Favorite BVI Photos

The beautiful British Virgin Islands was a dream vacation!  Alesia and I stayed for a week at the fabulous Scrub Island Resort. This is a five-star Marriott property of just more than 50 rooms. All of the views face the beautiful Caribbean Sea. 

Marriott's Scrub Island Resort in the British Virgin Islands- our room was in the building at top, second from right



As lovely and comfortable as the resort is, we didn't spend that much time there, at least during the day. Fortunately, the weather was great the whole time we were there.We went on two snorkeling excursions and on another day took a ferry to Virgin Gorda where we rented a car to tour the island and also snorkeled at Savannah Bay Beach (pictured below) and Virgin Gorda's popular The Baths National Park- both places were exceptional: Savannah Bay quiet and intimate; The Baths much more crowded and so unusual with all those huge rocks.

Virgin Gorda's Savannah Bay 

                                             Bath Beach on Virgin Gorda

               The Caves at Bath Beach offer another neat natural wonder

Another interesting rock formation, and the best snorkeling spot we hit during our visit, was The Indians, located off Norman Island. Our snorkel boat anchored nearby and our group had a great time swimming around and through these giant jutting rocks.

The Indians- the name has different origins. Not disputed: excellent snorkeling!

I had much fun with our new GoPro Hero4 Silver camera. Using the special wrist mount, I was able to capture nice underwater stills and video and neat above the water shots too.
See my YouTube video! 

This is one of the caves we swam into to snorkel and look around

A school of fish seen at The Bath Beach on Virgin Gorda

Pretty yellow/black striped fish amid coral at The Indians

For both our snorkel outings Sara from Dive BVI was our awesome leader

Returning to our boat

GoPro image from Virgin Gorda's Savannah Bay

There wasn't too much British apparent-seen or heard- on BVI. This was an exception, on Cooper Island where we stopped for lunch during a snorkeling excursion.  We had a memorable lunch also aboard Willy T's pirate ship off Norman Island

Great sea views from the Cooper Island Beach Club Restaurant

Willy T's had a fun atmosphere. Some people jumped into the water from the second deck

Alesia and I aboard the snorkel boat

We had a wonderful, whirlwind time on Scrub Island and the rest of the British Virgin Islands we were able to see from land, boat and underwater. We met three couples from Charleston, which was a surprise. And, we also had a celebrity encounter at the St. Thomas airport waiting from our plane home. We met Craig Conover from the Charleston Bravo show "Southern Charms." 

Scrub Island, despite its name, was anything but. The location and resort design are incredible. The rooms are luxurious. There are many amenities including free kayaking and stand up paddle boarding, which we did for the first time- such fun! 

Scrub Island is not the easiest place to reach, but the ferries and cabs and short time spent walking around BVI's largest island, Tortola, only added to the very stimulating vacation experience! The beach (and bar) at Jos Van Dyke, Willy T's, The Caves, The Indians, The Baths, the ferries, the boats, the many small islands and their Caribbean beauty- all will bring great memories for years to come. 

Some additional favorite BVI photos:

Dinner at one of Scrub Island's two fine restaurants

View from Scrub Island of neighboring islands

                                                             The marina at Scrub Island

Ferries are a way of life for BVI residents and tourists as well. They are clean and efficient. And they give you great views

from the water. The BVI archipelago consists of more than 50 islands, some developed, some not.

Busy Road Town on the island of Tortola is the capital of the BVI

The Scrub Island Resort's small market offers necessities, breakfast and other meals

Our room- very nice (we scored a sweet suite upgrade!)

Living room area with a porch looking out to the resort and the Caribbean

Scrub Island's beach is fairly small but offers nice chairs and activities like this bounce float, kayaks and stand up paddle boards

Ahh, the life of leisure, even if just for a few days, was so nice! 

Another favorite BVI photo- this is at Scrub Island's North Beach, which is a 10-15 minute walk from the resort. Staff will also take people there on golf carts.   Great times on the BVI! Maybe we'll get back there some day...