- Don't go expecting high energy and wild nightlife. In Bermuda, the fun you find is the fun you make.
Virtually everywhere on this enchanted island, history remains alive. Bermuda's oldest hotel, The Fairmont Hamilton Princess was named in honor of a daughter of Queen Victoria, who's credited with putting the colony on the map as a tourist destination. At its sister hotel atop Bermuda's highest point, the Fairmont Southampton includes a 300-year-old inn where secret plans were made to supply George Washington with gunpowder.
From The Princess it's a five-minute walk to Hamilton Harbour, where clipper ships once came to call. Along Front Street discover pieces of the past in charming, pastel-painted Victorian buildings; they now house world-class antiquaires and jewelers.
Sessions House is where the Parliament of the world's third-oldest democracy sits; debates take place Fridays from November to June. It's worthwhile to tour the Senate Chamber in the Cabinet Building, the 19th-century Post office and the Bermuda National Gallery, which displays both native and Old Master paintings.
Rent a motorbike -- and wind your way alongside fragrant gardens of poinsettia and bougainvillea.
Bermuda's 150 small islands are connected by bridges and causeways, and it's easy to get around on a rented bicycle or moped. En route, you'll cruise past fragrant gardens of poinsettia and bougainvillea. At Harrington Sound visit the Crystal Caves, an underground landscape formed a million years ago. The nearby Perfumery, founded 1929, derives unusual fragrances from its own tropical gardens, which can be toured.
In St. George's, a thirty-minute drive east from Hamilton and Bermuda's first capital, the Town Crier announces the time of day and state of the world -- "All is well" -- as his brethren have done for 400 years.
History buffs will enjoy a self-guided walking tour past the State House (the island's oldest building), St. Peter's Church and the unfinished construction from the 1870's built to replace it, the Bridge House (now an art gallery) and the Historical Society, Carriage and Confederate museums. A reproduction of a 1609 ship is docked at Somers Wharf, and beyond Town Hall loom the stocks near the pillory. The Tucker House Museum is a shrine to one of the island's leading families.
Complete a tour with a trip to Tucker's Town, Bermuda's toniest area where mansions, yachts, and well-groomed grounds reflect centuries of the good life.
