Things To Know Before Visiting BVI - British Virgin Islands Travel Guide

What's going on everybody? This is Island Hopper TV and today we're going to talk about the things you need to know when visiting the British Virgin Islands. Let's do it. First up, let's talk about the island's geography here in BVI. So there's around 60 islands in Keys, several islands to the north you'll notice like Necker Island, Mosquito Island, several others. If you go off to the side of Tortola, you'll see Jose Van Dyck and then there's several islands off to the east. You would say this is around the Atlantic meets the Caribbean. That's what you need to know. Is the Caribbean to the south, the Atlantic's to the north. Just so we're clear, the four main islands in the BVI are Anagata in the far north where the settlement is, Virgin Gorda which is where Spanish Town is, Tortola which is where Road Town, the capital is, and then the fourth one is Jose Van Dyck which is a sailor's haven which is actually where I'm at now. Lots of pirates have been coming here for many years but nowadays modern sailors bring their catamarans, their yachts, pull into any one of these harbors and take the dinghies ashore and what do they do here? They like to party. So Jose Van Dyck is the party island. All right now let's talk about the arrival process into British Virgin Islands. So when you're on the airplane they'll give you a customs form that you'll fill out. You'll need to know where you're going to be staying, your flight number, and the usual information that they're going to ask you if you're traveling with more than ten thousand dollars etc. So you'll need to fill that out before you get to the immigration booth. Once you get to the immigration booth they're going to ask you how many days you're going to be here. They're going to ask you where you're staying and they'll ask you where you're going and then that's basically it. Once you're in the country you'll be able to get a taxi right there at the airport or get a rental car pretty easy. Although if you're trying to get a rental car you should book ahead of time because they can book fast. Let's talk about some general facts of things you should know about the British Virgin Islands. So it is a British overseas territory and that's why you'll see on customs Her Majesty's Customs. Total population of the BVI is around 40,000 people. Just under that actually depends on what the new census is going to say and the currency that they use here is the U.S. dollar. The common language spoken is English. Unlike some of the other islands in the Caribbean you may get Spanish in Dominican Republic or Cuba or if you go to Martinique or Saint Barthes you'll get French. Some other areas you may even get Dutch. So good thing right here BVI British Virgin Islands English and U.S. dollar is the currency. The main economy here is tourism so very tourist dependent but don't take advantage of the situation. These are very friendly people. Let's talk about the people in the BVI. They are some of the most friendly people you will ever meet anywhere. The hospitality here is amazing. I've had nothing but positive experiences with every single local that I've met here. Everyone from the restaurants to the rental car companies to the hotel concierge has been so kind and really one of the most friendly places in the Caribbean and in the world. Real quick let's talk about accommodation. So I've stayed at airbnbs and hotels while here. I found airbnbs to be a better value and you get a better location. Sometimes they're not always going to have the best aircon or even shades, blinds. In this case I got an airbnb. Beautiful location but the problem is when the sun comes up the sun is pushing right through the window right away so that's a bit difficult for me because at 558 or 550 with the roosters crowing as you can hear and the light shining in that was the only downside of the airbnb but you get a pool. You get also great access and it's more peaceful whereas the hotels can be a bit more expensive in a lot of cases. Sometimes cheaper but you know you're going to have the convenience of having a restaurant nearby so those are the two main ways to get accommodation here. I found accommodation to be anywhere between $130 on the low end all the way up to $300 on average $250 on average I would say and then obviously they've got $2,000 a night hotels at like places like Sabah Rock but that's basically what you need to know about these hotels. And if you're coming to Virgin Gorda and you have questions you can contact Sharon here with White-Oleander Destinations. We're a small company doing really nice curated and bespoke tours and experiences. Yeah and I'll put her Instagram right here at the bottom so you guys can contact her but she's got lots of information that's very valuable. She's already been telling me everything. Let's talk about some of the best activities to do while on British Virgin Islands. So if you like partying they say Jos Van Dyke is the place to go for that. If you like an island that has it all very accessible Virgin Gorda. If you like a bit bigger island Tortola is a bit bigger. Now when it comes to the best beaches and the best all around Virgin Gorda is really hard to beat. There are some other areas around Virgin Gorda to the north where there's several islands like Necker, there's Mosquito Island, Prickly Pear Island and Larry Page has an island Sabah Rock. So I would say island hopping, sailing, going to the baths here on Virgin Gorda. Right now I am at the other side of the southern point. This here is Copper Mine Point. They also have better beaches here towards the middle part at Savannah Bay but Tortola they also have a peak there. They have Gorda Peak on Virgin Gorda. So lots of varieties things to do but use those ferries, use those boats, do some sailing, getting around. Even going up towards the north to the settlement that's a beautiful island made of mostly coral reef. I mean it's basically conch shells and coral and the elevation over there I think they said is 20 meters high at maximum. So it's a big island only 300 people live there. Lots to do around the British Virgin Islands. Really like nature's hidden secret right. All right now let's talk about beaches. So right now I'm on Jos Van Dyck. This here is White Bay. My favorite beach was actually Savannah Bay or Devil's Bay which is known as the baths. That's on Virgin Gorda. As far as Tortola goes I would say Cane Sugar Garden, Cane Garden. That's probably my favorite beach on Tortola. Sabah Rock doesn't have much beach but they have nice blue water if that's what you're really looking for. But really if you want the best beaches I would say Virgin Gorda. Now let's talk about food. This here is Johnny Cake. So it's like a dough, bread, bacon, little egg. Local favorite Johnny Cake. So I got some eggs Benedict. Got some ribs here. So she gave me a special tequila. This has a splash of red wine at the top. So this is the national drink. It's a painkiller. It's got a caboosers rum and also some mango shavings on the top there. It's a national drink, painkiller. Let's get into the subject of transportation. So as you can see behind me lots of boats, catamarans, sailboats. This is the most common way people like to island hop around the BVI over 60 islands and keys like we said earlier. Now if you wanted to take a ferry that's very easy to do. You could take one from Tortola to Jose Van Dyke. Cost $30 one way. If you wanted to go from Roadtown on Tortola to Virgin Gorda that's about $20 each way. Now on each island you're going to want to get a rental car. You could see I've got a rental car here on Jose Van Dyke. This cost me $70. I had one on Tortola and I also had one on Virgin Gorda. And if you're looking for a rental car you can contact Saeed here. He has Saeed rental cars and I'll put his information right here in the corner. Thank you, thank you. Now when you arrive you can arrive in from USVI on a ferry or an airplane. They have smaller planes, medium-sized planes with dual props, and then they have large aircraft that can arrive into Tortola or some people even arrive into St. Thomas and then just take the ferry over. There are these collectivo taxis. Some of them hold 10 people, some of them hold 20 people, and they can cost anywhere between $3 to $5 to maybe even more depending on the availability. And those are really efficient for getting from one point to another. For example, if you go to Spanish Town in Virgin Gorda and you want to go to the baths you can easily get one of those collective taxis that'll take you there and then come back. That's an easy cost-efficient way if you're not doing a tour. But if you really want to see more of Virgin Gorda or Jost Van Dyck, you're going to need a rental car to have that flexibility. Now let's actually talk about weather. So BVI is located on the northern path of the hurricane belt and that hurricane season basically begins June 1st and ends November 30th with probably July, August, and September being the strongest months for a possible hurricane. They did get a hurricane here about five years ago and it was quite strong. It flattened and wiped out a lot of infrastructure here. So a lot of the rebuilds that have taken place were a lot more strong as you can see right here at this Airbnb. Now it's made of block instead of wood. That's mostly because of the hurricane. They do get tidal surges here when it's not hurricane season. It is a bit breezy. It's very sunny. You do want to drink a lot of water when you're walking around. You want to hydrate before you go out and you want to hydrate making sure you have water with you because two, three o'clock in the afternoon doing a hike, that will creep up on you and you can get heat exhaustion. Now as far as safety goes, I found most of the Virgin Islands to be extremely safe. Virgin Gorda is very safe. Here on this island, Jost Van Dyck, very safe. Chorlila, also very safe. So the things you do have to be cautious of is the heat and the currents. So it can get very hot and it creeps up on you. So make sure you drink a lot of water before you go do activities and go out. Also bring in water with you. So you want to make sure you're always hydrated because the heat out here, especially at two o'clock in the afternoon, can really catch up to you. But those currents, pay attention to the flags because that's something very important. Also driving can be a bit chaotic. There's no crazy animals or snakes that you need to really look out for here, but that's some things you need to know about safety. Now for my final review of the British Virgin Islands. Right now I'm getting ready to take the ferry to St. John, but I wanted to tell you guys my final review. So definitely get a rental car on every single one of these islands. I find that to be the most efficient thing to do while here, if you don't have a boat. Boat probably being the best, but even then you still got to go on land to explore around these islands, right? So rental car is very useful. Taxis not so useful, although they are handy when you need them. Just very expensive. I mean $40 for a one-way on a taxi. You get a rental car for $70 a day. There you go. I would say you definitely need to check out Virgin Gorda. I don't see how you come to the British Virgin Islands without actually going to Virgin Gorda. That's probably the number one island. Tortola, I would say maybe a day or two days there. That's all you really need. There's not much exciting stuff going on there. Jost Van Dyke is worth it to check out if you like to party, but some of the other islands north of Virgin Gorda, definitely the further north you go into the BVI, probably the best. So hope you guys enjoy it and we'll see you guys on the next one. Watch some more from the U.S. Virgin Islands next. You can watch our Things to Know about the U.S. Virgin Islands next or our full St. Thomas travel review.