Bermuda's Pink-Sand Coast Has Been Old Money's Quiet Retreat for a Century

Bermuda has been a retreat for wealthy East Coast Americans since well before the word "jet-set" existed, helped along by a simple fact of geography: the island sits under two hours' flight from New York, close enough for a long weekend, far enough to feel like an escape. Its reputation as old money's quieter alternative to the Caribbean, Bermuda is technically in the North Atlantic, not the Caribbean, was built gradually over the twentieth century, and much of it still runs through a small stretch of the island's east end.

Tucker's Town and a golf club built for the wealthy

The Mid Ocean Club, founded in 1921 and designed by golf-course architect Charles Blair Macdonald, sits at the centre of Tucker's Town, an enclave that the Bermudian government redeveloped through compulsory land purchases in the 1920s, a history that displaced a long-established Black community to make way for the club and the private estates that followed it. The club remains one of the most exclusive in the world, membership by invitation only, and Tucker's Town's waterfront homes have stayed in the hands of a small, largely American and British ownership base for a century.

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Mark Twain's paradise

Mark Twain visited Bermuda several times in the last decade of his life and is widely quoted as calling it a version of paradise; his stays at what is now the Hamilton Princess Hotel are still part of the island's tourism folklore. That early literary association helped set a template, Bermuda as a genteel, unhurried retreat rather than a party destination, that the island's tourism board has leaned on ever since.

The America's Cup put it back on the map

Bermuda's profile among a wealthier, yacht-owning set got a modern boost in 2017, when Hamilton hosted the 35th America's Cup, the first time the regatta had been sailed in the Atlantic outside the United States or Europe in decades. The event brought a temporary influx of superyachts and international sailing sponsors to the Great Sound, and several team bases and much of the event infrastructure remained a talking point on the island for years afterward.

Pink sand, and why it stays that colour

Horseshoe Bay, on the island's south shore, is Bermuda's best-known beach and takes its pink tint from crushed red coral and the shells of microscopic marine organisms called foraminifera mixed into the sand, a detail repeated often enough in guidebooks that it has become part of the island's identity as much as any single hotel or club.

Traveller tips

• Bermuda's currency is pegged one-to-one with the US dollar, and US dollars are accepted interchangeably with Bermudian dollars across the island.
• Rental cars are not available to visitors; getting around means taxis, buses or a rented scooter, which shapes the pace of most stays.
• The Mid Ocean Club and Tucker's Town's private estates are not open to non-members or guests; Horseshoe Bay and the island's other south shore beaches are public.
• Late spring through early autumn brings the warmest water for swimming, though the island stays mild enough for a visit through much of the year.