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Ask our Bermuda Specialist to include your favorite sports activities in your vacation! Bermuda: The Ultimate Destination for Wreck Diving
New for nature lovers is Paget Marsh Walkway. Open from sunrise to sunset, the walkway offers hikers the opportunity to take an eco-journey back in time on a boardwalk that winds through pristine woods. You can see Bermuda as the first settlers found it, when the island was covered with cedar and palmetto forests. In addition, there's a wide array of plant life, such as fiddlewood, royal poincianas and Suriname cherries.
Also infinitely rewarding is a day on the beach. With its soft sandy shores, Bermuda offers endless opportunities for swimming and snorkeling. Summer water temperatures reach 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and there are plenty of spots to enjoy it. Tiny Devonshire Bay, Jobson's Cove and Shelly Bay are ideal for kids or novice swimmers. Other popular sites include Elbow Beach, Warwick Long Bay Beach, Horseshoe Bay Beach and Clearwater Beach.
Surrounded by some of the world's most beautiful waters, Bermuda also is a boating capital. Charter companies offer several boating options, including day, evening, and dinner cruises. You can also rent a sailboat, motorboat, Sunfish, Hobie Cat, glass-bottom boat, or rowboat.
For those who would rather watch than do, Bermuda offers a number of boating competitions. Unique to the island are fitted dinghy races. Fitted dinghy boats have the largest sail area per square foot of any other type of boat. Races are held on alternate weekends from mid-May to mid-September. Often as many as 500 spectators gather to watch the colorful spectacles.
And if you're into diving, you can explore shipwrecks, where there is no better place to be than Bermuda. You'll find 400 ships settled among 200 square miles of vibrant coral reefs surrounding the island, and many can be reached by divers. Bermuda is the wreck-diving capital of the Atlantic. With Bermuda's shipwreck diving certificate program, you can dive any of 18 accessible wrecks and receive a certificate. For vacationers who want to explore the deep without getting wet, the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (441-292-7219) offers a unique experience. You can take a multimedia visit to key dive sites around the island, see a display of dive technology, and even experience a seven-minute simulated dive to 12,000 feet in a capsule that holds up to 21 people.
Anglers will also enjoy Bermuda's waters, which are rich in game fish. Prime fishing season runs from May through November. Anglers can land dozens of species of game fish, from blue marlin to blackfin tuna, and they can choose from 20 charter fishing boats that operate throughout the island. All boats provide guests with tackle and bait and are equipped with fighting chairs and outriggers. In addition, the Bermuda Department of Tourism sponsors an annual game- fishing tournament, and no entry fee or license is required.
If you would rather swing a club than land a chub, you'll have plenty of opportunities to do so. The island offers more golf courses per square mile than any other country in the world - eight in just 22 square miles. Top courses include Port Royal Golf Course, Southampton Princess Golf Club, Riddells Bay Golf & Country Club, Belmont Country Club, and St. George's Golf Club.
Tennis also enjoys a venerable tradition in Bermuda. In fact, the first tennis match in the Western Hemisphere was played in Bermuda in 1873. Today tennis buffs will find more than 100 courts on-island, 68 of which are at hotels. Many, moreover, are lighted for night play. For more information on year-round adult and junior tournament play, contact the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association at 411-296-0834. Bermuda: The Ultimate
Destination for Wreck Diving Triangle offers PADI certified scuba diving ciourses for all skill levels including the Discover Scuba course that teaches the basics of diving and offers shallow 15-30 foot dives for beginners aged 12 and up. Diving packages and private charters are aviilable. Prices start at $65 for a one tank dive. A PADI 5-star Instructor Development Center with locaitons at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess and the Fairmont Southampton, Dive Bermuda Ltd. allows and encourages visitors to experience diving from both locations for the same rate beginnigng at $90 for a single tank dive. Their Discovery Bermuda package is $750 per night at the Fairmont Southampton adn $626 per night at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, per person, based on double occupancy, with a two-night minimum stay. |
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