This was our 1st trip to the BVI’s and was GREAT! 12 days of limin’ in paradise on Tortola was definitely the prescription we much needed.
Flew AA Orlando-San Juan-Tortola – left 8am arriving 1215 noon; well that didn’t happen. Engine light on, had mechanic look problem, sat on runway 1.5 hours – took off by 930 missed our connection, but AA put us on next flight, arrived EIS around 145 & happy to be on island time now. Customs was a breeze, they asked Allan about his soft-sided cooler & its contents (fresh mahi-mahi & Wahoo from home) customs gal asked Allan the value of the fish, he told her 1 ballyhoo & 3 hours of his time fishing at home in Florida, smiling she asked “where you stayin”, he said “ask her” & pointed across the way, as I was still standing in line to get my passport stamped, so I yelled the answer, she then told Allan “have a great time and enjoy your fish”….she just waved me on smiling up a storm
Return flight we checked in 2 hours prior, no line, baggage screener didn’t even go through our bags, was asked if we wanted to grab the next plane 230 instead of 330, we said ok, once we boarded the plane we had problems again, delayed for 45 min. or so, & needless to say, we still left around the same time originally ticketed. Baggage screeners at EIS gave Allan a hard time about his cooler, saying it was leaking & going to ruin their machine, we told them it was only ice water but they insisted he go outside and empty the ice…he returned 5 min. later, they’re still ranting cuz the bags dripping a little, then asking for his departure ticket or he cant go, as he’s pointing to me on the other side waving it, they finally let him thru as they are moaning under their breath, sorry is all we could say. Got to SJU, bag return was fast, cleared customs - no problems, just wanted to see inside the cooler, only beer & liquor, no fruit, no problem, made our connection with 15 minutes to spare, but now we wished we would of missed that flight from hell
The flight home was the WORST <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" /> in our life & I’m not exaggerating either. There was a woman traveling with a 3-4 year old sitting 2 seats behind us who screamed constantly on the TOP OF HER LUNGS the WHOLE 3 HOURS like she was being killed, no exaggeration. After about 2 hours of constant screaming, Allan yelled really really loud "enough already", some people clapping & happy <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> we said something others not so <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Mad.gif" alt="" />, & some lady next to the screamer said she’s scared, like that was suppose to make it better…..what I don’t understand is why didn’t the mother do something like sing to her, read a book, play some games or toys, but nope - she didn’t even try, she just let her wail, even the stewardess tried to calm her down with no luck, & nothing seemed to phase the mom. We even gave her lollipops & candy to stop the screaming, she’d stop for maybe 3 minutes tops then start wailing again. Just wish the pilot was sitting back there, it would of taken us less than an hour I’m sure. After everyone de-planed, some guy walking next to us said “well honey, that 3 grand vacation was just thrown down the toilet thanks to the screamer”, <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif" alt="" />how true! we felt the same way, here we were totally decompressed until the plane ride from hell!!! Don’t get us wrong, we like kids, can tolerate just about anything but not 3 hours of constant wailing & screaming. Thank God for the cigars and cooler full of rum & beer.
Jeep rented thru International – highly recommend & was cheapest by far. Jeep was in the airport parking lot waiting for us, upon departure you leave jeep at same place, saves LOTS of time & headaches too. Not too many companies offer this, another reason why we chose them and were very happy we did. Paperwork done in less than 10 minutes, no glitches, no overpricing, & excellent service. Used Riteway in roadtown for groceries, and also Bobby’s in CGB, also hit TICO before leaving island for great liquor prices.
Our home base was on Tortola, rented a house overlooking Brewers Bay, just beautiful. Took us forever to find the house since its up in the mountains, off the beaten track on a dirt road. It was frustrating trying to find the correct road to take to get to it, with that being said, we greeted & met every close neighbor by driving down their driveway asking & pleading for help. The only drawback about staying in Brewers, it was windy as hell up in the mountains, we called it tornado alley. It was so windy most nights we didn’t even sit outside, and when we did I was wrapped up in a blanket or jacket, guess my its my thin Florida blood, and the driving up and down those mountains with no street lights after dinner at CGB is a challenge to say the least. The first night we ate dinner at the house (our fresh fish), didn’t feel much like getting lost just yet, nevertheless in the dark, but the 2nd night we did just that, got lost in the dark, went past Rudy’s and seen someone there so I asked for directions, good thing, or we’d wound up in roadtown! Between the roosters and the wind, sleep was hard to come by some nights….as the shutters on the house some nights banged so loud all night long from the wind it was like someone was slamming a door right outside our bedroom, guess I’m spoiled living in the woods on 10 acres with not a peep except frogs that croak or crickets…
Snorkeling at Brewers was good, LOTS of feeder fish one day so thick that you couldn’t really see anything at all, except for that 4 foot tarpon! scared the crap out of me that’s for sure! Little Lambert beach was so-so, not too good of snorkeling at some other beaches on Tortola cuz the weather, way too windy, nasty, raining off/on that we didn’t see much at all.
Since the weather was very windy, clouds and raining off/on the first 3 days we drove the whole island, drove down almost every road we came across, which half wound up being someone’s driveway (we really liked that almost everyone is friendly not like here in the states pulling out their shot guns before asking ?s), seen almost every beach except for Josiah’s, must of passed that road too fast and missed the turn off, we drove 320 miles in 12 days!
Driving on the left was challenging, kept having to remind my husband “your side, your side”, watching for horses, cows, goats or chickens that you don’t run them over, or kids too. Those mountains are another story, I was white knuckled the first 3 days, then got use to it, I think by then we were using 4wd otherwise we’d need new tires real soon, gotta love those hairpin curves and turns too! Otherwise oopps over the mountain you go, another reason why you get the insurance, you just never know! no incidents here. We drove so much that we found interesting sites, one day on a very high up mountain road we seen the horse track below, we also drove past the jail and kept driving even after the concrete road stops and becomes dirt, (great views to guana island? I think to the left) it dumped us out by the bridge before the airport to trellis bay, we found Little Lambert beach down some long and rocky terrain road, even took the rocky terrain road past smugglers cove beach bar and took it straight for a long while and it dumped us out at west end by the jolly roger, you name it we probably went there! We even found the Red Cross thrift store, of course had to go in and was glad I did, found a few things to take back home! We went to the botanical gardens, sky world and mt. Sage but the wind was blowing so hard we didn’t venture too far and the view from skyworld was way too hazy for pictures.
We did lots of day trips while there, another reason why I wanted to visit Tortola so badly – because you can see numerous other islands if you want to. Well in 12 days we hit a total of 6 other islands and all were GREAT, and here is a short line on each of the islands……and remember these are my opinions only….
Virgin Gorda via RT ferry, went to the baths and devils bay both were TRULY AMAZING, LOVE devils bay beach, water was so clear!!! Got there by 930 left by 12 noon as the crowds were horrendous by the time we left, then taxi to savannah bay, all were AWESOME, except for the wind on savannah, we got sandblasted while sitting on the beach, so we were either sheltering by a dune or IN the water up to your head, soft soft sand I loved savannah!
St John via WE ferry, went to Trunk Bay for snorkeling and was GREAT for visibility – nice colorful reefs, calm water, seen an octopus & lobster was the highlight, taxi to Cinnamon Bay which was a nice beach (not as nice as trunk) but snorkeling was great for visibility & nice coral reefs too. Walked thru the camp ground at cinnamon and wasn’t that impressed with the grounds.
Peter Island via ferry, you catch it by the water & sewer dept. past RT, walked to Deadmans Bay, went snorkeling at the 2nd beach there, was so-so, then hiked part of the island to get to white bay on the other side, in which we got a golf cart ride with another couple, thank God cause we’d never ever ever make it – it was that far of a hike & in the heat forget it – tipped the guy 5 bucks for the ride; paid off cause we got a ride back later on that day – he was happy – snorkeling at white bay was FABULOUS seen several BIG squid and other fish too.
Anegada – Dave with Double D Charters got us over there, a real great guy,…took a couple times to get us over there but all worked out….1st trip on Wed. got cancelled due to water pump breakage, found out once we arrived by trellis bay for departure, went to Jost instead that day….called back later in the week to try again for Sat., all worked out great….took north/sound to VG where Dave met us with the powerboat, took about 1-1/2 hrs.- he had 2 other couples on board from VG that were going over to snorkel and bone fish, made some new friends, taxi toured the island, seen the iguana project how awesome that was, seen the flamingos with binoculars, lunch at big bamboo for the famous lobster, they sold out the night before but said they’d try, they threw the cage out in the ocean and within an hour we had us some fresh pickin’s….worth every penny it was DELICIOUS! Even the sides were great…snorkeled for couple hours, seen a turtle, 2 rays, some big fish of some sort…the coral is huge and colorful it’s amazing, blow your mind amazing! Had the taxi stop at Pams pottery on the way back to the boat, honked the horn, Pam came out of her house next door & even though there wasn’t too much of a selection as she was going on vacation the 3 of us still managed to find treasures to purchase. Wish our day there was longer wanted to check out cow wreck beach but not enough time in a day to see it all, worth the time and every penny to see this island J.
Jost Van Dyke we rented a boat from Cane Garden Bay Watersports – what a horrible experience this was. There were 4 of us on this day, us and another couple we’d met (SwannIIky), we tried to get the guy to take us over by boat – didn’t happen he left without us – came back hour and half later we asked if he’d take us he said no, we didn’t want to go the first time, we then asked to rent a boat from him, charged us 150 bucks for 4 hours and 50 bucks for couple gallons of gas, the boat was filled with water they guy had to use a bucket before we boarded to empty it out – needless to say when we got to jost we had to use the billage pump to get More water out after that ordeal we all went snorkeling at white bay – which was good, 2 of us seen a turtle and stingray, 2 of us did not – the trim didn’t work so when we tried to dock at great harbor that was a joke-had to lift the motor up, thank God one of the boaters who runs Foxy’s boat helped us with some tips, , went and seen Foxy play for about ½ hour then he called it quits so he could indulge, what a character he is though, real load of fun, Glad we got to see him play J when we brought the boat back to CGB pleasure boats, Glen was yelling and bickering at us like we were his 3 year old kid….never ever again will we use him, a total complete [censored], rude crude and obnoxious to say the least…don’t waste your time or money dealing with this guy – your better off taking the ferry to jost and if your renting a boat go someplace else there are too many other locals that are by far nicer to deal with who would gladly want your business and treat you like a human being with respect, his loss not ours just hope the rest of you out there don’t waste your time with him, even the locals say he’s nasty to everyone not just us, kind of wish I knew that before hand….lesson learned the hard way…..never again!
St Thomas via RT ferry, went on mothers day, speedys fast ferry wasn’t operating cuz of it being Sunday and a holiday, instead it was American Pride and if I didn’t ask we wouldn’t of known cause they were both at the dock, had to also ask the gal to circle our tickets for roundtrip I surely didn’t want to pay again on the return, she did no problem, walked a couple hours touring the shops, ¾ were closed because it was Sunday & no ships in, found some trinkets & clothes, crappy weather once again, raining on/off and very windy, toted the snorkeling gear for nothing so we taxi to Coral World by conki beach, this place is pretty awesome, they have an observatory over a live coral reef that’s 2 stories down you can visually see all underwater life it was truly amazing, even got to hand feed some sting rays, nice grounds, touch and learn tanks, iguana’s walking around the place, sea turtle pool, shark tank, a bunch of stuff to see, we felt it was definitely worth the 18 bucks to get in for the day.
Restaurants and places we ate, and I’m sure there were some that I forgot to mention:
Friday night bbq at the Elm – also had lunch one day there really good food for the $
Another Friday night we hit the fish fry in apple bay which was great
Dove in roadtown was AWESOME, big portions, great food and not that $
Coco Plums had appetizer of mushrooms/conch fritters both outstanding as was the salad, but those ribs were WONDERFUL even the next day for breakfast!
Myetts had great chicken & appetizers too
Brandywine restaurant - not as good as everyone says especially for the $, service was great, food just OK not too tasty (maybe because I didn’t have an Italian dish), however the dessert (tiramisu) was wonderful
Jolly Roger had great fish & Quesada’s
Ate at some other place in RT before little Denmark on the opposite side of the street in a brown bldg., some real home cooking, great food a good bang for the buck
Trellis bay cyber café on the way to the airport for departure, we split the awesome sandwich, mahi mahi, what a wonderful ending to a great vacation…bushwacker on the side too! Thanks to Mandy of coco plums for recommending this place….
vg-had to go to mad dog for the blt’s and yes they are wonderful, then a bushwacker at bath & turtle so I can get good photos
st john – ate at uncle joe’s (I think that is the name) right by the ferry dock, you can smell the bbq ribs cooking so just follow your nose…..that’s what we did, went from one side of the street to the next until I had the smell right under my nose to say yup this is what I’d be smelling, ribs to DIE FOR and rice/peas and coleslaw mighty good too.
We tried several times to eat at Palms Delight but to no avail they were always closed the days we went, same for De Loose Mongoose, a bit disappointing as I was so looking forward to ginger chicken and conch fritters…next time! We also tried to get into the shell museum but Edgar was never around to get in. And also Thanks to alot of you for answering ?;s to make this trip easier on us newbies to find our way around.
A brief recollection of some things, as others have stated greet the islanders with a hello how are you today, and make mention that you are a visitor for ____ days, you will be amazed how open and friendly they can be, we are very appreciative to have met several locals that we call close friends now because of this, we learned to order 1 meal and split it because there was usually so much food that our pet pig near the house probably gained 5 lbs. and is probably wondering where her friends disappeared to, enjoy the island and all its treasures and remember don’t let anything get you down be it a bad attitude, a rude server, ucky food or bad weather, life is too short, have another bushwacker and enjoy paradise, we did! Now to plan our next visit back…but which island will be our home base this time is the big question…..
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