This 7-day BVI catamaran charter itinerary is the most popular route among our charter guests. Starting in Tortola, it covers Norman Island, Peter Island, Cooper Island, Virgin Gorda, Guana Island, and Jost Van Dyke, and it skips Anegada to keep sailing legs short and days relaxed. Anegada is the one BVI island that needs a real passage, two to three hours of open water from North Sound and a reef entrance, which is why we keep it for the full island route, the version of this week for guests who want to see everything.
You will explore top BVI snorkeling sites like The Indians and The Baths, enjoy the BVI’s best beach bars like Soggy Dollar and Willy T, and overnight in calm, scenic bays perfect for catamarans. Each day below is split into morning, lunch, afternoon and evening, with where the boat sleeps, because that is how our captains actually run the week.
Day by Day Route
Day 1 – Nanny Cay Marina, Tortola to Norman Island
Midday: boarding at Nanny Cay
You board at Nanny Cay Marina on Tortola around midday. Your crew meets you with welcome drinks, your bags disappear into your cabin, and the fridge is already stocked with the list you sent your broker. Flying into Beef Island (EIS) you are at Nanny Cay in 30 minutes; from St Thomas (STT) a water taxi does it in about 40 minutes, customs included, and some boats can pick you up there. After the safety briefing you are out into the Sir Francis Drake Channel, and the sail to Norman Island is about an hour, which is exactly what you want on day one: short, flat, and ending in a mooring field so calm you forget you are on a boat.
Afternoon: The Caves and The Indians
Norman Island is famous for its sea caves and pirate history. It is widely believed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and 18th-century pirates used the caves to stash loot. The three Caves at Treasure Point are still the best first snorkel in the BVI: you swim in from the tender into the dark, and the light off the sand floor turns green. The Indians are the four rock pinnacles just off Pelican Island, named because they look like a mohawk from the water. One side is shallow and full of fish, the other drops away, and there is a small swim-through for confident free divers. Both are National Parks day moorings, so the captain will pick the quiet hour. Gear is ready on the swim platform.
Evening: Pirate’s Bight and the Willy T
Ashore, Pirate’s Bight is the restaurant on the beach, and behind it is the trail up Spyglass Hill, a 30 to 40 minute climb with the whole channel laid out below you; go before it gets hot. Then the tender takes you to the Willy T, the floating bar anchored 500 feet off the beach in The Bight since 2019, back at its original spot after Hurricane Irma. People jump off the top deck. It gets loud after sunset, which is either the point or the reason you go back to the boat.
Overnight: The Bight, Norman Island, on a mooring.
Don’t Miss
- Snorkel The Caves and The Indians
- Spyglass Hill before it gets hot, then lunch at Pirate’s Bight
- Sunset drink at the Willy T, jump off the top deck if you must
Day 2 – Norman Island to Peter Island, Salt Island and Cooper Island
Morning: turtles at Little Harbour, Peter Island
After breakfast you sail east to Peter Island, the largest private island in the BVI. Little Harbour is the morning swim and paddleboard stop, and it is one of the best places on the route to spot green turtles right off the stern. Peter Island Resort reopened in December 2024 after a seven-year rebuild, with the rooms now down on Deadman’s Beach, so this bay looks very different from what older guides describe.
Late morning, continue to Salt Island for the wreck of the RMS Rhone, a Royal Mail steamer that broke in two in the hurricane of October 1867. It sits inside a marine park, so the captain picks up a mooring rather than anchoring. The stern section lies in 20 to 35 feet and is good snorkeling on a clear day; the bow is in about 80 feet and is for divers. Ashore, the island is named for its salt ponds, and the island’s families still send a bag of salt to the Crown each year.
Lunch: on the mooring at Cooper Island
Cooper Island is the guest favorite on this loop, and it fills: 40 mooring balls, no anchoring in the field, and the captain wants to be tied up by 1pm to be sure of one. So lunch is on board in Manchioneel Bay, with the beach club in the window.
Afternoon: Cistern Point and the rum bar
Snorkel Cistern Point at the south end of the bay for turtles and rays, then dinghy in. The Cooper Island Beach Club runs the BVI’s only solar-powered microbrewery, a rum bar with more than 400 rums, and a coffee shop with gelato for the kids while the adults do a rum flight.
Evening: dinner at Cooper Island Beach Club
Dinner needs a reservation and your captain books it before the week starts. It is the classic beach-club night on the route: feet in the sand, boats lit up on the moorings, and a short tender ride home.
Overnight: Manchioneel Bay, Cooper Island, on a mooring.
Don’t Miss
- Swimming with green sea turtles at Little Harbour
- Snorkel or dive the RMS Rhone
- Rum flight and dinner at Cooper Island Beach Club, booked ahead
Day 3 – Cooper Island to The Baths, Virgin Gorda
Morning: The Baths, before the day boats
No BVI catamaran charter is complete without The Baths, and this is the one stop where timing matters more than anything else on the route.
The boulders are granite, not coral. They pushed up as molten rock millions of years ago, cooled underground, and the softer rock around them has been eroding away ever since. What is left is a beach of house-sized boulders leaning on each other, with pools, caves and shafts of light in the gaps between them. Some are 40 feet across.
Your catamaran picks up a National Parks day mooring right in front. From there you swim, paddleboard, or take the tender to the swim line and wade the last few meters in (dinghies are not allowed on the beach itself). The trail through the boulders to Devil’s Bay takes 10 to 15 minutes at a normal pace, longer with kids, because there are ladders, rope handrails and plenty of places to climb. Halfway through you reach The Cathedral, a tall chamber where the boulders meet overhead and the light comes in sideways. That is the photo everyone takes home. Swim in the pools on the way, and snorkel off Devil’s Bay at the end.
The catch is the crowds. Cruise ship and day-boat excursions all land in the same mid-morning window, and the trail gets shoulder to shoulder. Your captain knows the ship schedule for the day and will time your visit around it, which usually means going in first thing or after the tours have left.
Lunch: on the mooring, or Spring Bay
Back on board. The chef has lunch ready on the mooring, and this is the day you eat with the boulders in the window. If the tours have arrived by now, the captain drops back to Spring Bay next door: same boulders, no tour groups, and the snorkeling off The Crawl is as good.
Afternoon: on the hook off CocoMaya, or ashore in Spanish Town
A short motor north, then the afternoon is yours. Most guests anchor off the beach in front of CocoMaya and get every water toy off the deck: paddleboard to the beach, a swim, or the afternoon to finally learn the eFoil with the crew spotting you. If you want ground under your feet, the tender drops you in Spanish Town. It is the oldest settlement on Virgin Gorda, the island Columbus named the Fat Virgin for its shape on the horizon in 1493, and a short taxi south takes you to the Copper Mine ruins, where Cornish miners worked the cliffs from the 1830s to the 1860s. The stone chimney still stands over the Atlantic. Back in time for sunset.
Evening: dinner at CocoMaya
Dinner at CocoMaya is the evening most of our captains push for on this route. Anchor off the beach in front, and on a calm evening the tender goes straight to their dock. It is a sunset beach bar with an Asian-Latin fusion menu (check it before you go, it is a step above the usual beach-bar fare), a big bar with a dance floor and a DJ later in the evening, a fire pit with s’mores for the kids, and hammocks right on the waterline. Dinner only, Monday to Saturday from 5pm, and they handle dietary requirements without fuss.
Broker insight
We anchored right in front and took the tender to the dock. The food is properly elevated, not beach-bar food, and they sorted my dietary requests without blinking. My favorite part was after dinner: hammocks on the waterline, the fire pit going, and our catamaran lit up in the anchorage while the DJ started. It is upscale but it can turn into a party. Kids get s'mores. Go for sunset and stay.
Klara Braga Jakobsen
Yacht Reviewer & Content Lead
Overnight: Anchored off Spanish Town, in front of CocoMaya.
Don’t Miss
- The Cathedral, and the pools on either side of it
- Spring Bay for the same boulders without the crowd
- Sunset dinner at CocoMaya, anchored right in front
Day 4 – Spanish Town to North Sound
Morning: the Kodiak Queen, then into the Sound
Today you head north into North Sound, the yachting heart of Virgin Gorda. On the way, off Long Bay, is the Kodiak Queen, a Navy fuel barge that survived Pearl Harbor and was sunk here in March 2017 as an art reef. An 80-foot steel kraken is wrapped around the hull as if dragging it down. It sits in 57 feet, so it is a dive rather than a snorkel, but on a clear day you can see the shape from the surface.
North Sound itself is a big, protected lagoon ringed by resorts, all of them rebuilt since Irma, so what you see now is newer than most of the internet says. Look but do not land on Necker and Moskito, Richard Branson’s islands at the mouth of the sound.
Lunch: Bitter End Yacht Club
Bitter End Yacht Club reopened as a smaller, sharper version of itself. Lunch on the dock, and the concierge will run you across to Saba Rock by boat later if you give them your mooring number.
Afternoon: Eustatia Sound, Prickly Pear, or the pirate show
If you want action, the kite and foil school at Bitter End takes you out to Eustatia Sound, the flat-water lagoon behind the reef where the crews go on their days off; the e-foil rental is on Saba Rock. If you want quiet, the beach at Prickly Pear and the reef in front of it are the snorkel. If you have kids, Leverick Bay on the west side is the stop: the Michael Beans pirate show runs 5 to 7pm from late December to the end of April, with sea shanties and a conch-blowing contest they will talk about for the rest of the week.
Evening: sunset at Saba Rock
Saba Rock reopened in October 2021 on its own tiny island in the middle of the sound. Be on the dock at 5pm for the tarpon feeding, when fish the length of your arm boil the water under the lights, then stay for sunset cocktails and conch fritters, and dinner if the chef has the night off.
Overnight: North Sound, on a mooring off Bitter End or Leverick Bay.
Don’t Miss
- Tarpon feeding at Saba Rock, 5pm
- Michael Beans at Leverick Bay (December to April)
- Kodiak Queen art reef for divers
Day 5 – North Sound to Guana Island
Morning: the longest sail of the week
Around two hours west along the sheltered north side of Tortola. This is the morning to be on the trampoline.
Lunch: Monkey Point, Guana Island
On the mooring at Monkey Point, and you snorkel before you eat. This is the best turtle snorkel on the route and the one with the biggest bait balls: the point is a nursery for fry, so you swim through a silver cloud of small fish with the tarpon and jacks that follow them, then out over the reef where the turtles graze. Day moorings only, so it is a long lunch, not the overnight.
Afternoon: in the water
Guana Island is private and mostly untouched, a wildlife sanctuary with flamingos and rock iguanas, and you cannot land, which is exactly why the water around it is so good. Stay in until the captain calls it.
Evening: a quiet anchorage
A captain’s call: White Bay on Guana’s west side in settled weather, or Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, which sets up the short hop to Jost in the morning. If the dates line up with a full moon, the Fireball Full Moon Party at Trellis Bay is worth the detour: steel fireballs burning in the water along the beach, barbecue, and a crowd that is family-friendly until it isn’t.
Overnight: White Bay, Guana Island, or Cane Garden Bay, Tortola.
Don’t Miss
- Snorkeling with turtles and tarpon at Monkey Point
- A quiet overnight after four busy days
- Full moon at Trellis Bay if the calendar plays along
Day 6 – Guana Island to Jost Van Dyke
Morning: Bubbly Pool and Sandy Spit
Jost Van Dyke is the most iconic stop on any BVI catamaran charter, and the one our whole team has turned into a tradition. Start on the east end. Pick up a mooring at Diamond Cay by Foxy’s Taboo and walk ten minutes to the Bubbly Pool, a rock basin where the swell pushes through a gap and fills it with fizzing seawater. One thing the guides do not tell you: it only bubbles when there is a north swell. On a flat day it is a pretty pool; on the right day it is a jacuzzi. Your captain knows which morning it is. Sandy Spit next door is the postcard: one palm, one sandbar, nobody on it before 10am.
Lunch: Hendo’s Hideout, White Bay
Sail around to White Bay, anchor, and swim in. Hendo’s Hideout does the proper sit-down lunch on this beach, a few minutes’ walk from the crowd, with the same water in front. Or eat at Soggy Dollar itself; the food is better than it needs to be.
Afternoon: a Painkiller in the water at Soggy Dollar
Soggy Dollar Bar is named for the guests who swam ashore with wet cash, and it is where Daphne Henderson mixed the first Painkiller in the 1970s. The formula is simple: get a cold one, walk back into the water, and drink it standing waist-deep looking at your boat. It is busy almost every day, because it is that popular, and the crowd is part of the vibe. If you want the same view with fewer people, walk the beach in either direction: Gertrude’s and One Love (order the Bushwacker) have the same drinks and a quieter stretch of sand in front. Come back to Soggy Dollar when the sun drops.
Evening: Foxy’s, Great Harbour
White Bay rolls at night, so most captains move around to Great Harbour for the overnight. That puts you at Foxy’s, where Foxy Callwood has been hosting sailors since 1968 and still wanders the tables with his guitar. If you want the quiet version, Little Harbour next door has Sidney’s Peace and Love and Harris’ Place for lobster on the dock. Or the chef cooks and you listen to Foxy’s from the deck.
Overnight: Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke (or Little Harbour if you want it quiet).
Don’t Miss
- Bubbly Pool, timed by your captain for the swell
- A Painkiller in the water at Soggy Dollar, lunch at Hendo’s
- Live music at Foxy’s in Great Harbour
Day 7 – Return to Tortola
Morning: Sandy Cay or Cane Garden Bay
The last morning is short by design. Most crews serve breakfast at anchor and then make one more stop before Nanny Cay, chosen around your flight or ferry time.
If there is time for a swim, it is Sandy Cay, the islet between Jost and Tortola that Laurance Rockefeller gave to the BVI as a national park. There is a 20-minute loop trail over the top and good snorkeling off the beach. If there is time ashore, it is Cane Garden Bay, where the Callwood Distillery has been making Arundel cane rum in the same stone building for over 200 years, the oldest continuously operating pot still in the Caribbean, and a bottle fits in a carry-on.
Return: Nanny Cay, or Soper’s Hole for St Thomas
Guests flying out of St Thomas are dropped at Soper’s Hole on the West End for the water taxi, and clear customs there. Everyone else ties up back at Nanny Cay, with the crew handling your bags to the taxi. Your captain sets the time around your flight.
Don’t Miss
- Sandy Cay loop trail and snorkel
- Callwood Distillery, Cane Garden Bay
- One last swim before the marina
