Carol, ferries only go a few days a week, and it's a long, often rough ride. BVI is a high-end destination, unless you're talking cruise ships, which are largely budget travelers. Other travelers will do nearly anything to avoid the hoi polloi, which in this case means chartering flights to Anegada. A $10k+/week charter boat, also works! It's hard to imagine the effect the massive cruise ships have had, especially on Tortola and on villa rentals there.
Villa rentals on Virgin Gorda can run $3k/night, so chartering a flight to Anegada is not that bad, relatively.
Completely agree RW. We routinely pay $$$ for water taxis and this is right in line with that given the distance.
What the cruise industry has done to the islands is unforgivable in my opinion. It seems like we can go to very few places, even on our cat, to avoid their hordes. Anegada is (at least for now) one of those places and therefore worth the $$ and effort to get there.
You are right about the damage cruise ships have done to BVI tourism..especially on Tortola and villa rentals.Even the owners of the beach bars complain that the cruise ship folks stop others from having a nice lunch etc..while they "use" the facilities but dont spend the $$.Sadly we cant put the genie back in the bottle but we could cut back on the numbers coming ashore.For an island of about 20,000 a sudden influx of 8,000 is overwhelming the already poor infrastructure. I pray they never find a way to come to Anegada..
I hope you are right. The cruise ship industry is hyper focused on finding new places to exploit as they are out of places now and building new ships rapidly. I hope this ad is not about things to come. If you are on heart medication I recommend not looking! G
For those that have recently flown Island Birds, Air Paradise or Fly BVI - knowing this could change, do you have any feedback on reliability and communication? We have been flying in and out of Puerto Rico with two amazing pilots that communicate so well, confirm the flight the day before, that they are enroute to pick us up or waiting for us as we get off our plane. However, we already booked our next trip coming through St Thomas and will pay extra for reliability and communication. We have been left at the Anegada airport with no communication before….not a bad place to be left, but definitely makes for an interesting trip when you have to rebook flights due to no communication from pilot. If you would rather message me, that is great too! Appreciate all your feedback.
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