With resorts, restaurants, and watersports and activity operators spread across 60 islands and cays and 600 nautical miles, the British Virgin Islands offers the Caribbean’s biggest diversity of settings and experiences. Whether you’re looking for an active getaway packed with sailing, scuba diving, paddleboarding, snorkeling and hiking, or a more relaxed vacation with beach bars and spa sessions, this destination has it all. Choose one island or hop between several to taste a few flavors of this unspoiled destination.

 Most trips start on the island of Tortola, home of the international airport as well as most of the BVI’s yacht-charter operators. Tortola also serves as a great base for those who want to opt for day trips to nearby islands while calling just one resort home for the week. Tortola has the most ferry options, connecting guests to Anegada, Jost Van Dyke and a long list of other nearby islands. Here, you’ll also find a handful of scuba operators that take you diving on all the famous sites, from the Caribbean’s historic shipwreck, the RMS Rhone, sunk in 1867, to Angelfish Reef, a playground for sea turtles and eagle rays. Choose a resort such as Long Bay Beach Resort, which has it all—modern, airy ocean-view studios and suites as well as oceanfront villas, plus an upscale restaurant, beach bar and coffee shop to keep you satiated during your stay. Tortola packs its own attractions as well, from the hike up Sage Mountain National Park, the highest point in the Virgin Islands, ziplining, shopping to live music at Quito’s Gazebo on the beach of Cane Garden Bay. Cane Garden Bay is a hub of culinary offerings, watersports, amazing cocktails and one of the best sunsets anywhere on the planet!

Nature lovers and watersports enthusiasts tend to find their way to Virgin Gorda, the third-largest island. On Virgin Gorda, you can explore The Baths National Park, a must-see natural wonder where giant basalt boulders as large as 40 feet in diameter have collided together to form high overlooks, hidden grottoes, secret pools and a labyrinth of passageways, all set against impossibly clear, turquoise water. Virgin Gorda is also home to the beloved Bitter End Yacht Club, known equally for its fleet of sailboats, paddleboards, kitesurf and windsurf boards and gear, and much more, all available to guests for use or lessons. BEYC also just launched new overwater, high-end marina lofts, letting you start the day paddleboarding straight from your room and then take in the sunset from your own deck overlooking the North Sound. Honeymooners also name Virgin Gorda a favorite, where booking the five-star Rosewood Little Dix Bay guarantees that you will enjoy pampering, yoga, the Sense Spa and upscale accommodations with outdoor showers, all amid a natural setting that highlights the tropical landscape and bluewater views. Known for its upscale and luxurious villas well-suited to family and multigenerational travel, Oil Nut Bay, reopened since 2020, delivers a next-level experience, with chefs for hire, a marina, and more than 400 acres of wild space. Virgin Gorda also has a new property, The Inn at Cornucopia, an intimate adult-only getaway with five rooms and breakfast included.

Anegada, the outpost of the bunch, lying some 85 miles to the east of Virgin Gorda, is reachable via ferry from Tortola and Virgin Gorda, a 7-minute flight from Tortola, private sailboat or motoryacht charter. It’s where the annual Anegada Lobster Festival is held annually on the weekend of American Thanksgiving in November. Foodies are encouraged to give the turkeys a break and head to the Anegada Lobster Fest. This event brings together unique outdoor activities, including an island-wide scavenger hunt, plus culinary celebrations highlighting the delicate flavor of this Caribbean favorite. Come for Anegada Lobster Fest to indulge in the best lobsters anywhere and stay for the off-the-grid escapism of this nature-forward isle. Here you’ll find some of the Caribbean’s most rustic and unique accommodations at Anegada Beach Club, where thatched-roof palapas offer a glamping experience steps from a white-sand beach. This resort may be rustic, but it’s not without pampering: The on-site pool bar and grill serves local favorites, including conch fritters, blackened fish tacos, and an Anegada-style pizza with lobster, bacon and sweet peppers.

Heading back west to the backside of Tortola, facing the Atlantic, you’ll find the island of Jost Van Dyke. Easily the most popular day trip among boaters, it’s known for its gently sloping white-sand beaches and epic beach bars, including Soggy Dollar Beach Bar on White Bay, the center of the daytime action. The drink of choice is the Painkiller cocktail, mixing together rum, cream of coconut, pineapple and orange juice, topped with fresh grated nutmeg. Grab lunch—the menu includes a Caribbean lobster roll, a mahimahi wrap, burgers and veggie burgers—and spend the day meeting fellow travelers, tossing a football or frisbee in the gentle surf, or playing the ever-so-addictive ring game. If you’re having too much fun, you don’t have to leave. Stay the night at The Hideout—a new boutique seven-villa resort—a high-end experience on White Bay, or bed down at White Bay Villas, with 20 units offering traditional Caribbean style and unbeatable sunset views.

In between the main islands are several private-island resorts and endless secluded beaches.

Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina, a little hop to the north of Tortola, is an upscale boutique hotel known for a two-tier pool with a waterslide, 55 marina slips, and the clifftop Ixora Spa, which is also open to non-hotel guests.

Saba Rock Resort has a vibe all its own. A stone’s throw from Virgin Gorda and the BEYC, this restaurant and hotel, reopened in 2021, offers a fresh, clean surf style at the hotel, with rooms right on the water where you can tie up your paddleboard or other boat. Many people also come for an elevated dining experience, sitting overwater while tucking into sushi, mussels served with anchovy butter and paprika mousse, or lamb with blue cheese and truffle sauce.

There’s a lot to see, taste and experience in the British Virgin Islands. With any visit, you’ll not only find a hidden gem of a beach or snorkel spot that becomes a quick favorite that you know you’ll return to, but you’ll also happen by a restaurant or resort that you can’t wait to try next time. It’s the sort of place where your list of what to explore only grows with each trip to these islands.

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When Richard Hokin arrived on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands 30 hours after Hurricane Irma passed on September 6, 2017, he wasn’t particularly shocked. He fully expected that his Bitter End Yacht Club had been destroyed. After all, the BVI island had endured a Category 5 storm with relentless 180 mph winds—and a storm surge that wiped out anything the gusts had spared. 

He was correct: What was essentially a pile of rubble greeted him where the resort, which had been in his family for 44 years, once stood. There was one surprising thing though. The oldest fleet member was missing. What had happened to the faithful boat that predated his family’s ownership of Bitter End, the one that was integral to its development in the early days and still loyally served the resort? Where was Reef Sampler? 

“The fact that the boat had disappeared was kind of mysterious because some of her superstructure had washed up on Prickly Pear Island, which is right next to us. But there was no sign of the boat,” Hokin says.

When Irma hit, Reef Sampler was approaching its 50th birthday. In need of a platform for fishing, diving, exploring and picnicking, the Hokin family commissioned the 34-foot downeast fiberglass hull from Webber’s Cove in Blue Hill, Maine, to be finished at Essex Boat Works in Connecticut. Named for the family’s favorite pastime in the vibrant Virgin Islands waters, Reef Sampler was delivered in 1969.

“She started out as our family’s just-messing-around boat in St. Thomas and eventually became the workhorse for Bitter End,” Hokin says. “She hauled most of the building materials from St. Thomas up to North Sound in the early days when we were just starting to remodel and expand, and then she was our principal source of fun there. We’d take off and go over to Anegada for the day and go diving or go out fishing. Our life really centered around the boat.”

Reef Sampler rode out Irma holding on to the heftiest mooring. As it turned out, it never let go. In early 2018, the UK Hydrographic Office, conducting its first BVI survey in nearly a century, discovered an anomaly in its soundings. Further investigation by Sunchaser Scuba revealed Reef Sampler’s hull, sitting neatly upright on the bottom of North Sound, still tied to the sunken mooring.

Abandoning the boat in this watery grave was never an option. “Next to me, she’s the oldest member of the Bitter End crew,” Hokin says as he readies for his 82nd birthday. “I wasn’t going to walk away from her—we’ve been together for over 50 years. How do you walk away from someone or something that’s been important to your life? And not just to my life but to the whole Bitter End lifestyle, which is what defines us.”

Using air bags, it was floated and dragged onto the beach. Then, Hokin had an idea.

“I have always had a bee in my bonnet about a beach bar—and that a boat would make a really cool beach bar. This was the opportunity. We’re starting from scratch [rebuilding Bitter End]. We had the boat, and the boat was integral to Bitter End’s story. I figured she’s worked hard for us for close to 50 years; let’s give her a place where she doesn’t have to work so hard and everybody can enjoy her.”

Now, Reef Sampler, freshly varnished and painted in its original hue, has pride of place on Marina Beach at Bitter End 2.0. On its foredeck is a navigation table with seating for 8; along its sheerline aft, there’s a bar for resting a drink; and within its cockpit is a fully equipped bar for serving. Above it floats tent fabric, shading patrons and protecting the boat from the weather.

It’s one of the new additions to the revived property. For the quiet reopening over the past holidays, everything a sailor needs was up and running, including the Quarterdeck Club with a panoramic second-floor lounge, the Watersports Shack, The Buoy Room a salty sailor’s bar , and an expanded provisioning market that also offers prepared foods and a full wine-and-spirits shop. Opening soon are two shore accommodations called Marina Lofts, which extend alluringly over the water, and two more restaurants will be ready to serve by spring. 

Re-imagined to be more closely aligned with Mother Nature, the new resort is both different and the same. “We knew we weren’t going to build an exact replica, but we’ve tried really hard to employ the character, vibe and lifestyle that define the place,” Hokin says. Nothing encapsulates this spirit better than a beach-bar boat that started life as a vehicle for just messing around on the water. 

It’s not the only physical reminder of the past. The major docks survived the storm, and bits of memorabilia salvaged from the debris are displayed among the new buildings—but Reef Sampler is perhaps its most evocative.

“I think a boat is pretty close to a living entity. After 70 years of messing around in boats, I’m absolutely sure boats have lives because they’ve treated me well at times and also have had a few tantrums,” Hokin says with a smile.

To learn more about the re-opening of Bitter End Yacht Club and stay up to date on new updates, visit beyc.com. To see more footage from Bitter End Yacht Club, follow them on YouTube.

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