Looking for the best things to do at St. George’s Island in Bermuda? We got you. Bermuda was one of our favorite destinations we vacationed to, this remote archipelago smack dab in the Atlantic is a dream holiday spot and one of the best places to visit in Bermuda, the location of the first permanent British settlement dating back to 1612 located on the East End.
St. George’s Island is home to the town of St. George, both the parish and town have the same name. First settled in 1612, this served as Bermuda’s first capital and is named after the Patron Saint of England, which was given by the survivors of the Sea Venture shipwreck on Bermuda, who wrecked here in 1609.
This part of Bermuda is steeped in history and has several of the old stone homes still intact to this day. St. George’s also played a crucial role in the American Civil War and World War II, not to mention this is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
With that being said, there are plenty of awesome things to do in St. George’s both in the town and around the island to check out, which is what this Bermuda travel guide will cover.
If it’s your first trip, we recommend reading up on all the things to know before you visit Bermuda as there are a few essential tips that will ensure you have a great trip that you need to plan for.
Where is St George’s Island in Bermuda?
The island of St George Bermuda lies within the larger St. George Parish at the East End of the archipelago. It’s one of the six principal islands that make up Bermuda.
St George’s Island is also home to the town of St. George on the southeastern shore. This was the island’s original settlement dating back to 1612. Today it’s home to some of the oldest structures in Bermuda.
How to Get to St George’s
To get to St George’s Island in Bermuda, you have a few options. The ferry is a popular choice, but it only runs during the summer months. Bermuda’s Orange Line goes between the Royal Naval Dockyard and St George. You can enjoy a nice scenic ferry ride that only takes about 45 minutes and cost a small fee!
Just keep in mind that it only docks once an hour and only between the hours of 9:30 AM and 5:30 PM Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tuesday and Friday it runs from 9:15 AM to 2:15 PM, and it doesn’t run at all on the weekend.
You could also take the bus, but it doesn’t run as much around here. It might be a good idea to rent an electric car or scooter. We rented a scooter while were in Bermuda and had a blast!
We highly encourage you to research how to get around Bermuda (don’t worry that link leads you to our entire transportation guide and breakdown of public transportation, rentals, and everything you need to know) as there are no full-on rental cars in Bermuda and if you’re coming all the way here you won’t want to miss checking out the best things to do in Bermuda to visiting the forts and all the other amazing places to visit like the city of Hamilton and The Royal Naval Dockyard to name a few!
What to do at St. George’s in Bermuda
Town of St. George
There are kinds of things to do in St. George, Bermuda, especially if you’re interested in local history. The town of St. George is on the southern banks of the island’s East End. The whole place has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is full of well-preserved 18th-century architecture and cobblestone lanes!
The town of St George was the first settlement on the island and is full of museums and historical landmarks.
Go shopping on Waters Street at gift shops and clothing boutiques. On Waters Street, there’s also the Somers Wharf Shopping Mall.
And there are a handful of great restaurants and pubs. We highly suggest Wahoo’s Bistro & Patio. They have the freshest seafood options and you sit right on the water in their open-air dining room! From here we saw an eel and all kinds of colorful parrotfish in the water below. Get the catch of the day and have it prepared as the locals eat it, you won’t regret it!
St. Peter’s Church
St Peter’s Church is in the town of St. George in Bermuda. It’s the oldest surviving Anglican church outside of Europe. The Church was established when the Virginia Company settled St George. While the building has been expanded on over the years, parts of it date back to 1620. The church is part of The Town of St George’s UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The building itself is beautiful, made of white limestone and Bermuda cedar. It’s pretty conservative on the inside but it’s beautiful to peep at the woodwork!
Outside, the churchyard has a path. Take a walk and admire 200-year-old headstones or check out the church tower, weathervane, and clock that were added in 1812.
While you’re in the graveyard, take time to read the historic marker. The St. Peters graveyard historically had a separate section for Black people, both free and enslaved. It’s a reminder of a dark time in Bermuda’s long history. Black people continued to be buried in the segregated cemetery for 20 years after the British Empire outlawed slavery. The church and churchyard are also an important part of the African Diaspora Heritage Trail.
Unfinished Church
A special landmark in the town of St. George in Bermuda is the Unfinished Church. In the 1870s there was a plan to build a church to replace St Peter’s Church. The city had set aside money but different things got in the way and funds were pulled.
Instead, St. Peters was renovated and the unfinished church was abandoned. Today, the 150-year-old structure is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of St. George.
It’s fun to walk around the old, weathered ruins and sneak a look inside through the iron gates! You can’t go inside, but it’s fun to walk around and snap a picture through a door or window. The structure isn’t completely stable, and it’s also privately booked as a wedding venue.
King’s Square
When you’re looking for things to do in St. George Bermuda, a great place to start is King’s Square. It’s a giant open space in the heart of town with buildings that once housed Bermuda’s first political leaders.
Check out the Butterfield Bank, an active bank that was used as a mess hall during the Revolutionary War! You can walk through the Bermuda National Trust Museum and Town Hall that’s 250 years old. These beautifully preserved colonial-era buildings lining the square make you feel like you’re walking among history!
When you’re done looking around the square, it’s the perfect starting point for a walking tour of the rest of the town of St. George!
Ducking Stool Reenactment
In King’s Square, there are replicas of stocks where people were disciplined for crimes! But the tourism department also puts on reenactments in the square of a punishment carried out for minor offenses.
Basically, at 12:30 on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, you’ll see a man dressed in colonial-era clothing come into the square and gather tourists. There’s a whole ceremony where he explains the practice of “ducking” people into the water. There’s actually a replica ducking stool at the end of the pier over the water. At the end of a long plank, there’s a seat where people were tied with rope!
In the reenactment, a woman also dressed in colonial-era clothing is brought out and tried for gossiping! Then she’s tied to the chair and dunked, and it’s hilarious. The whole thing is a fun time and takes about 20- to 30-minutes.
Tucker House Museum
A must-visit in the town of St. George in Bermuda is the Tucker House Museum on Waters Street. You can take a tour of this preserved 250-year-old home that once belonged to Henry Tucker. He was a merchant and worked for the Governor’s office at the end of the 18th century.
Tour the home with artifacts owned by the Tucker family, like silverware and family photos. There’s also a really neat archaeological exhibit in the cellar where you can observe objects found in the home during a dig!
The house is also part of the African Diaspora Heritage Trail. On the house’s ground floor was a barber shop run by Joseph Rainey, a Black man enslaved by the Tuckers. You can learn all about how he became the first Black member of the House of Representatives.
There’s a small admission fee. And the house is usually open a few days a week from 11 AM to 3 PM but check the website because the days change.
Fort St. Catherine
Fort St. Catherine’s was an important part of history in St George Bermuda. It’s a 400-year-old fortress once used by the British Imperial Navy as a defense for the island. You can find it at the northmost point of the island of St George. This seaside location made it ideal for defending the island from invading ships.
You can visit St. Catherine’s Fort, which functions as a seasonal museum with all kinds of exhibits about fort life and the history of Bermuda. You can check out the cannons on the wall or call to reserve an educational tour that’s offered 4 times a day. Or just walk around the grounds and enjoy the view! It’s open every day from 10 AM to 4 PM and there’s a small entry fee.
St. Catherine’s Beach
If you want to go to the beach while you’re on St George’s Island in Bermuda, St Catherine’s Beach is a great choice. It’s at Gates Bay, about a 15-minute walk north of town.
It’s a nice, quiet, secluded beach with calm blue waters and awesome views of the fort towering next to it. And if you are up for a drink, there’s the St. Regis Hotel right off the beach, one of the best resorts in Bermuda. The drinks are overpriced, but it’s convenient and you can take them onto the beach and relax.
Tobacco Bay
On Tobacco Bay on the northern shore of St. George’s Island is another beach with a unique feel. Tobacco Bay Beach is a small lagoon beach protected by these amazing rock formations that shoot out of the water.
It makes the water very calm and serene, perfect for sunbathing, swimming, and snorkeling. And you’ll see all kinds of tropical fish in the crystal-clear water!
This is a popular beach and it’s not surprising. In the summer there are all kinds of fun things to do there during the day. Enjoy a live DJ, beachside pool table, and other yard games. There’s even a restaurant and bar. You can rent beach chairs and umbrellas. And at night the whole beach turns up with music, dancing, drinks, and bonfires.
This was one of our favorite beaches in Bermuda to visit!
Achilles Bay Beach
Another great beach on the island of St. George Bermuda is Achilles Bay Beach. While St Catherine’s Beach is on the east side of the Fort of St Catherine, Achilles Bay Beach is on the west.
It’s another alcove beach, so the waters are calm and shallow, so it’s perfect for jumping in and you’ll probably see all kinds of cool fish! The beach is pretty narrow, so it’s not a popular spot for sunbathing. Come here if you want a quieter spot than Tobacco Bay!
There’s also a great Caribbean restaurant called Blackbeard’s Hideout. It’s right behind the beach that you pass to get to the beach. It’s a nice place to enjoy views of the ocean and eat some good food!
Dreu’s Bay
Dreu’s Bay is a tiny beach down a flight of man-made stairs that not a lot of people know about. It doesn’t get much traffic, and it’s a hidden treasure! The little sandy beach is pretty spacious, with the dirt banks terraced with brick. There are natural rock formations, too. It’s a nice quiet place to take in the sun or go for a swim.
To get to the beach from the town of St. George Bermuda, the only way is to drive and park on the side of the road or walk for about 20 minutes, this is very easy to visit on a scooter or electric car by the way!
The narrow staircase can be seen where Grenadine Lane intersects with Barry Road along the coastline. And if you walk a few yards north, there’s a cool monument. It marks the place in Gate Bay where the original settlers of the island shipwrecked on their way to the Plymouth, Virginia colony.
More Forts!
There are so many forts in St. George Bermuda between the 1600s and 1800s. Today, finding the ruins of old forts is one of the best things to do in the East End of Bermuda! They’re free to visit, but you might not have full access to some of them.
Fort Albert and Fort Victoria
Located along Retreat Hill Road, halfway between the town of St. George and Fort St. Catherine are 2 forts. Fort Albert and Fort Victoria were both built around 1842 to protect the Royal Naval Dockyard. You can’t visit them today, but if you climb up the slope at St. Catherine’s Fort you can see the crumbling forts from afar.
Fort George
Fort George was built at a high point on the south end of St. George’s Island off Khyber Pass. It was built in the mid-1800s to support Fort St. Catherine, mainly as an artillery battery. There’s a dry moat around the entire square structure and you can walk around it. There are parts of the fort that are inaccessible to the public because the local government still uses them.
Gates Fort
You can see Bermuda’s oldest fort, Gates Fort. It overlooks Town Cut Channel, where St. George’s Bay opens up into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a small structure built in 1612. You can walk paths along the grass and even go into the keep building. There are also nice views of the channel where you can see cruise ships coming into the bay.
Alexandra Battery
Just north of Gates Fort along Barry Road is the Alexandra Battery. The garrison was built in the 1860s and stayed active until the end of World War II. Enjoy walking paths, grassy slopes, cool rusted guns, and tunnels you can explore.
Railway Trail
During the 20th century, the main way people got around in Bermuda was by train. The railway was eventually abandoned, but today there’s a 26-mile trail that follows the old rail bed. It goes the way from Somerset in West End to St. George Bermuda in East End.
The train connected the islands of Bermuda, so today you can still see the remnants, but the trail isn’t fully connected from end to end. However, if you wanted to go for a bike ride or walk part of the trail, you can! A 2.5-mile eastern section runs through the very southern end of St. George’s Island in Ferry Point Park.
While some portions of the trail are boarded or paved, this one is a dirt path, but it’s clear and defined through the park. You can enjoy a scenic coastal walk.
St. David’s Lighthouse
One of the most popular things to do in the East End of Bermuda is visiting the nearby St. David’s Lighthouse. While it’s been active for most of the 150 years since it was built. And while it used to be a manned kerosene lighthouse, it’s been converted into an electric one.
The lighthouse is in a neighborhood on the eastern shore of St. David’s Island. You walk up the hill in the neighborhood and climb steps to the lighthouse platform. There’s an amazing view of the island and the water from this point. If the lighthouse is open, you can climb the spiral staircase to the top for an even better view!
Carter House Museum
While you’re looking for things to do in St George Bermuda, don’t hesitate to venture out a little to St. David Island to the south. This is another part of Bermuda with a rich history, and Carter House is a great place to learn about it.
Located on Southside Road, Carter House is one of the last surviving original farmhouses in Bermuda. It’s a 300-year-old limestone structure with exhibits inside. And across the grounds are different recreations of historic island life. Learn about St. David’s history as a poor farming and whaling community. See how the people lived day to day.
Cooper’s Island Nature Preserve
Our farthest stop from St. George’s Island in Bermuda is the Cooper’s Island Nature Preserve that’s south of the airport. It’s a great place to stretch your legs with looping walking trails and some of the best beaches in Bermuda. In the spring you can climb the observation tower near Well Bay Beach and watch out for whales! You can also find local wildlife like sea turtles.
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