Hamilton cruise port guide
Bermuda · from BermudaThings, the offline iPhone guide
Where ships dock
Front Street cruise berth, Hamilton
Only smaller ships dock here, on Front Street in the middle of the city; the ferry and bus terminals are a few minutes' walk. Most ships use the Royal Naval Dockyard instead — from there, Hamilton is 20 minutes on the Blue ferry.
Many ships stay overnight or longer · Bermuda is one hour ahead of US Eastern time — check which clock your ship keeps
All-aboard is in ship time. Check the daily programme and be back at the gangway 30 minutes early.
Top places near the pier
Walking times come from the app: straight-line distance plus 30% for streets, at an easy 4.5 km/h. Places further than an hour on foot show the distance instead.
Front Street
Hamilton's harbourfront of pastel-painted Victorian verandas — banks, jewellers, Bermuda-shorts tailors and pubs with balconies over the water.
Rock Island Coffee
Hamilton's coffee roaster in an old house on Reid Street: proper espresso, local art on the walls, and a veranda where the city's creative types and office escapees sit.
Hog Penny
Hamilton's pub since 1957, a dark-panelled English tavern on Burnaby Street that inspired the bar in 'Cheers': fish chowder, bangers and mash, curries, Dark 'n' Stormys and live music.
Sessions House
Bermuda's Parliament, sitting since 1826 in a Georgian building with a red-brick Italianate clock tower added for Queen Victoria's jubilee.
The Pickled Onion
A Front Street balcony over the harbour — the classic Hamilton lunch or sunset drink: fish tacos, wahoo, burgers and rum swizzles, with live music most evenings.
Bermuda Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity (1894), Hamilton's neo-Gothic landmark in Bermuda limestone with Scottish stone and Caen-stone carving: climb the 157 steps of the tower for the best view over the city, the harbour and the Great…
City Hall & Arts Centre
Hamilton's 1960 City Hall, a Wil Onions building with a weathervane of the Sea Venture, houses the Bermuda National Gallery and the Bermuda Society of Arts upstairs — European old masters, African art and the island's own painters.
Fort Hamilton
A Victorian fort on the hill east of the city, with a dry moat turned into a tropical garden, tunnels in the walls, 18-ton guns on the ramparts and a panorama of Hamilton Harbour.
Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute
BUEI, on the harbour road east of town: shipwreck treasure, a walk-in bathysphere, the Bermuda Triangle explained by scientists rather than television, a shark-cage simulator, and the Harbourfront restaurant upstairs.
Art Mel's Spicy Dicy
The fish sandwich Bermudians argue is the best: a slab of fried fish on raisin bread the size of a paperback, with coleslaw, tartar and hot sauce, from a takeaway counter in a residential Pembroke street.
Ducking Stool Park
A small grassy headland park on North Shore Road, Pembroke, with the ducking-stool point at its tip: picnic grass, a swimming spot off the rocks, and a front-row seat for cruise ships entering and leaving Hamilton Harbour.
Ducking Stool
A rocky point on the North Shore in Pembroke, named for the ducking stool that stood here in the 1600s: petty offenders and 'scolds' were strapped into a chair on the end of a beam and dunked in the sea while the parish watched.
Jerrye and Roy Klotz MD · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Bermuda Botanical Gardens
Thirty-six acres of palms, cedars, hibiscus, a sensory garden, banyans, a moongate and the island's best lawns, a mile from Hamilton.
Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art
Bermuda as painted by visitors: Winslow Homer's watercolours, Georgia O'Keeffe's banyans, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, and a strong local collection, in a purpose-built gallery inside the Botanical Gardens.
No machine-readable author provided. Lee… · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons Elbow Beach
A long curve of pink sand in Paget, with a reef just offshore and the wreck of the Pollockshields (1915) in the shallows for snorkellers.
Ready-made port days in BermudaThings
Each is a timed plan in the app, starting and ending at the ship (9 in all for this port).
- South Shore Beaches by Bus 7
Horseshoe Bay, the walk through the dunes to Jobson's Cove, the lighthouse and the island's best shore snorkel - Hamilton by Ferry
Twenty minutes across the Sound to Front Street, the cathedral tower, the fort, the pub and a shipwreck museum - Caves, Zoo & the Swizzle Inn
The aquarium at Flatts, the Crystal Caves, a jug of swizzle and a swim in the Blue Hole - Hamilton from the Front Street Berth
For ships in the city: the gallery, the cathedral tower, coffee and a balcony lunch - Rainy Day in Hamilton
By ferry: shipwreck treasure, chowder at the Hog Penny and the National Gallery - Hamilton, Flat and Easy
The ferry, the harbourfront, the Underwater Institute and lunch at the pink hotel
Getting around: what the app tells you
- Take the ferry out, but know the last one back
- The Blue ferry to Hamilton is 20 minutes and the best view on the island; the bus is 50 minutes. The catch is timing: ferries run roughly hourly, the Orange ferry to St. George's only three or four times a day, and on ship days the last sailing back to the Dockyard fills up. Photograph the timetable at the dock, aim for the sailing before the one you need, and keep a taxi fare in reserve — taxis are the only thing that never leaves without you.
- Read the bill before you tip
- Restaurants, pubs and hotels add a 17% (sometimes 15%) gratuity to the bill automatically, and the card machine will still ask if you'd like to add a tip. Look for 'gratuity' or 'service' on the bill; if it's there, a small round-up is generous. Menu prices are otherwise what you pay — there is no sales tax in Bermuda.
- Look right, drive left, and take the bus to the beach
- Traffic keeps to the left, the roads are narrow with no shoulders, and the 35 km/h limit is real. Pedestrians: look right first. On a scooter, ride like a local — no overtaking on bends, helmet done up, and don't rent one for the first time on a wet day. If in doubt, bus 7 goes from the Dockyard past every South Shore beach to Hamilton, and it's a lovely ride.
Get BermudaThings for iPhone
Every place, description and opening time is stored on the phone, so the guide works at sea and ashore with no signal. Only the map background needs one. $4.99 once, no subscription, no ads, no tracking.
Coming soon to the App Store · About BermudaThings