirBnB – major fail. I don’t know where we made it to, but there was no more sidewalks. Very embarrassing. Shout out to the nice lady that picked us up in the middle of a road via Hitch.

Just wanted to show you the beautiful view from our AirBnB this evening when we returned. Lovely.

---

Sunday, August 6th

We had so many plans for this day that didn’t end up happening because, yep, it was raining again. In fact, it had rained so hard the night before that we woke up with no wi-fi. Thankfully my Rogers Roam Like Home was fully functional. No way I was surviving on no internet.

First order of business was going to get some breakfast and my mom getting some coffee. Given all the various Churches I had seen in Bermuda, I figured Sunday would be a day where most things would be closed.

I Googled and found this place called The Paraquet.

We are able to walk to this place, it wasn’t far from us. Maybe 25 minutes of walking.

Cute little diner, I really liked their French toast, make sure you get that.

Prior to this trip I saw a photo of this beautiful place called Flatt’s Inlet. My mom and I thought we’d go check that out and then make our way over to the far end of the island, St George’s, and take the ferry back.

With not being able to hit the beach again, we had to improvise our activities.

Now you can see how ALL our money went to taxis/Hitch all weekend. Not being able to walk places and being too impatient to wait for buses in the rain….. adds up.

We got to Flatt’s Inlet and because it was raining, it didn’t look so great. I had seen all these beautiful pictures of the colours of the water online, nope. With no sun outside, it was just regular degular water. Fail.

Probably the BEST thing that happened was we ran into some massive turtles. The Bermuda Aquarium is in this area and outside, they had these four or five huge turtles swimming around. Largest turtles I have ever seen!! So cool. If you are in this area, go say hi to the turtles.

Because of the rain, the aquarium was very busy today with big groups of families. Not too much to do indoors on a Sunday, especially, I think.

Our plans to go to St. George’s were also foiled because a taxi man told us that the ferry doesn’t run on Sundays. So there went that plan as well. My mom and I decided to go do the one thing always available when stuff is closed and you’re bored – go get intoxicated.

We got a recommendation to go check out Flanagan’s for some drinky drink.

Small win, soccer was on! Yay soccer. Got to see Manchester City have a complete meltdown in the 101st minute against Arsenal. It is always a good day when Man City loses.

My mom got her typical, a Stella and I got some other fancy drink with rum in it, of course.

During the drinking we got a little hungry so we ordered mussels. They were really good, and from Canada. So yay Canadian seafood.

If you are a sweets person, like I am, you must get the apple crumble!

I don’t know what they put in that dessert, but it knocked it out the park. I love warm apple anything with a side of ice cream. They did right by this dessert. We actually had a pretty good time at the bar, and their waitstaff was great too.

As we were slightly intoxicated with nothing else to do at 1pm on this Sunday afternoon, we took a Hitch home and had a nap. Real adulting always prevails.

Once we woke up in the early evening, we literally had no plans again so the only option was to eat and drink some more.

I thought it was time to test out this island’s KFC.

Every island I go to, I always try the KFC.

The KFC in Bermuda was not bad, (still better than any of them in USA and Canada) but Jamaica reigns supreme at #1 in that KFC category. At least the KFC, like Flanagan’s, wasn’t completely rinsing our pockets. Two decent priced places for food in one day in Bermuda? A win.

We walked over to a place that had good music playing, The Front Yard.

Don’t think we expected much from here but we ended up having such a good time. The people partying there were fun, I made some friends with fellow Toronto women, my mom got hit on by dudes younger than me like six times and yeah, I had a lot of shots. I don’t think we left the bar until 1am. Big party animals.

If you want to get drunk, make friends and hear some really good music – visit here. I was pleasantly surprised at this being so good on a Sunday night.

Just don’t let your phone die, like I managed to, because you won’t be able to order a Hitch ride. We had to wait a WHILE to catch an actual taxi on the street at this time of night. But we eventually made it home safely, so, totally worth it.

---

With my slight hangover Monday morning, we were going to fly back home to Toronto.

Just wanted to say here, that Bermuda has the most aesthetically pleasing duty free I have ever seen in all the airports I have been to. The liquor selection and colours are mesmerizing. Damn that two bottle rule right? I could have easily purchased 5-6 if I was able to take them home.

The gift shop as well. Wow. The tidiness of it all and the tones. Could have spent a small fortune in both of these before flying home.

Oh, and just to add here, before the duty free there was some bullshit you have to go through at security.

It doesn’t matter if you have your mobile boarding pass or if you printed it somewhere, you will have to wait in the damn physical line for your boarding passes. This was just like when we were in the Bahamas, and the security wouldn’t accept our printed boarding passes..

This big red sign had an ‘explanation’ as to why, but it doesn’t explain much. It is so stupid. I will never understand why me and my little carry-on that checked in 24-hrs before now have to wait in a long ass line with people and their 19 kids and counting + bags. Fix this rule Canada!

---

I can’t blame Bermuda for the weather. Shit happens.

The island is beautiful, the people are super duper nice and the rum is fantastic. It is not for those with shallow pockets to visit, you will need serious funds for taxis and food.

I really wish the weather had held up and that the waves weeren’t so crazy because the beaches really were pristine. I could have spent 12+ hours on any one of them.

Maybe one day I’ll go back, I mean, it is only 2.5hrs…..

• Mirna