I had been working on charter yachts in the Caribbean and was soon to return to the UK when I first visited Bermuda in 1975, said Fiona Duncan in The Telegraph.
I found the tiny mid-Atlantic archipelago enchanting, with its “lush” lanes, pastel houses, old forts and exquisite pink-sand beaches. But it wasn’t just the beauty of the place that made an impression on me; I also found the locals wonderfully friendly, and felt in some ways as if I were “coming home”. Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory, and I was charmed by its Royal Mail letterboxes and red telephone kiosks, the familiar helmets worn by its policemen (albeit paired with Bermuda shorts) and its “gentle, suburban” air. And so it was with some trepidation that I returned for the first time this year, hoping to find the magic undimmed.
I needn’t have worried. Bermuda may be better known nowadays as a centre for the reinsurance business than as a tourist destination, but it is still a “glorious” and “characterful” place. My tour this time began in the town of St George’s, a Unesco World Heritage Site full of historic houses, with a beautiful church, St Peter’s. I sampled lovely perfumes made on site at the Lili Bermuda perfumery in 18th-century Stewart Hall, and ate Bermuda fish chowder for lunch at the long-established Wahoo’s Bistro. Next, I drove out to Smith’s Parish to visit Verdmont, an elegantly furnished 18th-century house owned by the Bermuda National Trust.
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And as if that weren’t “British enough”, I went for a traditional afternoon tea at the Rosedon, a “genteel, white-painted, green-shuttered Edwardian hotel”. I loved the Coral Beach Club, where a parrot chats away in the sitting room, tennis is still played strictly in whites, and everything “oozes a faded British charm”. And the two hotels I stayed at were delightful too. First opened almost a century ago, Cambridge Beaches has pink cottages arranged around a lovely old house on a private peninsula. And though the chic newcomer Azura was “not remotely old school”, I found it irresistible too.
