Bermuda: A Pink Paradise A Classy Little British Island Sits By Itself 600 Miles Off Of North Carolina

As hundreds of cars and mopeds stream past him during rush hour, Johnny Barnes stands on a curve in the highway leading into Hamilton, Bermuda, smiling and gesticulating.

“I love you! You know I love you!” the white-bearded man calls out to passing motorists.

“Hello, darling! I just love you!” Barnes says to a young woman on a moped.

“Good morning! I just love you!” he cries to a taxi driver, waving his hands. A motorist reaches out to touch his hand; another honks his horn.

Barnes stands at this busy curve every weekday morning from 5 to 10 a.m., waving to motorists and calling out his message of love. Known all through Bermuda as “The Greeter,” Barnes has been doing his thing for the last 17 of his 71 years.

“Jesus said to let the light shine,” Barnes explains. “I just want to make everybody happy.”

Making people happy isn’t the private preserve of Johnny Barnes. Bermuda has been doing just that for many years. The island, sitting all by itself in the Atlantic Ocean, 600-odd miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C., has long been a haven for affluent vacationers.

Many Americans own second homes here, and many others - mostly from the Northeast part of the country - fill the hotels, guest houses and condos. A good number of European visitors make their way here, too.

Many things make Bermuda attractive to tourists: beautiful pink-sand beaches, a semitropical setting, excellent accommodations and restaurants, lush golf courses, good shopping, a harbor that lures cruise ships, and frequent air service to the United States.

More important, though, is ambience: Bermuda is a classy little island.

“It’s clean, the people are nice, and you don’t have to worry about anything,” said Ted Kenney of Boston, who has visited Bermuda every year for 19 years. Besides, where else in the world would your taxi driver be wearing a coat, tie, Bermuda shorts and knee-high socks?

Bermuda’s people are far more pleasant and friendly than their Caribbean counterparts. They have no sales or income taxes, and virtually no unemployment. The island is tidy: You won’t see litter, you won’t see slums. And you won’t get caught in many traffic jams, because Bermuda limits cars to one per family and there are no rental cars.

By default, then, mopeds are the vehicle of choice for tourists. You see them by the hundreds, their helmeted riders putt-putting around the island, trying to remember that Bermuda, British to the core, drives on the left. (If mopeds aren’t your thing, you can rent a taxi or take a bus to get around the island. I did both.)

If you’re not lazing on a beach or by a pool, teeing off on one of the island’s eight golf courses, hiking on the old railway right-of-way or shopping in Hamilton or St. George’s, chances are you may be touring around this tight little island.

Bermuda has plenty of sights to see, from amusing (the world’s smallest drawbridge, with a span of 15 inches, to allow a small boat’s mast to pass through) to awesome (the south coast beaches, where pink sand and rocky headlands meet to create lovely coves).

Old forts and churches, lush gardens, nature preserves, caves and an aquarium are others.

One morning, a trio of us toured the western and southern parts of the island, site of most of the tourist facilities, with our impeccably dressed taxi driver, H. Irwin Casey.

We explored old Fort Scaur, built atop a hill in Somerset, which Casey said Bermuda built as a defense against a perceived United States threat in the 1870s.

(During World War II, Bermuda was a strategic U.S. ally, and two American bases were built there.)

At Gibbs Hill, one of the highest points on the island, we admired the landmark lighthouse once visited by Queen Elizabeth 2. From an overlook above West Whale Bay, Casey pointed out the one-time home of the late movie star, Lana Turner. (A current celebrity resident is Ross Perot, who owns two homes in Tucker’s Town, Bermuda’s classiest sector on the other side of the island.)

At the Heydon Trust property, a 43-acre tract that is one of the few open spaces left on the island, Casey introduced us to the aromatic fennel plant; to the Bermuda cedar, once much favored for shipbuilding; and to the Bermudiana, a pretty, small purple bloom with a yellow center that is indigenous to the island.

Though Bermuda is east of North Carolina, its foliage is much like Florida’s, including flowering bougainvillea and hibiscus, stately coconut palms and Spanish bayonet, poincianas and pandanus.

Beautiful beaches are found one after another on the southern coast, site of many resorts and fine homes. Horseshoe Bay, with its crescent of pink sand, is probably the best known, along with Elbow Beach. But many little coves shelter “secret” beaches - “great for honeymooners,” Casey noted. Another way to enjoy the beaches is by horseback; a breakfast trail ride (1 hours plus breakfast) is $45.

To explore the other end of the fishhook-shaped island and the historic town of St. George’s, I took a ferry (fare $3.50) from the Royal Naval Dockyard across the Great Sound to the capital city of Hamilton, then boarded a bus. Bus fare is $3.50 each way (exact change in coin is required), or you can pay $10 for a pass that lets you get on and off as many times as you like during the day.

The latter is a convenient way to tour this island, which isn’t all that big: only 22 square miles. Riding a bus, you can stop at any of the oceanside parks, at such tourist attractions as the aquarium, zoo, railway museum, glass blowing studio and the caves.

I even met a couple of American women on a bus, golf bags in tow, who were going to play at one of the island’s six public courses. The bus stops, incidentally, are made of stone and roofed with slate in typical Bermuda style.

My bus destination, St. George’s, was the second English town established in the New World (Jamestown, Va., was the first). Though the center of island life has shifted to Hamilton, St. George’s is still a working town today, albeit mostly a tourist destination.

A replica of the Deliverance, the first ship built in Bermuda, stands at the harbor. The three-masted ship was built in 1609-10 to replace the Jamestown-bound Sea Venture, which was caught in a terrible storm and wrecked here.

Also at the small harbor are tour boats and a pair of wooden pillories, once used to discipline miscreants but now a popular photo opportunity for tourists.

Other St. George’s sights: The yard at St. Peter’s Church, the oldest continuously used Anglican church in the Western Hemisphere, has a 500-year-old cedar tree and graves of many notable Bermudians.

The Carriage Museum displays many of the horse-drawn vehicles that were the only form of transportation here until 1946, when Bermuda finally gave in to progress and allowed automobiles. The Confederate Museum recalls Bermuda’s role during the American Civil War, when the island sided with the Confederacy.

Most visitors find one visit to St. George’s is enough. They’ll spend more time in Hamilton, the bustling capital. Shops, boutiques, liquor stores, bars and restaurants all line Front Street, the main drag. So, oddly, do cruise ships and ferry boats, since they dock on Front Street, less than 50 feet from the sidewalk.

Bermuda may be a classy place, but class has its price, even for Europeans. “I found it a bit pricey,” said Jill Cuthbertson, a visitor from Wales.

Dining, especially, can require New York-sized outlays. Dinner for two in a decent restaurant can easily run $100.

A room in one of the top hotels during the high summer season may run $300 to $450 a day. You can get accommodations for less, but even the guest houses charge more than $100 in high season.

Though downtown Hamilton is a bit on the busy side, it does have oases of quiet. I discovered a beautiful garden behind Perot’s Post Office on Queen Street.

Another garden off Pitts Bay Road has a circular stone entrance called Moongate.

A sign beside it said, “Legend says honeymooners should walk through the Moongate and make a wish. If you’re not a honeymooner, make a wish anyway!”

It sounded like a good idea. I made a wish and stepped forward.

The gate was locked.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO How to get there: U.S. gateways with nonstop flights to Bermuda: Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston or Washington. Celebrity, Kloster and Royal Caribbean cruise lines sail to Bermuda out of New York during the summer months; Majesty sails there from Boston. Cruise ships usually stay at least one night in Bermuda. Currency: The U.S. dollar is accepted everywhere, though you may get change in Bermudian bills. Try to get rid of them before you leave the island. Departure tax: $20, payable at airport. Information: Bermuda Department of Tourism, 310 Madison Ave., Suite 201, New York, NY 10017; (800) 223-6106.