If you head true East from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with a good running start and a 600mile leap you can land on the coast of Bermuda, a little piece of Great Britain off the coast of the United States. My wife and I, however, opted instead for an airplane flight from Raleigh-Durham Airport, which deposited us at the L.F. Wade International Airport about ten miles outside the capital city of Hamilton.

We arrived in the middle of June, on a bright day with a temperature in the mid-seventies, which I was told was average for the time of year. According to the locals, the temperature never gets colder than 7⁰C, which is around 45⁰F in our system. We considered renting a car, but thought better of it when we realized that, being British, they drive on the left side of the road giving us visions of a nasty head on collision that would undoubtedly be our fault. A taxi brought us in to our hotel in Hamilton.

Hamilton is a beautiful, neat, well maintained city situated on the shore of Hamilton Bay, which itself presents a breathtaking panorama. One of the greatest enjoyments for a visitor to Bermuda is viewing the scenery in and around Hamilton Bay. First time visitors are often captured by the pastel colors and white roofs of the buildings in Bermuda, a characteristic of other islands that are currently or formerly under British rule. The Bahamas are another example.

Our main interest, upon arrival, was to plan to spend days at several of the islands famous beaches. As it turns out, we found our favorite to be the Horseshoe Bay beach. It has the typical pinkish sand that is characteristic of Bermuda’s beaches. It’s never crowded and is as peaceful and relaxing as one could hope for. My wife loves to swim, and I’m more of a suntan lotion, lay on a blanket type. The Horseshoe Bay beach was great for both of use.

It even sports a café where good coffee and lunches are available. We found that there was a shuttle service to get bathers to and from the nearest bus stop for a ride to Hamilton, but we had decided to rent motor scooters which are one of the most common and safe means of transport for visitors, especially those from countries where driving on the right is the custom.

The island is quite small, only about 50 square miles, and most places are accessible using the rented motor scooters. We both like to drive the two-wheelers, so rather than double up; we each rented a scooter and rode as a team to every possible destination on the island over the several days that we were there. For meals, we had lunches packed at our hotel, and ate our special dinners in the hotel dining room. It was a most relaxing vacation. Completely stress free.