New Yorker Jackie Razil could qualify as Bermuda's favourite tourist -- for she has notched up a staggering 75 trips to the Island.

But Jackie, 52, of Brooklyn, confessed she has never visited a beach in 23 years of visits! She confessed: "I lived near the beach on Long Island for years -- they've just never interested me.

"But I don't come to Bermuda for that. I just love to walk around and the Bermudian people are great. I've made a lot of friends here.

"What I love about it is it's so beautiful and so safe. I'm a single person and that makes an enormous difference when you live in somewhere like New York and hear about all the shootings and everything else.'' "It's like heaven on Earth -- dying and going to Paradise. Even the Captain of the ship says that and he should know.'' Jackie added: "I've been here so often, I have more friends in Bermuda than I have in my own block back home.'' Former bank worker Jackie got hooked on Bermuda on her first visit in 1972, when she travelled on the Sea Venture -- later famous as the floating star of the hit TV series The Love Boat -- with French-born parents Francois and Eugenie, both now dead.

Since then, she has been a regular on the New York-Bermuda cruise run, spending as many as 26 weeks a year on board ships.

She said: "The great thing about Bermuda is that it's still very British. In some ways, it may look American, but when you go into the stores or talk to people, you soon realise it isn't.

"The store staff do everything they can to help you. It's a far more friendly service than in New York. People here aren't pushy and very polite.

"They even stop their cars and bikes to let you cross the road. I sometimes forget what the roads are like when I get back home and step off the sidewalk.

It's a terrible habit to pick up if you live in New York.'' Jackie -- who sailed back home this week on the Royal Caribbean Line's Song of America -- said it was her 24th trip to the Island on that ship alone.

But she said: "I'll be back in May next year. In fact I've already planned 13 cruises in 1996 and they're all to Bermuda.'' And she revealed she has the sea in her blood -- her parents met in the 1930s when her mother was a passenger on a ship where her father was Chief Engineer.

Song of America hotel manager Gordon Shenk said: "We don't get many people who are as regular guests as Jackie.'' Cruise director John Blair added: "She's a goodwill ambassador around her as much as any of the crew and not just for the ship, but for the whole of Bermuda.'' Jackie added that her view of Bermuda was tinged with sadness because her mother, who was 89, took ill and died in the Island's King Edward VII Hospital last year.

But she said: "I'll never forget the kindness of the staff at the King Edward. If hospitals were like that back home, it'd be a pleasure to be sick.

"The ship had to leave without us and the hospital volunteers found me lodgings and checked up on me every day. It's something that wouldn't be done in the States.''