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Tobacco Bay Bermuda
A Top Snorkeling Beach
Tobacco Bay beach is located in Bermuda's St. George's parish and is one of the most popular beaches in the island.
If we are docked at St. George's, we would usually walk down to Tobacco Bay Beach. It's about 20 minutes walk from the cruise port or 15 minutes from King's Square.
The walk is uphill and may seem tiring for some. You can also take a minibus from the town center King's Square and easily get to the beach in few minutes.
Locals say that Tobacco bay Bermuda was so named as tobacco was found growing here many years back. This beach is one of our all time favorites for snorkeling. The water here is quite shallow and you get a fascinating view of the colorful marine life along with corals. However, this is not a pink sandy beach like the ones in south shore. The sand here is normal pale yellow in color.
Tobacco bay beach Bermuda
My son and I would usually rent snorkeling gears from one of the beachfront kiosks. You can even purchase the snorkeling gears from here and avoid renting every time you go to another beach. If you can time it right when the wind is from the south, you'll find some of the most sheltered spots in the beach with shallow waters, and ideal for snorkeling.
We often found huge blue parrotfish, groupers, angelfishes, blue walruses and variety of other colorful fish at the Tobacco bay.
Under the water surface you will see many reef structures with plenty of hogfish and sergeant majors.
One of the tourists from our cruise ship told us that he had once spotted lobsters and snapping turtles just a few feet down in the waters of Tobacco Bay Bermuda. Well, we weren’t all that lucky.
Columns of limestone rocks of 15 to 25 feet high separate the bay from the open ocean. Near the rocks the water depth averages about 10 feet. If you swim through the rocks out into the open ocean, the water depth increases very fast and the water becomes murky due to silt.
My son often climbed to the top of the limestone rocks that surround Tobacco bay. He says that the view from there is wonderful. Some of the other tourists with us had fun by diving off the rocks into the sea.
You may sometimes find the Tobacco bay beach getting quite crowded. This happens whenever there is a cruise ship in St. George. The beach gets full with the cruise ship passengers.
Limestone Rocks at Tobacco Bay Beach
Here is a snorkeling option that we have tried and works out quite nicely if Tobacco bay beach gets crowded. Instead of going to Tobacco bay, take a plunge into the nearby Achilles Bay and snorkel along the rocky shoreline, not towards the Fort St. Catherine, but towards Tobacco bay. Once you reach Tobacco Bay beach, simply walk back to Achilles Bay.
Tobacco Bay Bermuda is well equipped with public facilities. There are bathrooms, changing facilities and a beach bar. Once out of the water, we would take showers at the beach house. This would generally be a perfect time to relish our favorite tuna grilled sandwiches. I would of course accompany that with some beer :-)
Location
Tobacco Bay Beach is located at St. George's Bermuda.
Bus routes #1, 3, 10, 11 from Hamilton City will get you to King's Square which is the main town center at St. George's. The beach is 15 minutes walk from here. However the walk is uphill. The return walk is much easier. Alternatively, you can take a mini bus service from Kings Square to get to the beach. There are benches located next to the George and Dragon Restaurant. This is from where the mini buses start. They ply all times of the day. Average ticket $4 per person. You can call the mini bus services (Phone: 441/297-8199) for more information.
If you are coming from the Dockyard (Kings Wharf area), take the orange route ferry for St. George. It takes only 35 minutes. A bus on the other hand would take about 2 hours with a transfer in Hamilton city. However the orange ferry route operates between April to mid November only, and also has limited runs. So check out the schedule.
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