Getting Around Bermuda

There is a huge supply of taxi cabs for hire in Bermuda. Most are the small mini-van type of vehicle, a cornucopia of small Suzukis, Nissan, VW, and Toyota models often not seen in the USA. Our friends who owned Kingston House B&B call them "BOWs", meaning "box on wheels".

Taxis aren't cheap, but they're the best plan in traveling to and from Kindley Field. From Kindley to Hamilton is usually about $30. I suppose if you were staying in one of the snooty beachfront hotels on the south shore, it could run $50 from the airport.

Taxis are also an option if you find yourself at Dockyards or St. Georges later in the evening on a Sunday evening, and perhaps the ferry or bus service has ceased, or is so infrequent as to be an hour or more in coming.

I didn't actually see anyone hail a cab on a street, but I understand that it can be done, NYC style. Just raise your hand and motion.

Most cabbies are pretty darned friendly, especially if you'll put up with listening to his own personal CD of steel drum music he wrote and recorded. :)

There are a lot of cab services in the phone book, I'd suggest asking your hosts or concierge for advice on who is most reliable. AND, for your return flight, ALWAYs assume that the cab may be 15 minutes late in arriving. It's kind of "Bermuda Time", as they say.

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The Bermuda bus service is relatively efficient and reliable. It's comfortable unless you happen to get the occasional coach with an air conditioning problem. And, it's reasonably cheap.

Bermuda is actually divided up into 14 "zones", and we never really paid much attention to them, because we bought transportation passes, good for unlimited passage for seven days. If you do, however, choose to do single trips and pay-as-you-go, the cost is $3 IN COINS for shorter trips, or $4 in COINS for longer trips. (depends on the zones) Transfers are free, so long as you take the next transferring bus. Again, that's all kind of complicated. My advice is to purchase a transportation pass for use on the Bermuda buses (and on the ferries). Seven days for an adult is $45. They also sell one, two and three day passes. You can buy them at the airport, or downtown in Hamilton at the main bus terminal. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BUS AND FERRY TRANSPORTATION PASSES, PLEASE SEE MY GENERAL TIP ON THE SUBJECT.

As for the buses themselves, pick yourself up a route map at the main terminal. There are about 11 lines, and they all go from Hamilton to somewhere and back. In ancient tkimes, they say all roads led to Rome. Well in 21st century Bermuda, all buses lead to and from Hamilton.

All bus stops have a "pole" that's either dark blue or pink. (Now a warning, some bus stops are nothing BUT a pole by the road) If the pole is pink, that bus is traveling towards Hamilton. If the pole is blue, the bus is headed to its ultimate destination away from Hamilton. And all of the "blue buses" list their destinaton on the front of the bus.

Bus drivers are very accomodating, so long as you're friendly to them. Always say good day first. But then, you can certainly say "does this bus go by the Swizzle Inn or the Aquarium or whatever". If the bus driver answers in the affirmative, just ask him to announce the closest stop and then sit back and relax. In some cases they'll even stop at "non-stops" just to be helpful.

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A number of cruise lines serve Bermuda. While we were there, we saw ships from Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean, to name a couple. There are three major docking facilities in Bermuda, namely

> Hamilton harbor itself, which appears to berth up to two cruise ships. I don't think
Hamilton can handle the "mega" sized ships, but I'm not exactly a sailor. ;)

> Dockyards/West End, which also looks to have room for up to two cruise ships. Dockyards
is the former headquarters of the Royal Navy, during its based time in Bermuda, and the
harbor area is clearly designed for large ships. I suspect that THE largest ships docking
in Bermuda probably go to Dockyards.

> St. George harbor, on the east end, located at the historic (17th century) village of
St. George.

Depending on the cruise line, you may spend a few hours or perhaps even a couple of days in and around Bermuda. For my tastes, cruising is just not the way to go. I'm not into the crowds and the "disembark and reembark madness" that ensues. I do realize that cruising is often a very affordable alternative, and my college son and his buds love cruising.

I will tell you this... while the Bermuda government clearly loves the ease of simply taxing visitors "by the head", via the cruise industry, the locals are less enthralled. Local studies have shown the visitors who fly into Bermuda clearly spend 10x the amount of money during their stay than do the "boat people". So basically what happens is that tourists arriving by sea help to fill government tax coffers, but have less of an impact on the private local economy than you'd imagine. It's the folks who fly to Bermuda and stay there for a few days that eat in the restaurants, do the bulk of the shopping and visit the local attractions. And if you want my personal opinion, non-cruise visitors learn and enjoy so much more about Bermuda.

But if cruising "shivers your timbers", then Bermuda is a top-drawer destination to consider.

Lately this services as been improved, even for during the summer months a ferry to leave from St. Georges to Hamilton the heart of the City.. Its a nice leisure way to view the island from the ocean..

There are a two types of ferry services -
The slow ferry - the older ferries that go to all the stops in harbour.
The fast ferry - Goes to all the major stops at the East end of the Island (rockaway, dockyard).

Note: Bus tickets, tokens, and passes can be used on the ferry as fare.

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The ferry is a comfortable way to travel one end of Bermuda to the other. The seats are comfortable, you can have a table and eat a snack (not sold on board) check out the scenery and get some fresh air. This is the optimal way to get to St. George from Hamilton, but the direct (commuter) ferry only goes M-F and early in the morning. The other ferries make a stop in Dockyards before going to St. George.

Taxis to and from the airport are quite expensive, as much as $90 depending on where you are going. It is possible to take the bus if you have correct change, know what you are doing and where to go. If you don't, your only other option is a ride. Craig Nesbitt was great for this. He had reasonable rates,arrived when he said hew would arrive, and proved to be courteous, friendly and efficient. I highly recommend him to anyone who needs to get to and from the airport easily and quickly at a reasonable rate. You can't go wrong.

The hotels offer free transfers to and from the airport. Most people stay at the resorts or travel by taxi or rent scooters (no car rental available).

We purchased a three day bus pass. In 2003 the price was $11 USD. They may be purchased from the Information desk at the airport.

In February, a slow season, sometimes (but rarely) we had to wait up to 40 minutes for a bus, but this was all part of the 'slowing down' process. It gave us time to talk to the locals and ask, for example, about the fruit-bearing trees up the hill, which were in fact edible loquats.

The bus drivers drive FAST and stop more suddenly than I'm used to. I didn't see many tourists using the buses either. With our bus pass we received a route map, so I had planned to ring the bell for my stop, having located it on the map. However, with the roads being so winding and hedge-lined, it was impossible to know in advance where the stops were, and we would invariably overshoot our destination. You must pull the bell quite early - in some cases right after the bus leaves the previous stop. Until you're familiarized, my recommendation is to tell the driver you're 'new' and indicate at which stop you'll be alighting.

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Because the island is so small and the roads are narrow scooters are the most convienent way to get around. I recommend the company "Oleanders" over "Wheels" because they provided me with higher quality scooters. The ones from "Wheels" were older and the brakes were not good. The rental company provided an instructor who gave his time to make sure we were comfortable on the bikes. They also rent single or double scooters and can pick up or drop off to locations at specific times. In terms of skill and experience, it is definately a plus but I didn't have any and it was a quick learn. There is even a pretty old railroad trail that cars can't go on.