Where the Caribbean Is Best Seen From a Deck
The British Virgin Islands are a British Overseas Territory in the north-eastern Caribbean, made up of more than 60 islands and cays and widely known as one of the world's great sailing destinations. Tortola is the largest island and home to Road Town, the capital, while Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke and Anegada each have a distinct character. The population is roughly 30,000. Sheltered waters between the islands, steady trade winds and short hops between anchorages make the archipelago easy to explore under sail, with a new bay in view almost every hour.
The islands' story begins with Amerindian peoples, then Spanish and Dutch visits, before the English took control in the seventeenth century and the territory developed around sugar and, later, fishing and seafaring. Today the mood is relaxed and welcoming, with a strong boating culture and a food scene built on fresh fish, lobster and roti. Travellers who enjoy it often continue to the neighbouring US Virgin Islands, a short sail away, or compare it with the wider Grenadines for another island-hopping classic.
The Baths, Jost Van Dyke and Anegada's Reef
Virgin Gorda's Baths are the signature sight: giant granite boulders tumbled along the shore, forming sea-filled grottoes and sunlit pools that visitors wander through by foot and snorkel. Jost Van Dyke, small and relaxed, is known for White Bay and its barefoot beach bars, while Norman Island and the Indians rock formations are favourites for snorkelling. Tortola adds Cane Garden Bay, a long crescent of sand with music drifting from its waterfront restaurants, and Sage Mountain National Park, whose forest trails rise to the territory's highest point.
Anegada is the outlier: flat, coral-built and ringed by Horseshoe Reef, one of the largest barrier reefs in the Caribbean. Its beaches, such as Loblolly Bay and Cow Wreck Beach, are broad and wonderfully quiet, and Anegada lobster is a local speciality. Divers also know the wreck of the RMS Rhone, a Royal Mail steamer lost in 1867 and now a celebrated site within a marine park. A hotel group or charter operator could weave these bays, reefs and anchorages into one easily bookable narrative.
Read the full British Virgin Islands guide on Visit Travel Group, or see VisitBritishVirginIslands.co.uk on Visit Travel Group.