Owned by the multi-award-winning operators of The Reefs Resort in Southampton, 9 Beaches (4 Daniel’s Head Ln., tel. 441/232-6655, toll-free 866/841-9009, fax 441/232-6634, www.9beaches.com, cabanas $280–490, children 6 and under stay free, third person aged 15 and above $75) sits on a divinely beautiful peninsula called Daniel’s Head. The 18-acre waterfront property was once the base of the Canadian military in Bermuda. This resort offers a different kind of upscale Bermudian holiday, one where you can wear flip-flops and thumb your nose at stuffy formality.

The resort’s 84 cabanas are picturesquely situated on stilts, scattered over bluffs and coves with unobstructed views of the ocean; some huts actually stand over the water, connected to land by boardwalks, and have innovative Plexiglas floors so guests can watch the reef fish swim by. The cabanas’ walls and roofs are made of canvas, but somehow all managed to survive 2005’s Hurricane Fabian. Each cabana has a small bathroom with shower, queen-size bed, a futon sofa, table and chairs, air-conditioning, and mini veranda. A cooler, hair dryer, and beach towels are supplied.

The resort normally closes in December and reopens for April 1. (The next-door pig farm is not ideally located, but onshore breezes keep the property’s guest areas free of wayward odors most of the time.)