Bermuda: 6 Travel Tips

We found Bermuda to be a very easy place to visit, but there are some tips that we would recommend you consider when planning your own trip to Bermuda to ensure your trip goes smoothly and you’re prepared!

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Bermuda: Getting Around and Transportation Options

Bermuda is just a tiny dot of an island in the middle of the ocean, so transportation around the island must be a breeze, right? It turns out that transportation options on Bermuda can get a little complicated and so planning ahead is a must so that you can enjoy your trip and have easy access to whatever is most important to you.

In this post, we’ll cover the general lay of the (is)land and the various spots you may wish to get to and from, the transportation options available to you, and tips and lessons learned to help you plan accordingly.

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Bermuda: Off-Season Packing Tips

If you’re planning an off-season trip to Bermuda and wondering what to pack, you’ve come to the right place! We weren’t fully sure ourselves when we took a 4-day trip in late November. Here are the tips we picked up while there.

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18 Books with Themes for the Time of Covid

One of the magical things about books is that we see ourselves in them in some form or fashion. Sometimes they are a mirror, reflecting parts of our life experiences back at us; other times, they can serve as a microscope, helping us come away with new insights about ourselves or others.

And while the words themselves don’t evolve over time, we do, and so reading a book at one point or another in our lives can lead to very different ways of experiencing them.

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10 Book Series for Ultimate Escapism and Travel Inspiration

Let’s face it: sometimes the best form of travel is an engaging, never-ending series of books that pick up your mind and plop it into another world. Particularly in these times where travel has been placed on indefinite stand-by, this is a great chance to explore some wonderful book series that just may inspire your next trip once travel again becomes possible.

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Bermuda: Getting to and Exploring Blue Hole and Tom Moore's Jungle

If you’re looking for some outside time exploring a less populated part of Bermuda, we’d recommend you check out the small area that holds Blue Hole (a bright blue swimming hole), Tom Moore’s Jungle, and Walsingham Nature Reserve.

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Bermuda: Hamilton + Eastern Hamilton Parish (Days 3-4)

For the second morning in a row, on Saturday we returned to Dangelini's Cafe and Bakery along Front Street where I ordered a cappuccino and ham and swiss cheese croissant, and Dustin had a mocha with a turkey, egg, and cheese melt on an English muffin. For breakfast dessert, which is totally a thing, we split an apple turnover, which was delicious and not overly sweet, which is how breakfast desserts should be! We noticed that at least in the off-season, Dangelini’s wasn’t open on Sundays so made a mental note that we wouldn’t be able to return the following day.

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Bermuda: St. George's (Day 2)

Our destination for the day was to be St. George’s, the parish at the opposite tip of the island and closer to the airport. While Bermuda is a small island, the roads are curvy, narrow, and roundabout so that getting anywhere takes longer than the mileage would suggest it should.

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Bermuda: Hamilton + Royal Naval Dockyard (Day 1)

Arriving in another country at night is an odd experience because it’s nearly impossible to get a sense of the place. We knew we were driving on a causeway over the water right after the airport but could only hear it, not see it. We got flashes of brightly colored houses as the taxi’s headlights shifted on the curved, narrow road (more on Bermuda’s roads later).

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Bermuda: Trip Overview

For some reason, Bermuda has always piqued my interest. Maybe it goes back to my childhood and watching Bermuda’s Olympians marching in during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in their Bermuda shorts. Maybe it’s that an island isolated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles from any other land mass seems like such a different way to live.

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Book Review of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome is one of three books we picked up to provide an overview of Roman history in advance of our week-long trip to the city. As I write this, we should have just returned home from that trip; alas, we had to postpone it to an unknown future date as a result of the current pandemic.

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Geology of Malta

The island nation of Malta is roughly 122 square miles, less than half the size of New York City, and is located in the Mediterranean Sea, about 100 miles south of Sicily. The three islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino are the largest and most often referenced in descriptions of the country; however, there are also dozens of tiny islands of varying sizes. While most of these islands are too small to be inhabited, a few others are. Cominotto is a popular tourist destination, and Manoel Island, located between Valletta and Sliema, has long been inhabited and currently features several modern day yacht clubs and also a large fort dating back to the 1700s. The formation and evolution of these islands dates to about 35 million years ago (relatively recently when you consider the dinosaurs went extinct about 60 million years ago) and are, much like the archaeological history of Malta, inexorably tied to the sea.

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Malta: For History and Archaeology Lovers

When we booked our trip to Malta, we did so on a whim after just about an hour doing online research. Why did we book this trip on a whim? Because we found an amazing flight deal, which is as good a reason as any, right?! But in that hour of research, what sold us that Malta was worth visiting were the number of historically and archaeologically important sites scattered around the island and the role the island itself had played in important events of history.

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Gozo, Malta: 2 Day Itinerary

We fell in love with the little island of Gozo (it’s about 25 square miles). Gozo is the smaller of Malta’s two inhabitable islands (the third island can be visited but is not really inhabited) and is a great side trip to pair with a visit to the mainland. If you’re looking to do just that, check out our recommended 3-5 day Malta itinerary as well! In this blog we’ll cover some general information on Gozo, information on how to get there, and our recommendations for spots to visit to fill 2 (or more) days.

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Mainland Malta: 3-5 Day Itinerary

Let me start by saying that Malta is a fascinating country with enough spots to visit, restaurants to try, hikes to take, and so much more that a visitor could easily spent a week or more touring Malta’s main island. We spent a week ourselves with the majority on Malta and a couple of days on Gozo and had a wonderful time. If you only have 3-5 days to spend, here is the Valletta-based itinerary we would recommend. The best part of this is that you can stay in one place the entire time with all the spots walkable by foot or accessible via ferry or a short cab ride.

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Malta: Food + Drink

In this blog, we’ll provide an overview of what to expect when dining in Malta on both the main island of Malta and the smaller island of Gozo, information on the grocery shopping scene, tips based on our experience, and recommendations for the places where we had enjoyable meals and experiences.

With Sicily and Italy to the north, the northern Africa nations of Libya and Tunisia to the south, and a long history of varied peoples and cultures swirling across the Mediterranean, Maltese dining is varied and diverse. There are a substantial number of Italians who live on or visit the island, meaning there are plenty of Italian eateries to fill all your needs for pizza and pasta.

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Malta: Travel and Packing Tips

After a full week spent in Malta on both the mainland island of Malta plus a couple of days on the smaller island of Gozo, here are some of the tips we hope will help make your planning easier and your trip as wonderful as ours!

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Malta: Read Before You Go {Non-Fiction}

When we booked our week-long trip to Malta, we did so on a whim (cheap flight!) and knew nothing about the country beyond the results of an hour’s long Google search that sold us on booking the flights. In the months leading up to the trip, we read some books about Malta that not only got us excited about going to see many of the sites tied to the books but also helped us to enjoy the trip so much more, garnering a greater understanding of the country’s history as we toured. Since returning, we have read more books about the country and hope to make it back some day to visit the places we didn’t get to on the first trip.

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Hiking at Poor Mountain Natural Area Preserve in Roanoke, VA

When the weather in Southwestern Virginia hits the mid-60s in late December, you don’t ask any questions, you just head outside and get some hiking in while you can!

Below we’ll provide some information about Poor Mountain Natural Area Preserve and its location, information on the 4 trails contained within, and some information on what to expect when you visit.

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Malta: Transportation and Getting Around

What is it about relatively small islands or countries that require more coordination to get around?! Malta is comprised of three islands, two of which are inhabited (mainland Malta and the smaller Gozo) plus Comino, which is a common day trip destination to swim in its Blue Lagoon. We visited Malta and Gozo, and in this blog, we’ll cover information and tips on how to get around these islands without a car . . . and why we wouldn’t recommend renting one.

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