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IF being Bermuda’s “Custodian of Historic Wrecks” makes anthropologist Dr. Philippe Rouja one of the island’s most interesting people, he’s in good company. Bermudians tend to be well-educated and well-traveled, if for no other reason than the archipelago spans a mere 21 square miles from tip to tip, a fleck in the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by nothing else. If its citizens want to travel, they go abroad.
The trick is how to get the right breed of tourists to come to them.
Last year, Bermuda boomed with close to a million visitors — eclipsing its pre-COVID, all-time high of 808,000. Yet part of the country’s enduring charm is that there are only so many roads and so many hotels. The seven main islands rarely feel overwhelmed or overwhelming. Its beaches are as likely to be empty on a sunny Saturday as not and its humble fish shacks require no reservations. But that is slowly changing.
Most tourist arrive by cruise ship at the Royal Naval Dockyard. The come for good golfing and good fish and good weather, but their trips tend to be short getaways. Rouja has a solution.
He hopes by refocusing on the islands’ adventure — rather than rum cocktails on a pink sand beach — that he will entice perhaps fewer but more impactful tourists, who stay longer and return frequently. After all, this is a place where you can go “Star Trek diving,” as Rouja called it, picking a random place to drop an anchor and know your chances are better than not of stumbling across a famous shipwreck.
“Shipwrecks pull people in and sell Bermuda,” he said.
Nevertheless, top lodging and fine food are still essential to success. On that front, there are enticing new entries to the scene.
In 2017, the stunning Loren at Pink Beach opened to guests, besides hotel rooms, the property has villas that are independently owned, a hospitality model that offers foreigners a way to invest in a country.
Those hotel rooms are beautifully appointed, each with an ocean view, and the food at the Loren’s two restaurants is inventive, often drawing locals to the property.
A similar hotel and residential mix governs Azura, which feels as much like a luxe condominium complex as a luxury hotel. But anyone can descend the spiral staircase for a meal at the newly christened Surf Mediterranean restaurant (although the spectacular cliffside saltwater pool is accessible only with the right key card).
On the south side of the archipelago is a more classic glimpse of a Bermuda gone by, at the century-old Cambridge Beaches Resort & Spa. There, beautiful freestanding cottages dot a 23-acre peninsula overlooking Mangrove Bay. While it’s hard to leave the rooms, doing so for a cocktail at the Sunken Harbor Club bar is well worth the jaunt. And for anyone looking to hide out in an amenity-rich resort with all the food and golf and private beach and water sports center anyone could need, the Rosewood is an idyllic escape.
When it’s time to eat, ask anyone on the island and they will point visitors either to Woodys or Mamma Mia for a fish sandwich. Each restaurant packs an unnerving amount of wahoo, snapper or grouper between thin slices of raisin (or other kinds of) bread. The Swizzle Inn pub also does an excellent fish sandwich, but with a wider suite of options, and is an excellent place to try the country’s beloved “rum swizzle.”
For upscale dining, no visit to Bermuda would be complete without a trip to Blû Bar and Grill, a steak and seafood joint with the country’s best sushi. Meanwhile, the wagyu beef at Intrepid, inside the Hamilton Princess, is a must.
History buffs will want to explore the Graham Foster mural at the National Museum of Bermuda, a two-story, 1,000-square-foot masterpiece that offers up a graphic description of Bermuda’s 500-year past. Nearby St. George’s is the best part of the island to wander, from the Lili Bermuda Perfumery in a 1730s stone cottage to an impossibly cute collection of boutique shops.
For the cocktail aficionado, a fun way to see St. George’s is via History with a Twist, where an affable mother-and-son duo regale tours with tales while mixing drinks. The capital of Hamilton is best explored with the help of Town Crier Ed Christopher, who will reliably stop to greet every single person he knows — and there are many — throughout the lively romp through the city and its past.
“The island is a really hospitable place,” Rouja said. “If we’re clever enough, it would be nice to be able to surprise people. I’d like to add depth, to enrich the experiences people have.”
