Tolbert Travels

We LOVE exploring islands and especially enjoyed our most recent 8-night stay in Bermuda. This was our first time visiting an island with Elias and he was a huge fan. He told at least 4 people just today about the different colors of fish he saw in the water haha. We couldn’t have asked for more gorgeous weather either and only had one storm pass through during our visit shortly after 7pm, so we just got a tad wet waiting on the bus one-night haha. See our full itinerary, travel/trip tips, cost of this vacay, and products we purchased ahead of time below. Thanks for being here!! ❤

What islands have we been to?

#1: We visited our first island, Turks & Caicos, as a couple in Summer 2018 for 10 nights. We stayed in two Airbnb’s (a not so nice one and a nice one). We weren’t old enough to rent a car and didn’t want to pay for a taxi, so we walked a lot of places. Amazing island!

#2: In 2021 we visited St. Croix and stayed in an AirBnb with our family who rented a van so we could visit different snorkeling spots each day. Kristoff proposed on the beach during sunrise without another soul around. Pure magic.

#3: Honeymooned in Barbados for 6 nights (1st resort stay – Sandals & country #7 for us) Would not recommend staying here due to the red tide and inability to swim in the ocean at the resort or at least call first. We did an entire review of this resort on our @tolberttravels Insta profile if you are interested in staying at a Sandals resort. I believe we posted 6 posts on various amenities.

This brings us to our fourth and most recent island adventure … Bermuda! My parents took me here when I was 1yrs old, so it was special to return with my own family. What did we learn (travel tips), how much did we spend, and what did we do? See below:)

A few Products we Purchased Ahead of Time & LOVED:

• Toddler Water Shoes: click here (purchased at the beginning of May & has been used almost every single day!)
• Men’s Sun Hat: click here
• Women’s Sun Hat: click here (I needed a new one)
• Kid’s Sun Hat: click here
• Toddler Swimsuit: click here (got this one to add to our collection – I packed each of us 3-5 swimsuits)
• Women’s Swim Leggings: click here
• Sunscreen: click here
• Sunshade (already had but packed in our carry on for this trip!
  Very nice for Horseshoe Bay and Warwick Long Beach)
• Heavy Duty Tube (perfect for our toddler who came with us on every snorkeling expedition) *see picture below 🙂

Travel Tips:

• Fill out this arrival card before arriving in Bermuda to save time! We just walked past everyone else which was awesome. It is free.
• Bermuda is one hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
• We brought one large suitcase that weighed 50lbs. In this suitcase was the river tube, air pump, larger liquids like sunscreen, snorkel gear, and food (things like pasta, soup, croutons, salad dressing, canned vegetables, snacks, and basically everything we needed for the week that was not fresh). We purchased meat, lettuce, tomatoes, milk, bread, and fruit at the local grocery store.
• After walking out of the Bermuda airport with all of our luggage there was a lady directing us the five steps to a van taxi (all vans that we saw). They line up and wait on families to take to their destination. We probably drove for like 10-12 minutes and it costs us around $35. This was our one and only time using a taxi. We chose to NOT bring a car seat for our 26mo. old, as we knew most of the time we would be on a bus or walking. Car seats are not required in taxis in Bermuda.
• Every day we would decide if we wanted to use our Ergo carrier or E’s stroller to get around. It was easy to take the stroller on/off public transportation, so it just depended on how much sand we planned on covering. I would recommend bring a stroller though if you have a toddler because we used it most days.
• Bermuda offers PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION – woohoo!! We loved it and only took a taxi once the entire trip (airport to AirBnb). With 11 bus routes and 14 bus zones, each one covering about 2 miles, the entire island is covered. Yay! Most buses leave from the Central Terminal on Washington Street, next to City Hall in Hamilton. Click here to view the bus schedule. We walked 10 mins. from our AirBnb in St. George’s to catch the bus on the days we wanted to go places other than Tobacco Bay. Click here to view the ferry schedule. We took it 1x from St. George’s to Dockyard.
• A three-zone bus ticket allows you to travel through three zones during one trip. A 14-zone ticket is required if you are passing through more than three zones during a trip, though we definitely put a 3-zone coin in and went 4-5 zones sometimes. The bus drivers did not care and were super nice. It costs $3.50 to travel 3 zones on the bus and $4.50 to travel 4+ bus zones. Our 2yr old was free – yay! We used tokens and also purchased the 2-day pass. We purchased these from the visitor center which saves money. If you are going multiple places in a day, then it is probably cheaper just to get the pass. See the second table below for these prices. This allows you to get on any bus or ferry! Note: If you get the 2-day pass then these days must be used consecutively. We made sure to do our biggest adventures back-to-back. We also heard that Bermuda is getting a new govt ferry soon that is faster, so that is something to look forward to when we return in a few summers.
• Buses stop at covered spots, but also the pink/blue poles. Just make sure you are on the correct side of the street since they drive on the left side of the road.

Our Itinerary:

Day 1 – Check in to AirBnb in St. George’s, purchased groceries, ate a low-key dinner, and snorkeled at Tobacco Bay. Here was the view from the front yard/porch. Heaven!

Day 2 – Walked back to Tobacco Bay after breakfast to snorkel, returned for E’s nap & lunch, ate an early dinner, and went back to Tobacco Bay to snorkel more. We ended up snorkeling all the way to Achilles Bay from Tobacco Bay! It was AMAZING and only possible for Elias because we brought the river tube for him to sit in when we hit bigger waves. We saw so many beautiful fish!

Day 3 – Swimming and snorkeling at Tobacco Bay // We always swam here before 11am or after 5pm to have the place mostly to ourselves – AMAZING snorkeling! E also loved jumping on their little trampolines or swimming under their umbrellas in the water. It is free to swim here, though if you want to rent a chair/umbrella or grab a bite to eat then that will cost you. We chose to always bring our own snacks.

Day 4 – Walked around Historic St. George’s for over 2hrs (founded in 1612!) and saw the Unfinished Church, Kings Square, Town Hall, St. Peter’s Church, and watched a hen and her chicks in Somer’s Garden. After E’s nap we headed to Tobacco Bay to then snorkel back to Achilles Bay for the 2nd time. At 9pm K, E, and I were sitting on the front porch overlooking the water eating a snack and watching the planes land/leave. Amazing.

Day 5 – We took a ferry from St. George’s to Dockyard, visited the National Museum of Bermuda & enjoyed watching the dolphins swim at Dolphin Quest (included in your museum entrance fee). We ate lunch on the front of what used to be the Commissioner’s House in the shade.

We then walked to Glass Beach to swim and find sea glass. It was about a 10–15-minute walk from the visitor center in Dockyard.

After playing here for a while in the water, we took a bus into Hamilton. The bus stop is right by Glass Beach. We ate outside at Spot Restaurant & Bar and can’t recommend it enough. Elias ate their Southern Fried Chicken Burger + fries, Kristoff got their famous fish sandwich, and I devoured their blackened shrimp tacos. Yum!

We then walked to a nearby park where E chased the birds and then around 6:30pm walked towards Harbour Night on Front Street (a street festival). Thanks to One Comm Bermuda everything in the Kid Zone was FREE and unlike anything I have seen before. 20+ kid’s activities to be enjoyed, plus character appearances and free giveaways (snacks, bubble tea, water bottles, a toy, etc.). Elias went down every single inflatable slide and shot gel blasters with K, though he wasn’t sure what to think of the Gombey dancers at first. Of course, now he asks to see the dancers every few days and dances along. Amazing experience! We then walked back to the bus depot where we caught a bus back to St. George’s.

Day 6 – Jobson’s Cove/Warwick Long Beach + Horseshoe Bay Beach Day, ice cream at Bailey’s, then home for dinner 🙂 At Bailey’s you’ll discover more than 30 flavors of homemade, all-natural ice cream, including island favorites like coconut, rum raisin and Dark ‘N Stormy, a Bermuda specialty. First photo below is Jobson’s Cove, and the rest are all from Horseshoe Bay. These places were near one another, though a longer bus ride from St. George’s. Horseshoe Bay was packed with tourists, but the beach is huge, and it was easy to get away from them and spread our sunshade out. The rock formations were incredible, so of course K climbed up to dive off. Super fun day together in the sun!

Day 7 – Visited BAMZ (Bermuda Aquarium Museum & Zoo) for a few hours and we were quite impressed. Click here to see a facility map. This place is pretty large and even has a great kids play area/playground.

Elias was free, so it was just $10 per adult. We arrived right at 9am when they opened which was amazing. The harbour seal feed was a favorite for Elias because we were so close, though he also loved the interactive exhibits (broken up by country). We were a few feet from a lemur who was eating some fruit and there was nothing blocking the lemur or parrots from us. SO COOL! Our friends met us here and then we told them we would meet them out at dinner. We took a bus to Shelly’s Beach & Playground to swim/play before heading home to change. We had a reservation at the Swizzle Inn for 6pm, so they already had our table prepared for us along with a highchair pulled up. We sat down and ordered a 1/2 jug of the OG Rum Swizzle, so that when Emily + Jordan arrived we were all set. Elias ate chicken tenders & fries, K ordered Johnny’s Butt Kickin’ Chili, and I ordered the Boom Boom Burger. We got Mozzarella Sticks as our appetizer. Yum!! Can’t recommend enough – we can’t wait to return.

Day 8 – Swam/Snorkeled for almost an hour at Blue Hole after walking around town to wait for the Visitor Center to open (where we use credit card to purchase tokens — we didn’t quite calculate correctly haha). We arrived at Blue Hole Park around 10:15am (FREE to visit like every other beach we visited) & we were the only ones here! When you are in the deep Blue Hole, it feels like you are swimming in a secluded pool. The pool just happens to be surrounded by a mangrove forest, cliff jumping spots, and an intriguing cave.

Kristoff did a little bit of cliff jumping, but we especially enjoyed swimming in such a secluded, magical place. We had no issues finding this amazing spot, as we walked through the car park area and then into the reserve through an opening in the fence. Keep following along the trail and keep to the LOWER trail (the one closest to the water). You can’t miss it and took us less than 10 mins. to walk there. I read reviews that said it was 1.2 miles in length, but maybe they meant there and back to the parking lot. Not sure because it felt like nothing at all to reach this gem. We then played at a nearby beach (that you can’t miss from walking the trail) for a few hours before heading back to the AirBnb. After dinner, we did our usual 20 min. walk to Tobacco Bay for more snorkeling!

Day 9 – Enjoyed our final breakfast on the porch, packed up, cleaned/tidied AirBnb, and checked out at noon. Our amazing host drove us to the airport. Our flight was then delayed, but we made it home by 1AM. Full day of travel!

How much did this 8-night vacation cost us?

Flights (for 3ppl): $1,803 ($601 pp)

Accommodations for 8 nights: $1,126.82 (we paid some right away via AirBnb, so it was nice splitting this payment up)

1 Big Suitcase there + back: $70

Bus/Ferry Transportation: $89.50 + a few tokens a friend gave us

Taxi Transportation: $18 (shared with our friends – would have been $35)

Eating Out: (1 Breakfast, 2 Dinners, & 1 trip to Bailey’s – tips included): $205

Grocery store in St. George’s: $108.31

Gifts for others & ourselves: $50

Activities: $20

Smashburger in the Airport: $5.25 (rest covered by vouchers since we missed our connecting flight)

TOTAL for our family of three: $3,495.88

We dream of returning because the public transportation made getting around very easy, plus the snorkeling was incredible. Until next time Bermuda … we love you! The photo above is of Elias knocking on the doors of a fairy house. This home was near where we stayed, so he knocked on their door ALL the time. It was super precious. Everything about this island was magical and we enjoyed every minute we got together here.