Boston and Bermuda
May 23,2026
Of the other kids in school, my classmates and friends at Abraham Lincoln elementary in Revere, most had never been on an airplane. This was the late 70s, when the cost of tickets put air travel out of reach for much of middle class America.
Of the kids who had been on planes, myself among them, a surprisingly large number of us had vacationed on Bermuda — that hook-shaped island in the Atlantic, about two hours flying time from Boston.
People assume Bermuda is a lot further south than it actually is. It sits roughly on the same latitude as Atlanta, and only 650 miles off the coast of the Carolinas. The island’s proximity, together with its mild weather, pink sand beaches and picturesque stucco cottages, drew tens of thousands of New Englanders every year.
The Caribbean was a much further away and a lot more expensive. Hawaii was out of the question. Florida was the obvious go-to, but Bermuda had an exotic-ness to it that Orlando or Tampa didn’t. It was a little bit of Europe — in an unintimidating, fussily British sort of way — without the long flight and pricey airfare.
All the local travel agencies hyped Bermuda, and the Sunday paper was full of easy and affordable package deals.
We signed on for one of those packages in the early spring of 1979, when I was in seventh grade. My parents, my sister, my grandmother and one of my uncles all made the trip. None of us had ever been outside the United States.
American Airlines flew a daily DC-10 on the route from Boston. Not to be outdone, Delta flew a similarly sized L-1011.
Our flight was on American. At the time, the airline’s DC-10s had a cockpit camera that allowed you to watch the pilots during takeoff and landing. Projected onto the bulkhead screens, the black-and-white visuals were blurry and unsteady, but for a 13 year-old airplane nerd like me, it was thrilling to watch. I remember the captain, who for sure is long dead by now, turning his head to the side and saying to us all, “Here’s a handsome profile shot for ya.”
I’m not sure what, in retrospect, is more remarkable, the cockpit camera (unthinkable today) or the fact that two different airlines were operating 260-seat widebodies on a two-hour hop.
It’s not like that anymore.
Over time, Bermuda lost its crown as New Englanders’ premier sun spot.
A couple of things happened. First, the cost of flying fell and the choice of destinations grew. The vacation market fragmented, with more carriers going to more and more places — at affordable fares.
Bermuda hotel prices, meanwhile, began to skyrocket, aiming for wealthier clientele rather than middle-class holidaymakers that had been its mainstay. Sure it’s a short flight, but for most people that no longer matters if accommodations cost a fortune. It became cheaper to go elsewhere, even if further away.
Those DC-10s and L-1011s gave way to narrowbody planes. Northwest Airlines ran a 727 for a while. Delta used a 767-200, then downsized to an Airbus A319 before suspending the route during COVID and never bringing it back. Today your options are JetBlue or a tiny upstart called BermudAir, both using small jets.
The cruise ships still make their runs, usually in the spring and fall, but otherwise the island’s regional allure is long gone.
Below, on the Bermuda airport apron, is our DC-10 as it prepared for departure back in ’79. In the photo up top you can see my mother (in pink), my sister (yellow), and my grandmother (gray), climbing the airstairs for the flight home.
PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
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16 Responses to “Boston and Bermuda”
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Checked my June 1976 OAG. There were two AA 707s and two DLs, a DC-8 and a 727. Industry load factor in 1979 was 63%.
My grandfather worked as a mechanic for PanAM for the entirety of his career. He and my grandmother went to Bermuda for their honeymoon. One of my favorite things in my house is a framed authentic PanAM promotional poster for Bermuda (from 1955)
My family and I moved to Bermuda a few years ago for my job. We love it, but it remains crazy expensive for tourists – largely I think because so many hotel rooms are occupied by business travelers due to the island becoming a global center for insurance and reinsurance since the 70s. Reliance on tourism alone would never cut it as it’s ‘too cold’ in the winter here. The very successful industry creates demand for local jobs, but drives up prices for everyone. There are still around 10-15 flights a day from the US, Canada, and UK (including AA, Delta, United & jetBlue), and with two major hotels scheduled to reopen for the first time since the pandemic, I’m hopeful more tourists will be back soon (even if they do clog up the roads on those rental scooters!)
We went to Bermuda in 2017 and 2019 and absolutely loved it. However paradoxically the pandemic has sharply driven the already high prices even higher, about a 70-80% increase in hotel prices over the last 7 years. So sadly it’s only for the top 10%, not regular people any longer. I am hoping that some day the ultra-wealthy will tire of us or the Bermuda people will realize that their luxury pivot is not working out and will start trying to attract the middle class again.
Don’t forget about Yellowbird Airlines. That’s how my parents took me to Bermuda in the 70s. It was a pretty magical time.
Northeast Airlines. “Yellowbird” was its nickname. It’s planes were painted bright yellow; a sort of Spirit Airlines of its time. They merged with Delta in 1972, I think it was.
It could be noted that this apparently delightful adventure occurred before the arrival of Markwayne Mullin. Oklahoma! The terrorists continue to win.
My wife and I visited Bermuda on our first ever trip outside CONUS. We caught a “hop” on a C-130.
There was effectively no limit on baggage, so we each brought big suitcases and a big cooler full of food, to save on expenses. Being an E-4, we were broke.
The Naval Air Station was in its final throes, and though it was technically open, things were drastically curtailed from normal. We got a TLQ unit, which was comfy and cheap. But about a mile from where the office where shuttle dropped us. It was later at night, and no more shuttles were running out to the TLQ’s. I strapped together and pulled 2 rolling suitcases and our 2 carryon sized bags and held one end of the cooler while my young bride pulled the other big suitcase and the the other end of the cooler. The walk took forever, and we were certain this was all a dreadful mistake!
Until the next morning. I got up early, caught a shuttle to outside the main gate, rented a scooter, and picked up my wife. Then when we pulled out of the gate and made our way to the main road along the coast: IT WAS BREATHTAKING.
That was 34 years ago now, and we still talk about the impossibly long trudge with all that junk all that distance, so late at night… contrasted to the incredible beauty of the island, and the freedom of being young and in paradise!
Bermuda also became outrageously expensive as the global reinsurance market moved in. Anyone who has worked in the field has spent time there. It is easily the most expensive place I have ever been to, easily beating Tokyo, London, New York, Paris,…
Furthermore, I suspect that the Caribbean beat it out on longer trips, not to mention superior food.
Fellow 70s traveler to Bermuda from Boston with the family in ’76, nice article. I believe we flew an Eastern Airlines 727 direct. I remember seeing a 747 for the first time on the tarmac in Bermuda on that trip, we could just walk right up to it and take pictures!
My first flight was on an L-19. ROTC Summer Camp at Fort Lewis, WA in July of 1962. I had wanted to go to the US Air Force Academy (I was also a flying nerd) but the AFA required 20/20 uncorrected vision and I had worn glasses for something like 4 years so Army ROTC was a second choice.
We vacationed in Bermuda also. But one time we took the SS Ocean Monarch and another time the SS Queen of Bermuda. The Ocean Monarch is still my favorite cruise ship of all time. I was ten and my brother was eight and the British crews on both ships loved us.
Back in the 70s, member-of-parliament Max Saltzman advocated bringing Bermuda into Canadian Confederation as the 11th province, a place on our own soil to flee the rigours of the Canadian winter.
Alas …
Been to Bermuda, but got there via a US Navy destroyer back in the 1960s. It was an interesting place, with some fascinating history in the form of the shipwrecked Sea ’Venture, which was supposed to be sailing to the Jamestown colony with much-needed supplies. Sea ’Venture ran into a bad storm, got majorly blown off course and literally ended up on the rocks. Her captain, Sir George Somers, made the best of the situation, established a settlement…and that’s how the British came to be there.
Traveling on a DC-10 in 1979 is something I would not have done. The DC-10 became the plane to be avoided following the 1974 Ermenonville Forest tragedy, which event had been presaged by a cargo door blowout on an American DC-10 over Windsor ON in 1972. Everyone I knew back then who routinely strapped on a big chunk of aluminum to get to work refused to ride on that contraption—that included yours truly.
Pilots tend to look down on Saint Pierre and Miquelon when conditions are just right.
Patrick, funnily enough my parents took us five kids to Bermuda in 1972. It was the first time my parents took us on a family trip by airplane. Like you, I was in 1972 one of the few kids in the 3rd grade to have ever been on an airplane. Nobody knew where Bermuda was…even me, until my mother took me to the travel agency when she went to book the trip. We flew from Boston to New York-JFK on National Airlines (B727) and then connected to a Pan American (B707) to Bermuda; on the return to Boston we took a non-stop flight on Pan American (B707). That trip hooked me on airplanes and eventually an almost 40-year career in the travel and tourism industry. I guess we behaved well enough on that first trip for our parents to then take us on many more trips after that…great memories that I continue to cherish and will for the rest of my life. Thank you for the trip down Memory Lane.