 Facts at a Glance
Area: 59 sq miles (153 sq km)
Population: 18,000
Capital city: Road Town (population 14,000) on Tortola
People: African descent (90%), North American, Asian
Language: English
Religion: Methodist (45%), Anglican (21%), Catholic (6%)
Government: Dependent territory of the United Kingdom
Governor: David Mackilligin
 Environment
Hilly and dry, the islands lie 50 miles (80km) east of Puerto Rico, 1100 miles (1770km) southeast of Miami and immediately east and north of the US Virgin Islands. Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke are the principal islands; most of the other 40 odd islets are uninhabited. Taken together, they're a little smaller than Washington, DC. Three quarters of the British Virgin Islands' population lives on Tortola, which is 12 miles (19km) long and 3 miles (5km) wide.
Dense subtropical forests cover most of the islands' inland hills but, there are also arid stretches dominated by succulents, palm and coastal mangrove swamps, where baby fish find their swimming fins and crabs scuttle about. Indigenous forest fauna includes mahogany, bulletwood, fig, tree ferns and the elephant ear vine, which slithers along the ground until it finds a sturdy tree to climb. Mango, papaya, coconut and breadfruit trees are found in abundance. The mammee apple is native to this part of the Caribbean and is prized for its sweet brown-skinned fruit.
Common animals are lizards, rats and donkeys. The nocturnal bo-peep frog is found exclusively on Virgin Gorda and Tortola and has a call that seems impossibly loud for such a little tacker. Virgin Gorda is home to a tiny gecko with the distinction of having a name (Spherodactylus pathenopian) longer than the animal itself. The cheekiest bird of the islands is the bananaquit, a yellow-breasted sugar addict that thinks nothing of swooping your breakfast table for a hypoglycemic hit. Other birds include doves, hummingbirds, herons, egrets and hawks.
The weather is reliably balmy with daily highs year round between 70-80°F (22-27°C). Trade winds keep humidity low and Caribbean currents keep waters warm. Rainfall is unlikely to dampen a visit, with the wettest months, September through November, averaging only about five days of rain each. The islands are prone to hurricanes between July and October, so keep an eye on weather reports if you're visiting during these months.
 History
Arawak Indians settled the British Virgin Islands around 100 BC, migrating from the Orinoco Basin in South America. A peaceloving tribe, they were hounded out by the more aggressive Caribs, who arrived from South America in the mid-15th century. It was only a few decades later that Columbus stopped by on his second trip to the New World and crashed the party. Columbus, perhaps feeling the lack of female company shipboard, named the islands Las Vírgenes in a somewhat obscure reference to St Ursula and her 11,000 virgins. He also gave Virgin Gorda (Fat Virgin) and Anegada (Sunken Island) the names that remain today.
The Spanish didn't think much of the islands, settling only to mine copper on Virgin Gorda in the early 1600s. The Europeans were harassed by Caribs and by pirates who attacked galleons carrying riches back to Spain. An assortment of colorful characters sailed through the surrounding waters, including pirates Henry Morgan, Sir John Hawkins and Blackbeard, and English sea dog Sir Francis Drake. As Spain declined as a colonial power, ownership of the islands shifted about until the Dutch established a permanent settlement on Tortola in 1648.
The English ousted the Dutch from Tortola in 1672, and from Anegada and Virgin Gorda in 1680. The new rulers introduced the two quintessential features of the colonial era in the Caribbean: sugar cane and slaves. At first, most of Tortola's 'planters' were more interested in piracy and smuggling than agriculture, but by the 1700s they were displaced by a new wave of experienced planters and a settlement of hard working Quakers. Between the mid-18th and early 19th centuries, the islands prospered, producing sugar, cotton, rum, indigo and spices.
Slave unrest and ideological doubt brought an end to slave auctions in 1803. By the 1830s, slaves had been emancipated. Abolition and the introduction of sugar beet in Europe and the USA were disastrous for the islands: capital and settlers departed for more buoyant economies, and for the next 100 years the islands' economy stagnated.
In 1917, the United States purchased the adjacent Danish West Indies (US Virgin Islands) as a strategic outpost in the Caribbean. Meanwhile, farming spurred economic growth and plodding social reform on the British Virgin Islands, prompting moves toward self government. In the 1930s and '40s, livestock, vegetables and fishing were still the mainstay of the economy, but by the 1960s, Laurence Rockefeller had leased land in Virgin Gorda and built a luxury resort at Little Dix Bay. In 1967, islanders were finally given the right to administer their own affairs. The airport at Beef Island was opened in 1968, and the opening of the first charter yacht operator in 1969 marked the beginning of the islands' yachting industry.
Today, the economic and political stability of the British Virgin Islands, coupled with an ideal climate and unspoiled natural surrounds, attract around 300,000 visitors a year. Local citizens have learnt from the mistakes of other Caribbean islands and taken steps to guide growth, resulting in a well protected environment. The islands' burgeoning offshore banking industry may give the British Virgin Islands the option of further limiting tourist growth, should they wish to.
 Economic Profile
GDP: US$150 million
GDP per head: US$10,500
Inflation: 3%
Major industries: Tourism, offshore banking, livestock, rum
Major trading partners: US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, USA
 Culture
No trace remains of the islands' original Indian population; today's inhabitants are mostly descended from slaves or slave owners. The hybrid Caribbean culture is evident in the food, in the music and in the handmade sloops that many locals use for fishing. Islanders reflect a mixture of British and West Indian influences when playing their dashing style of cricket and when they wash down a plate of conch fritters with a pint of ale.
Virgin Islanders are suckers for a beat. Fungi bands play scratch instruments such as gourds and washboards and sing songs that often comment on local social and political issues. Calypso, known originally as kaiso, was brought here by African slaves and used as a form of communication and rebellion. It's still an integral part of the islands' Carnival, which began as a celebration of slave emancipation.
A lot of islanders of African descent retain a strong belief in the spirit world: ghosts (jumbis) often get blamed for bad things and credited for good things on the islands. Jumbi stories were an important part of slave culture, used not only as spine-tingling entertainment on moonlit nights, but also as cautionary tales for children. The inspirational antics of Bru Nansi, a wily spidery man who prevailed in adverse circumstances, were an integral part of West African slave culture. Storytelling traditions persist today, though often in more structured settings such as community halls and festival gatherings.
 Events
The BVI Summer Fest is a two week riot of noise and color: calypso, fungi and steel bands shake it up, pageants crown festival queens and people flood the streets. The festival is the British Virgin Islands' own version of Carnival and celebrates the emancipation of the islands' African slaves. Most activity takes place in Road Town on Tortola.
Yachties sail in for the Annual Spring Regatta held in Road Town in April, and windsurfers converge on the islands for the HIHO Races held late June or early July. The competition lasts seven days, and a gaggle of cruisers follows the racers in a weeklong portable party. Fourth of July isn't normally celebrated in British territory for obvious reasons, but there are enough Americans in the BVI to justify fireworks and a spate of barbecues.
Public Holidays
1 January - New Year's Day
9 March - Commonwealth Day
Late March or April - Easter
30 April - Queen's Birthday
Late May or early June - Whit Monday
1 July - Territory Day
25 December - Christmas Day
26 December - Boxing Day
 Facts for the Traveler
Visas: Citizens of the US and Canada do not require a visa or passport, but should carry a birth certificate or naturalization certificate with a picture ID to prove citizenship. British citizens need a passport but not a visa. Citizens of all other countries need a passport, and, in some cases, a visa. Visitors are permitted to stay up to six months but must have an onward ticket.
Health risks: Sunburn
Time: Eastern Time (GMT/UTC minus 4 hours)
Electricity: 110V, 60Hz
Weights & measures: Imperial (see the conversion table)
Telephone: From North America, dial 1 + 284 + the seven-digit local number. From elsewhere, dial your country's direct dialing prefix + 1 + 284 + the seven-digit local number.
 Money & Costs
Currency: US dollar (US$)
Relative costs:
Budget meal: US$10-20
Moderate restaurant meal: US$20-40
Top-end restaurant meal: US$40 and upwards
Budget room: US$50-100
Moderate hotel: US$100-200
Top-end hotel: US$200 and upwards
The British Virgin Islands are not a cheap getaway destination: food is pricey because most of it's imported, and accommodation is simply in short supply. The majority of visitors to the islands sleep on chartered yachts, and if that's the holiday you're looking for, expect to spend at least US$250 a day. Travelers willing to stay on land, yet enjoy fine dining and some nightlife, need about US$175 a day. Budget travelers can squeeze by on less than US$100 a day if they stay at cheaper guesthouses or camping grounds. Coming in the low season will reduce room prices and charter rental fees, sometimes by as much as half.
The local currency is the US dollar, since the British Virgin Islands decided it was easier to cuddle up with the same currency as its bustling US neighbor. Travelers' checks and major credit cards are widely accepted, except on Anegada, where it's best to bring cash. Banking and exchange facilities are concentrated in Road Town on Tortola.
There's a 7% hotel accommodations tax plus a 10% service charge. Tipping is less institutionalised than in US destinations, but noone is going look sideways at 10% for good service.
 When to Go
The peak tourist season is between December and April, but this has more to do with the weather in North America and Europe than it does with the reliably balmy Virgin Islands weather. It's therefore best to visit outside this period, when you can expect room rates to be almost half those charged during the busier months. An additional draw is that the calmer weather between April and August tends to keep the waters clearer for diving.
 Attractions
Tortola
Tortola is the hub of the British Virgin Islands: as well as its top notch beaches, this is where you come for banks, customs and the best range of hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. The capital, Road Town, is a little more picturesque than its name suggests. Main St, one back from the waterfront, is a pretty stretch of brightly painted wooden and brick buildings. If you're here waiting for someone to get their hair braided, it's worth flexing out in the peaceful Botanic Gardens or admiring curios in the small BVI Folk Museum.
What really makes Tortola special though are its great bays and beaches. The best spots to lay down your beach towel or don a mask and flippers are on the north coast at Cane Garden Bay, Smugglers Cove and Brewers Bay. When you tire of being horizontal, there are fine views of the surrounding islands from the Sage Mountain National Park, though not from the dense scrub at the 1700ft (510m) peak. The North Shore Shell Museum in Carrot Bay is about as cluttered and chaotic as a museum can get; as well as thousands of shells, there are boats and various dibbets of craft crammed in among scores of homilies painted on driftwood.
This half-mountainous, half-flat 'Fat Virgin' with a scrawny neck lies a few miles northeast of Tortola. Though it's home to just 1500 people, it has one of the Caribbean's most amazing sights. The Baths are a surreal collection of gigantic granite boulders strewn across blindingly white palm-lined beaches at the southwestern end of the island. Tide and wave action turns caves into baths and back again, eroding a snorkeler's playground of crevices and pools. It's on the south side of Devil Bay and is well worth scuba diving when the water is calm.
The Baths are one of the most visited spots in the British Virgin Islands, so if you want to escape from the hubbub, head for North Sound, a large protected bay encircled by reef, or Mosquito and Prickly Pear islands off the northern coast. The former has a resort; the latter is a national park. The northern half of the island is mountainous, dominated by Gorda Peak, while the southeast contains an abandoned copper mine, a reminder of the islands' industrial past.
 Off the Beaten Track
Anegada
Anegada is a place for people who enjoy the feeling of nothing but sea and reef for miles around. Unique to the Virgin Islands, it is a flat coral and limestone island. Its highest point is only 28ft (8m) above sea level, and miles of isolated white beaches line the northern and western shores. The third largest reef in the world, Horseshoe Reef, extends 11 miles (18km) to the southeast of Anegada and hosts hundreds of shipwrecks, creating unlimited potential for divers.
Anegada is 9 miles (14km) long and a couple of miles wide. There's an airstrip, a smattering of hotels and only 200 people on the island. No regular public ferries dock here. If you're staying on the island, check with your hotel about transport. Otherwise, hire a boat or a water taxi from Tortola or grab a puddle jumping flight from Beef Island.
A sleepy settlement by day, Jost Van Dyke comes alive at night and is a favorite haunt of nightcrawlers from nearby Tortola. Life in Jost Van Dyke is basically one long island-style happy hour, with pig roasts and beach bars attracting more yachties than a sale on sunblock. The island is surrounded by several good sunbaking 'n' snorkeling daytrip destinations, such as Little Jost Van Dyke, Green Cay and Sandy Cay.
Jost Van Dyke has a population of only a few hundred people and lies 4 miles (6km) northwest of Tortola and 4 miles north of the US Virgin Island of St John. Ferries run from Tortola's West End to Great Harbour, but it's much more fun to rent a motor boat and putt over independently.
Before electricity brought refrigeration to the islands, salt was critical to preserving as well as seasoning food. And where do you get salt when there's no grocery store? Salt Island, 3 miles (5km) southeast of Tortola. Early in the 20th century, about 100 people lived on this tiny wishbone-shaped island, gearing up around April when the salt ponds evaporated and the salt could be 'harvested' by the not too farmerly method of hacking off chunks and bagging them up. These days most people prefer to get their salt off the shelf the boring way, and Salt Island's population has been reduced to one old man and his dog. Salt Island is also known as the site of the wreck of the RMS Rhone, a favorite with divers.
 Activities
Bareboating, or self-crew yacht chartering, is the most popular way to cruise from island to island, and if you have access to a vessel you'll find deserted coves and beaches even at the height of the tourist season. One of the best places to drop anchor is at Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, which has a fine beach and two reefs to explore. A large anchorage at uninhabited Norman Island, the furthest island south of Tortola, has been called the 'Bight' since pirate days because it has good holding and is well sheltered. Neighboring Peter Island is where Blackbeard is said to have left 15 men with a bottle of rum and one saber to fight out their differences. Moorings at both islands are shared with spotted lobster and lettuce sea slugs and are only a few minutes' ride by dinghy from excellent dive sites. Norman Island also has caves that can be explored by snorkelers.
There's more great diving at Salt Island, northeast of Peter Island, which is famed as the site of the wreck of the RMS Rhone. Sunk in 1867, the sailing steamship split into two pieces, which means double the diving pleasure. Neighboring Cooper Island has strong currents that attract abundant marine life. Nearby Ginger Island has rough waters because it's exposed to the southeast trade winds, but 50ft (15m) below the surface are huge mushroom-shaped star corals and multicolored sponges.
Horseshoe Reef off the southern shore of Anegada measures 11 miles (18km) long and is the third largest reef in the world. It has claimed hundreds of ships over the years, making it a great spot for wreck diving. Other watering holes on every diver's list include the Baths on Virgin Gorda, a pile of gigantic boulders that form amazing underwater caves; and West Dog, a tiny national park islet a few miles off the western portion of Virgin Gorda. Smugglers Cove, on the far eastern tip of Tortola, is a remote cove that offers super snorkeling.
There are numerous short but stiff walks in the islands' national parks and if you want the views but not the leg-action, a number of stables will saddle up a nag for some horseback riding.
 Getting There & Away
There are no direct flights to the British Virgin Islands from either the US or Canada. The only access by plane is via San Juan in Puerto Rico or St Thomas or St Croix on the US Virgin Islands. From these transit points you can pick up a small plane for the jaunt to Tortola or Virgin Gorda. Heaps of international airlines fly to San Juan, one of the busiest hubs in the Caribbean. American Airlines, Delta and US Airways have direct flights from several US destinations to St Thomas and St Croix. Most flights from Europe connect via Miami or San Juan before flying on to St Thomas.
From San Juan, American Eagle, LIAT ('Leave for the Islands Anytime') and Air Sunshine have daily flights to Tortola; Air St Thomas flies from San Juan to Virgin Gorda daily except weekends. From St Thomas, there are daily flights on LIAT and CaribAir to Tortola; flights to Virgin Gorda and Anegada are less frequent. There's a US$10 air tax when leaving the British Virgin Islands.
Ferries shuttle between Tortola and Virgin Gorda in the British Virgins and St Thomas and St John in the US Virgin Islands. There's a US$5 sea departure tax ($7 for cruise ship passengers).
 Getting Around
Beef Island International Airport is connected to the eastern coast of Tortola by a short bridge. It's 9 miles (15km) east of Road Town. Plenty of taxis are available for trips into the capital. The tiny airport on Virgin Gorda is near Spanish Town, at the edge of Taylors Bay on the southeastern coast. There's an airstrip smack in the middle of Anegada; you can walk from the airport to most places on the island.
Anyone who's done it will tell you the only way to get around the British Virgin Islands is by chartered sailboat, and there are loads of bareboat charter operators ready and willing to help your dream boat vacation come true. Road Town has the most charter companies, but there are scores of others on every island. A proficiency test is required before you're allowed to go it alone, and night sailing or sailing near Anegada, where waters can be very rough, is prohibited. Crewed yachts are also for hire.
Fly BVI has flights between Tortola and Virgin Gorda, with occasional flights to Anegada as well. A better way to island hop in the British Virgins is via the ferries that go between the larger islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke. Dozens of water taxis are available to ferry you anywhere else you may wish to go, or you can hire a motorboat and putt off with a picnic.
There are heaps of car rental agencies on Tortola. You'll need a temporary British Virgin Islands driving license, available from the rental agencies, and a valid license from home. Drive on the left. Anegada has a jeep rental shop, which is good because its roads are nothing more than glorified sandlots; there's one rental agency on Virgin Gorda, but if you're just heading to the Baths and back it's easier to jump on a shuttle bus. There's a jeep rental agency on St John, but they've only got a few vehicles, so book ahead. If you bring your own bicycle to the islands, you're supposed to register it with the traffic office in Road Town.
It's not difficult finding a taxi on Tortola but tougher on the other islands. Rates are fixed and based on the distance and the number of passengers. Tortola's bus service is unpredictable, so don't rely on it to get to any hot dates. The best way to get around the smaller islands is to walk or boat from bay to bay.
 Recommended Reading
- The Sugar Mill Caribbean Cookbook was compiled by Jinx and Jefferson Morgan, the owners of Tortola's yummy Sugar Mill Hotel. This book will take you from fish fritters to rum torte, and it's available on the island.
- Martha Gellhorn visited the British Virgin Islands in 1942 and again in 1977. Travels with Myself and Another tracks the changes she witnessed.
- Shiva Naipaul turns a languorous eye to Tortola in Beyond the Dragon's Mouth: Stories and Pieces.
- Norman Island, 8 miles (13km) south of Road Town, is the purported setting of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
 Lonely Planet Guides
 Travelers' Reports
 On-line Info
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