Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Tortola/Virgin Gorda

Tortola is not as ‘touristy’ as some of the other islands. There are not a lot of attractions but it is a very relaxed island.

BEACHES
The two most popular beaches are Brewer’s Bay Beach and Cane Garden Bay Beach. Both of them can be reached easily by catching a cab (open-air safari bus) outside of the cruise facility. The cost is about $7 per person each way.

TOURS
You can do a tour with any cab outside of the cruise facility. Make sure you negotiate your price, time frame and tour details before you get in the cab and do not pay until you return. Based on what I have read, you should be able to get a tour for $15 - $20 per person. They will take you around the island and also have a beach stop wherever you choose.

You can be on the lookout for African Pride Taxi (driver – Cumba) which has great reviews.

There are a couple of tour operators that have good reviews on the discussion boards:

Egbert - He can take you by speedboat to the Baths on Virgin Gorda for approximately $45 per person.
See the discussion thread below for further details:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1132792

Patouche Catamaran Tours - http://www.patouche.com/index.html
They come very highly recommend and can take you to the Baths and to a couple of snorkel spots. The cost is $80 per person.


If you have enough time, I would definitely take the ferry over to Virgin Gorda and catch a cab to The Baths. They are massive boulders along the shoreline and you walk a trail through them. There are a couple of beaches -a smaller one at beginning of the trail and a larger one at the other end. There is also some fantastic snorkeling among the boulders.

You can catch the ferry just a 10 minute walk from the pier. There are two ferries: Smiths (http://www.smithsferry.com/) or Speedy’s (http://www.speedysbvi.com/). Check the website for departure times from both Tortola and Virgin Gorda. The ferry ride itself takes about 45 minutes so make sure you have lots of time when taking this option.

There will also be ship’s tours to this spot, but they are much more expensive!!

No comments:

Post a Comment