The British Virgin Islands

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Soper's Hole

Tortola · West End

The gateway to the British Virgin Islands: we clear in with customs and immigration here, then lunch on the waterfront among the pastel shops before carrying on into the channel. A deep, sheltered harbor with the ferry to St. John on its doorstep.

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Norman Island

The Bight

The island said to have inspired Treasure Island, and still the most fun night in the islands. Snorkel the Caves at the western point, jump from the deck of the Willy T, the floating bar anchored in the Bight, and go ashore for dinner at Pirate's Bight on the beach.

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The Indians

Off Pelican Island

Four rock pinnacles rising out of the sea between Norman Island and Pelican Island, ringed by coral in less than 30 feet of water. Not an overnight anchorage but the snorkel stop everyone remembers, and usually on the way to somewhere else.

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Peter Island

Deadman's Bay

A long white beach on the north shore of a mostly private island, below the Peter Island Resort and facing Tortola across the channel. Calm water for swimming and paddleboarding, a short walk over the hill for the view, dinner ashore at the resort, and quiet at night.

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Cooper Island

Manchioneel Bay

A one-beach island with the Cooper Island Beach Club, its rum bar, and turtles grazing in the seagrass under the moorings. An easy stop on the way up the Sir Francis Drake Channel, and a favorite for dinner ashore under the palms.

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Salt Island

Wreck of the Rhone

The RMS Rhone went down off Salt Island in the hurricane of 1867 and is the Caribbean's best-known wreck dive. The bow lies in 80 feet of water; the stern is shallow enough to snorkel over from the dinghy.

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7

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The Baths and Spanish Town

Virgin Gorda

Giant granite boulders piled along the shore at the Baths, forming grottoes, tunnels, and sea-filled pools to swim and scramble through on the trail to Devil's Bay. Spanish Town is a short way up the coast, for dinner ashore at CocoMaya.

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Marina Cay and Trellis Bay

Beef Island

A tiny island anchorage at the eastern end of Tortola, with a beach and the Marina Cay Bar & Grill on the cay, and Trellis Bay next door with its artists' studios and the fireball sculptures that burn at the full-moon party. Scrub Island, a short dinghy ride across, has a resort marina with restaurants and a spa. Handy for guests joining or leaving through Beef Island airport.

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North Sound

Virgin Gorda

A great sheltered lagoon at the top of Virgin Gorda, with the Bitter End Yacht Club, Saba Rock, Oil Nut Bay, Leverick Bay, and the beach on Prickly Pear all a dinghy ride apart, and Hog Heaven's barbecue high on the hill above them. Flat water for paddleboarding, docks to step ashore from, and the place for an evening that calls for a celebration.

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Anegada

Setting Point · Loblolly Bay · Cow Wreck

The outlier: a flat coral island ringed by reef, a three-hour sail north of everything else and unlike anywhere else in the group. Anchor at Setting Point and rent a vehicle for the north shore: snorkeling at Flash of Beauty, the empty beaches at Loblolly Bay and Cow Wreck, and a drink at Tipsy by Ann. Come back for lobster dinner ashore at the Lobster Trap or the Wonky Dog.

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11

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Cane Garden Bay

Tortola

Tortola's best-known beach: a long curve of sand with beach bars, music in the evening, and the Callwood rum distillery a short walk inland. Downwind from Anegada, it makes a relaxing landfall after the longest sail of the week.

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12

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Jost Van Dyke

White Bay · Great Harbour

White Bay is the beach of the Soggy Dollar Bar, where the Painkiller was invented and where you still swim ashore to pay for it; Hendo's Hideout, along the sand, stays open for dinner. Great Harbour, next door, is Foxy's. Sandy Spit and the Bubbly Pool are a short hop east for the morning.

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The chart above and each inset open onto a satellite view of the same water: drag the divider across it. Coastline from OpenStreetMap. Imagery is Sentinel-2 cloudless by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2019), used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; and aerial photography flown in 2018 for the USGS and USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program, which is public domain. The open sea is toned to match the chart. None of it is for navigation.