Bermuda

L.F. Wade International Airport is 10km from Hamilton. Hamilton, Bermuda's capital, is one of the most charming small cities in the Atlantic — a grid of pastel-painted colonial buildings, the Front Street waterfront (where the city's best shops and restaurants face the Great Sound), and the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity with its 46-meter tower visible across the city. The Hamilton Princess — Bermuda's grande dame hotel, open since 1885 and named for Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's daughter, who honeymooned in Bermuda — has a beautiful harbor-facing terrace for the first sunset Dark and Stormy (the national cocktail: dark rum and Gosling's ginger beer over ice). Walk Front Street and the Royal Gazette Building for the character of Bermuda's colonial commercial heart, then the waterfront for the distinctive pastel-on-white architecture that makes every Bermuda street a painting.

Horseshoe Bay on the South Shore is consistently named one of the world's top ten beaches: a crescent of the famous Bermuda pink sand between two rocky headlands, with cave formations in the rocks and extraordinary turquoise water that is genuinely warm (25°C in summer, the Gulf Stream maintaining it warmer than Atlantic latitudes would suggest). The adjacent Port Royal Cove is a smaller, more secluded beach accessible by a path through the rocks with equally beautiful water. Snorkeling off the Horseshoe Bay rocks reveals a rich reef community — sergeant major fish, parrotfish, and the occasional green turtle. Rent a moped (the standard Bermuda transport) for the day and ride the South Shore Road — the most scenic road on the island, passing Warwick Long Bay, Jobson's Cove (the most photogenic beach in Bermuda, a small cove surrounded by pink rock), and the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse at the island's southwestern tip.

Bermuda's limestone geology creates an extraordinary network of caves. Crystal Cave, discovered in 1907, is the most spectacular: a vast underground cavern extending beneath the hillside, with a clear lake of extraordinary transparency and formations of stalactites and stalagmites reflected in the still water. The cave is illuminated at night for a spectacular effect. Fantasy Cave, adjacent, is smaller but has more elaborate formations including rare cave pearls (perfect limestone spheres formed in shallow pools) and "cave flowers" of crystallized calcite. Both caves are UNESCO-recognized natural heritage and easily the most extraordinary natural feature on the island. The Bermuda National Museum at the Royal Naval Dockyard at the island's western tip has the most complete collection of Bermuda history, from the wreck of the Sea Venture in 1609 (the Shakespeare inspiration for The Tempest) to the island's modern history.

St. George's on the eastern end of Bermuda is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest continuously inhabited English-speaking town in the New World, founded in 1612. The town and its fortifications — Fort St. Catherine, Fort George, and the extraordinary Fort Hamilton — preserve 400 years of British colonial military architecture. St. George's Town Square, with the pillory and stocks still in their original positions, and the Unfinished Church (the 19th-century cathedral whose congregation's ambition exceeded their resources, abandoned with only walls standing and now one of the most atmospheric ruins in Bermuda) are the highlights. The Town of St. George has the most intact Bermudian colonial streetscape — the Water Street wharves, the King's Square, and the surrounding lanes of Georgian architecture are very different from the resort atmosphere of the South Shore.

Bermuda's waters have some of the clearest in the Atlantic Ocean — visibility of 30+ meters in the right conditions. The Bermuda Triangle's reputation for mysterious disappearances is actually the result of the extraordinary density of 300+ shipwrecks on the island's barrier reef — the most extensive in the North Atlantic. The Constellation and Montana wrecks off West Whale Bay are among the most accessible for snorkelers. Blue Hole Park in Hamilton Parish is a natural limestone water-filled cenote — a deep blue hole in the rock with extraordinarily clear water. Tobacco Bay Beach on the north shore near St. George's has excellent snorkeling around limestone formations with sergeant majors, wrasse, and blue tang. Rent a boat or join a guided snorkeling tour from the Dockyard. A sunset sail on the Great Sound is the most romantic Bermuda evening.

Bermuda's Railway Trail is a 35km walking and cycling path along the entire length of the island, following the route of the old Bermuda Railway (closed 1948) through fields, village lanes, and clifftop sections with spectacular views. Rent bicycles or mopeds and follow sections of the trail through the central parishes — the Paget Marsh (a 12-hectare nature preserve of original Bermudian wetland forest, one of the most ecologically important on the island) and Spittal Pond Nature Reserve (the largest on the island, with migratory birds in winter). Final afternoon at Elbow Beach — a long, quiet South Shore beach with excellent snorkeling off the western end and the Elbow Beach Hotel's beach club for sun beds and cocktails. Final dinner at Barracuda Grill in Hamilton for the finest fish restaurant on the island.

L.F. Wade International Airport has direct flights to New York (2.5 hours), Boston (2 hours), Miami (2.5 hours), Atlanta, and Toronto, as well as London Gatwick. A final Bermuda morning: afternoon tea at the Hamilton Princess's Crown & Anchor bar (the most traditional British experience on the island), a final browse of the Front Street shops for Bermuda rum cake (the standard take-home), Gosling's rum, Bermuda shorts (the official business wear for Bermudian men, worn with knee-high socks and a jacket), and Bermuda cedar crafts. The Bermuda cedar tree — nearly wiped out by blight in the 1940s and slowly recovering — is the island's endemic tree and its wood is used in traditional Bermudian crafts of extraordinary beauty.