6 minute read
On the plane to Bermuda, most parents can recognise the scene: kids with faces lit by tablets, teenagers scrolling endlessly, adults juggling work emails and holiday bookings on the same screen. For many families, island holidays are meant to be an antidote to that always-on life. Yet somehow, the phones and tablets come along for the ride – and never really leave.
Bermuda, with its compact size, gentle pace and easy logistics, offers something different: a rare chance for families to step away from notifications and re-learn how to be bored together, curious together and, yes, sandy together.
A Small Island That Feels Manageable, Not Stressful
Part of the reason digital detoxes fail is simple: parents are exhausted. If every day of a holiday feels like a logistics puzzle, screens become a crutch – a way to keep kids quiet while the adults figure things out.
Bermuda’s scale works in your favour. Distances are short, public transport is straightforward, and the main attractions are never far apart. That makes it easier to plan a relaxed, screen-light rhythm to your days: slow breakfasts, a bus to a beach or aquarium, back in time for an early dinner and an evening walk. You don’t need to entertain children for two hours in a traffic jam or navigate unfamiliar mega-cities with one eye on the map and one on your phone.
Before you travel, it helps to have a skeleton plan of offline activities so you’re not tempted to default to YouTube whenever a child says they’re bored. Resources like the what to do in bermuda with kids guide on Maxmag can give you a clear sense of which experiences work best for different ages – and which ones genuinely don’t need a screen in sight.
Once you’ve covered the kid-first essentials, it also helps to zoom out and see the island as a whole. A curated overview such as the Condé Nast Traveler guide to the best things to do in Bermuda gives you a wider menu of classic Bermuda highlights you can weave around naps, early dinners and beach time, without spending hours researching from scratch.
Replacing Passive Screens With “Active” Wonder
A true digital detox isn’t just about taking screens away; it’s about replacing passive scrolling with active experiences. Bermuda is unusually well-suited for that.
Pink-sand beaches are the obvious draw, but for families, the real magic often happens in smaller moments: watching parrotfish cruise over the reef in water that’s shallow enough for a five-year-old to stand; climbing old stone steps in a hilltop fort while you narrate your own pirate story; or ducking into a cave and hearing the awed silence that follows.
These are naturally absorbing experiences. They pull kids’ attention outward, away from screens, without you having to constantly sell them on the idea. You may still bring a phone for the odd photo, but the experience itself doesn’t depend on it – and often, the signal is spotty enough that you’re not tempted to check email every few minutes.
Building Boundaries Before You Land
One of the most effective digital detox strategies happens before anyone has even packed. Set expectations as a family: which devices are coming, where they’ll live in your accommodation, and when they’ll be used.
On a Bermuda trip, a realistic compromise might be: no phones at breakfast or dinner, no headphones on walks or buses, and a single agreed “screen window” in the late afternoon or before bed. That still gives kids a sense of control, but frames screens as the exception, not the default.
To make that work, you need a reserve of ideas ready for those “what now?” moments – the gap between lunch and the beach, the rainy morning, the time before sunset. That’s where planning pays off: if you’ve already earmarked a half-day at the aquarium, a short hike with a viewpoint or a glass-bottom boat trip, you’re less likely to surrender to the tablet just because you’re tired.
Giving Parents Permission to Switch Off Too
Digital detox talk often focuses on kids, but parents are just as glued to their devices. Bermuda’s time zone, slower pace and easy navigation can be an opportunity to set boundaries for yourself as well.
You might decide that work email simply isn’t checked between breakfast and 6pm, or that your phone stays in a bag for the entire duration of a beach trip. The island’s compactness means you’re rarely far from your hotel or guesthouse; that sense of safety makes it easier to resist the urge to constantly “check in” with the outside world.
Crucially, when parents genuinely switch off, children notice. The difference between a parent half-watching from behind a screen and a parent who is actually in the water, building the sandcastle, or joining the game of beach cricket is huge. Those are the moments kids describe when someone asks what they remember about a holiday, years later.
Using the Internet Only When It Adds Value
A digital detox doesn’t mean pretending the internet doesn’t exist. It’s about using it intentionally, not reflexively. On a family trip to Bermuda, that might mean consulting a trusted guide once a day to choose a new adventure, then putting the phone away.
When you do go online, make it count. A quick check of a trusted Bermuda guide from a major US travel magazine over breakfast is more than enough to confirm opening hours, weather and one or two headline activities for the day. After that, the best thing you can do for your family is to put the phone back in the bag.
The rest is sand between toes, sticky ice cream fingers, salt-stiff hair and slightly sunburned noses. Screens will be waiting when you get home. For a few days in Bermuda, families have a rare chance to remember what life feels like when attention is shared, not split – when the brightest glow comes from the sunset, not from a piece of glass.
