"The British Virgin Islands - Paradise! " a British Virgin Islands Travel Page by kleverkimberley

I will never ever use the words "blue" or "green" in a sentence without clarifying the shade... the BVI has hundreds of shades of each. WOW!

We took two weeks and split the vacation into 2 parts:
1. Beachtime on Tortola
2. Sailing time with another couple around the BVI

It's hard to say which part was my favourite, ... it was all quite spectacular! Everything new we saw was better and more bee-you-tee-full then the last thing - really, really!

**One thing that might be helpful to you - we went just after the high season and got MUCH BETTER deals on hotels as well as the on the cost of renting the sailboat. Weather was still great!
Great!
Great!

For most of the first week, we stayed in Little Apple Bay, Tortola (on the northeast end of the island).

We relaxed on the beach at our hotel (Sebastien's - good value, great beach location).

We (well, my fiance) surfed in front of the Bomba Shack (it really is a shack - see pics! Absolutely unique to the Carribean - not luxury, quite the opposite but,... if you've got a sense of humour, absolutely check it out! Careful with the "Bomba Punch" - if you end up there on a full moon, apparently it's quite a kicking place!!! (be prepared to see more then one full moon)

We took a day hiked up and around to the East end of the island to Sopher's Hole and then on to a great little hidden treasure of a beach called Smuggler's Cove (you can drive there if you want but,.. I really recommend the hike - it was bee-you-tee-full and all the exercise certainly made us appreciate the water when we got there a whole lot more!!) It's supposed to be a good place to Snorkel as well. I do have some pictures in this log to give you a better idea of the place.

We met another couple at the hotel, rented a boat from Cane Garden Bay and headed out to Sandy Cay (your very own deserted island! BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL with great snorkelling!!) The sand is indescribable. Make the trip if you can!

Near the end of the week, we made our way over to Road Town to meet up with our friends to start the sailing adventure of week two.

**Note: There's really nothing to do in Road Town but, if you need to make your way their to hop onto a sailboat to have a great, relaxing BVI sailing adventure, do come early enough to spend one night at a great hotel - Fort Burt (directly across from the Fort Burt Marina). It's built on the original foundations of a 1600 Fort. Great rooms, great food. Really the only reason to come early to the town.

bhttp://www.britishvirginislands.com/tortola.cfm

I should start this by stipulating here that we went with another couple and, though it has inspired us to look into sailing lessons as well as peruse boats for sale on E-Bay, we were and are NOT the sailors...
Not even very good deckhands, actually but, we tried!!

I couldn't think of a better place to take our first sailing adventire though... there were so many bee-you-tee-full stops to make in the week we were on the boat - my only regret is we only planned for a week... there were many places we really would have liked to see again.
(And we will, I hope, sometime soon!)

Places to note:
Norman Island - it's THE Treasure Island from the book! Cool! We anchored for our first snorkelling stop of the sailing trip. Very cool!

The Indians - A GREAT place to anchor and snorkel. Lots of bee-you-tee-full fish and coral. Get there early so you don't have to wait for a ball.

The Baths, Virgin Gorda - I will never be able to say enough how absolutely gorgeous this natural wonder is. There are some pics in the log - please do take a look because words don't do it justice.

Foxy's, Jost Van Dyke - Just look for a Golden retriever's head sticking out of the water and you'll know two things - it's hot out and you've made it to Foxy's. If you're lucky, Foxy'll be there and you'll get a show. It's worth the stop. Good food. Interesting location. **If you get a ball and spend the night, be prepared to be gently woken up by free-roaming goats in the morning... kinda like babies screaming but, surprisingly not annoying at all - could be the amazing scenery!!

All in all, it was a sad day when we returned the boat and started making our way home.