First time in Bermuda: Private tour or on our own?

Hi to all.

family of 4 (50, 45, 22, 17) will be in Bermuda with the Summit in July. I keep reading the forum, but for the life of me can not decide if a private tour is the way to go over touring the island on our own. I saw some partial itineraries of private tours and was not really impressed since most of the places mentioned would not interest the younger members of the family. Would definitely like to do the Caves, the Zoo, and Gibbs L/H (did not see them mentioned in the itineraries), the unfinished church and sample local cuisine and drinks (big time foodies all of us), visit a couple of beaches, and possibly the next day a private resort. We are pretty capable of finding our way around so any ideas / recommendations? Is it a good idea or even possible to try to get a private tour guide and design the itinerary ourselves?

Thank you

I saw some partial itineraries of private tours and was not really impressed since most of the places mentioned would not interest the younger members of the family. Would definitely like to do the Caves, the Zoo, and Gibbs L/H (did not see them mentioned in the itineraries), the unfinished church and sample local cuisine and drinks (big time foodies all of us), visit a couple of beaches, and possibly the next day a private resort.

Why worry about finding the way on your own? Hire a blue-flagged taxi and either have your itinerary ready or let the driver come up with an itinerary. Plus the driver will be able to tell you lots about the island, making the tour that much better.

Traveling on public transportation in Bermuda is easy and a good way to see the island, so if you're comfortable doing that, by all means you can visit the places you mentioned.

Why pay a taxi driver to sit in his car waiting for you while you're spending time in the caves, zoo, at the beach, etc? The private taxi tours are fine, but more geared toward the "drive by" tourist, rather than someone who wants to actually spend a significant amount of time at a particular attraction.

We (family of 44, 43 & 11) did Bermuda last June basically on our own with the purchase of a transportation pass. Bermuda s very doable using public (bus & ferry) transportation. The first evening we took the ferry to Hamilton for Hamilton nights and explored while we were there. The next full day we to the ferry to St George and did a walking tour on our own that included St. Peter's, the unfinished church, Fort St Catherine, the BUEI and the town square. Our last day we took a bus as close as we could to Gibbs Lighthouse then walked to some of the local beaches and finally explores the dockyard area in the afternoon prior to sailing. We also took a snorkeling excursion the first day so did some other dockyard looking that day as well.

We are going back again this year and most likely explore those places we didn't get to see on our own once again.

Hi to all.

Would definitely like to do the Caves, the Zoo, and Gibbs L/H (did not see them mentioned in the itineraries), the unfinished church and sample local cuisine and drinks (big time foodies all of us), visit a couple of beaches, and possibly the next day a private resort.

I've been to the zoo. It's a zoo. The unfinished church is a curiosity but you just walk around it from the outside. 15 minutes. Do that as a walk from downtown St. George's to Tobacco Bay. St. Peter's Anglican Church has much more history to it. Food prices in Bermuda are quite high so prepare for that. Bermuda has wonderful beaches, I don't know what a private resort offers that is any better. Horseshoe Bay is the most popular and most tourist occupied beach - but it's really a good one. Clean and you can actually swim there. Tobacco Bay is a good snorkeling beach, particularly for beginners. You might also consider the Railway Bike Trail, at least from the Royal Dockyards to Hamilton, then return via ferry.

The post quoted was originally posted on 4/15/14. The cruise is long over, and the poster's last post 8/28/14.

SBtS

The information is still useful for other's going on the cruise who don't have the time to read all the posts back to 2014