St. George, Bermuda

I recently amended my WHS coverage strategy from purely looking for the hotspots to also going out of my way twice a year for a difficult/expensive WHS (expecting that when I get older I will have more time to travel, but physical challenges will get harder and the money less easily replenished). An odd one among the latter set of WHS is St. George, Bermuda – one of our most isolated WHS (it’s 1,200km from Independence Hall). The island group of Bermuda is not a particularly hard destination to reach, but it is mostly visited from the US or via a cruise. From Europe, there’s only one British Airways flight a day. And it surely ticks the “expensive” box: start from the UK price level, add a logistical surcharge as most things have to be flown in, take the cruise ship price inflation into account, and finally the American-style 15-20% tipping. In the end, this ‘tick’ cost me some 1,500 EUR.

The WHS is located on and around one of the northernmost islands of the Bermuda archipelago: St. George Island. The town is known as “St. George’s” (short for St. George’s Town), but it seems to have lost its “’s” in the official WHS name: The Historic Town of St. George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda. Note also the addition of “Bermuda” at the end – there are so many towns called St. George around the world that the Bermudians probably wanted it to be clear that their St. George …

St. George is known as the oldest continuously inhabited English settlement in the New World, and it is to the English-speaking Americas what Santo Domingo is to the Spanish-speaking part - the site of many "first" and "oldest" superlatives. E.g., St. Peter's Church is the oldest Anglican and Protestant Church in the Western Hemisphere. The State House dates from 1620 and is the oldest building on the islands. The capital was moved to Hamilton in the early 19th century, and today St. George is very quiet and looks a bit like an open-air museum for tourists. It is very well preserved and does a lot to highlight its WH status. Included in the site are several fortifications, some of which are just a short walk from the town and can be visited. The best of these is Fort St. Catherine, which houses a very interesting museum. I also went to nearby Alexandra Battery and Gates Fort, both of which can be visited easily in a pleasant walk from St. George. There is also a fine museum on Bermudian history in the Royal Naval Dockyard on the other end of the island, but this is not part of the WHS. Bermuda is mostly visited by Americans and Canadians, and there is only one flight connection to Europe (British Airways to London). I went there for a short stopover of 3 days after a trip to the US, which was very pleasant and convenient. Otherwise, it could easily be visited on one …

For an Atlantic island, Bermuda feels much more like the Caribbean, and the related fortifications reflect as much. This small yet lovely island is usually crawling with tourists, but that's no problem. There always seems to be some corner with the solitude and charm that Bermuda exudes.

The Town of St. George is very quaint and the townspeople are very welcoming. The place is filled with old world English charm with its cobblestone streets and old buildings. The related fortifications entail the forts that surround St. George. Some of them are not accessible to the public, but my husband and I managed to visit Fort St. Catherine, Fort George, Alexandra Battery and Gate's Fort. These places are walking distance from the town.

We visited Bermuda for four nights, which was enough time for me. December 2006 was when we were there and it was not very busy with tourists. Personally, I quite liked it this way and I still enjoyed pleasant weather!