TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Necker Island, JVD or Anegada excursion?

We'll be back in Virgin Gorda for 9 days in May, and staying in a villa on Nail Bay. We would like to do at least one excursion while we are there. Most important would be - seeing beautiful scenery and beaches, drinks on the beach, enjoying the sea and sun, and maybe some snorkeling.

I'd love to hear all of your thoughts on which would be the one you'd recommend the most -- Necker Island (if they will go there while we're there), Anegada, or Jost Van Dyke? I doubt we'll have the budget for more than one. Snorkeling would be a plus, but not necessary if the trip is fun. Another option is the "Island Hopper" with Dive BVI that goes around JVD, Tortola and Norman Island.)

Anegada has all you want to do. Dick Van Dyke is too crowded and Necker is virtually private.

I would second Anegada. We have done the day trip with Dive BVI when land based on VG. They take you to Loblolly/the Big Bamboo for snorkeling, drinks, lunch, drinks, snorkeling. Not sure if Anegada is in our sail plan in June, but if not we will may do a day trip from Dive BVI or thumb a ride from the LB dock when we are land based.

With those choices I'd probably opt for the "island hopper" option. But I'm dying to do the Necker tour, so that would be hard to pass up if it's available, too.

Chris and Misty...Anegada is DEFINITELY in the June plan..talked about over lunch with Chris and Tracy today ( without the hurricane!)

Great, are you and Candace coming with us??

I'll be coming..C hates boats! Chris and Tracy are with us now about to head to CGB to hook up with Capt Jim and the " Blue Moonies"..

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />That's good news! Tell everyone we said hi and have a Red Stripe for us!

We did the necker excursion in February. We loved it. Our son is 10yo and loves animals so seeing the "three cans" ( we followed their blog for years) the lemurs and flamingos were the main reason we were motivated to go.

We found the physical plant part of the island tour very interesting. We saw the solar farm and got lots of info about how a private island is run. The geek in us found that very interesting.

The tortoises were an unexpected delight. We loved seeing the hatchlings and feeding the huge ones. It's a private zoo where you are encouraged to get up close.

We took a nice hike over the hill and spent time at the flamingo pond and then got to go to the main house. There are house tortoises! Security guards as gumption called them.

The lemurs were fantastic. (We are animal people). It was like someone combined the best parts of kittens and baby monkeys and made a lemur. They were delightful. Again, we have a 10 yo who has watched penguins of Madagascar about a thousand times so to play with and feed real lemurs was about as good as it gets for him. His father and I loved it as well.

As I told gumption, we had been to Disney over thanksgiving and did the VIP private Animal Kingdom tour. His tour is 100x better at a fraction of the cost. At Disney we saw animals from 50 yards away as we were rushed on to the next exhibit. On necker we could talk to their caretakers, learn about the species, feed them and observe them up close. The caretakers obviously love their jobs and care deeply about. The welfare of their animals.

Gumption is an enterprising up young man and we thoroughly enjoyed the excursion. We will contact him again next trip for a snorkelling or another Necker tour.

It obvious we loved seeing The animals. The necker tour is completely different than an anegada trip, which we also loved but for different reasons.

Necker Island is our #1 choice, but the odds that he's going there while we're on the island are probably not great. So...we need a fallback. I see a lot of the sailing companies do all kinds of trips, but the minimum is 4 people, and we are just 2. Do we check in with them to see if we can join a group? Or if another couple is interested in a trip? No sure how all that works.

Maximize your choices by visiting Leverick and touching base with the great staff there. JVD may not be in the mix of possibilities from North Sound, but there may be others in store. Leverick Bay Resort staff may be in the best position to help you join up with a provider.