Royal Naval Dockyard cruise port guide
Bermuda · from BermudaThings, the offline iPhone guide
Where ships dock
Heritage Wharf, Royal Naval Dockyard
Most ships tie up at Heritage Wharf or King's Wharf, a few minutes' walk apart inside the Royal Naval Dockyard. The ferry dock, the Visitor Information Centre, the bus stop, the beach and the museum are all within ten minutes on foot; the Blue ferry to Hamilton takes 20 minutes.
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.
Tomwsulcer · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons Dolphin Quest Bermuda
Swim, wade or stand on a platform with Atlantic bottlenose dolphins in the Keep pond inside the National Museum — a saltwater lagoon within the fortress walls.
Rising Son Cruises
A 60-foot catamaran sailing from the Dockyard dock: morning snorkel trips to the western reefs and wrecks, afternoon swim-and-sail, and a sunset cruise with rum swizzles.
Bermuda Craft Market
Island-made things in the 1831 Cooperage building: cedar carvings, sea-glass jewellery, candles, quilts, hot sauces, prints — with the makers often at the tables.
Frog & Onion Pub
The Dockyard's pub, in the vaulted Cooperage where the Navy's barrels were made: fish chowder with the sherry pepper and black rum on the table, fish and chips, burgers, and the Dockyard Brewing Company's ales made on site.
SeanMD80 (talk) (Uploads) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons National Museum of Bermuda
Bermuda's best museum, inside the Dockyard's fortress Keep: 400 years of island history across the ramparts, the Commissioner's House (a cast-iron mansion with the great Bermuda mural), shipwreck treasure, slavery and emigration galleries…
Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard
A cooperative gallery of Bermudian painters, photographers and sculptors in the old Dockyard buildings, with rotating exhibitions and studios you can peer into.
SeanMD80 (talk) (Uploads) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Royal Naval Dockyard
The Royal Navy's 19th-century fortress-dockyard at the western tip of the island, built by convicts and slaves from Bermuda limestone, and now the place every large cruise ship ties up (King's Wharf and Heritage Wharf).
Island Tour Centre
The one-stop booking desk by the ferry dock for jet-ski safaris, glass-bottom boat trips, snorkel cruises, kayak tours and taxi tours — mostly the same operators the ship sells, at their own prices.
Captain-tucker · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Dockyard Glassworks & Bermuda Rum Cake Company
Watch glassblowers pull molten glass into Bermuda-blue bowls, then walk through to the rum-cake bakery for free samples of the island's classic cake soaked in Gosling's.
David Broad · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Snorkel Park Beach
A small sheltered beach inside the Dockyard walls, five minutes from the ship, with gear rental, sun loungers, a bar, water toys and easy shore snorkelling over sea grass and small reef.
Jeff Bellinger · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Clocktower Mall
The 1850s Great Eastern Storehouse with its twin clock towers — one showed the time, the other the hour of high tide — is now the Dockyard's shopping arcade: souvenirs, Bermuda shorts, rum cakes, jewellery, a pharmacy and cafés under a…
Bermuda Fun Golf
An 18-hole mini-golf course on the Dockyard headland with holes themed on famous courses of Bermuda, Scotland and the US, and a bar with the Great Sound behind the greens.
Jeff Bellinger · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Lagoon Park
Trails, tidal lagoons and a mangrove pond on Ireland Island South, fifteen minutes on foot from the ship past the old naval buildings.
Woody's Sports Bar & Restaurant
The West End's fish sandwich: fried Bermuda fish on raisin bread with coleslaw, tartar and hot sauce, eaten on a terrace over the water by Watford Bridge.
Admiralty House Park
Cliffs, a cove and a warren of tunnels the Royal Navy cut for an admiral's summer house on the north shore of Pembroke.
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Ready-made port days in BermudaThings
Each is a timed plan in the app, starting and ending at the ship (14 in all for this port).
- Dockyard on Foot
Museum, craft market, glassblowers, the pub and the beach — all inside the walls, all five minutes from the ship - 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 - St. George's & the Forts
The Orange ferry to the 1612 town, St. Peter's, the perfumery, Tobacco Bay and Fort St. Catherine - Somerset & the Railway Trail
The smallest drawbridge, a hilltop fort, a beach that appears at low tide and the West End's fish sandwich - The Dockyard for Free
On foot from the ship: island art, the craft market, glassblowing and the lagoons
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.
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