“Board at Nanny Cay, be at Norman Island in an hour, come back for a sunset in Cane Garden Bay: Tortola is where a BVI charter starts and ends.”
Tortola is the charter capital of the BVI. Nearly every crewed yacht in the islands is based here, most weeks board at Nanny Cay on the south coast, and the ferries and water taxis from St Thomas land at West End and Road Town. It is the biggest island in the group, twelve miles long and a mile of steep green hill wide, with Sage Mountain at the top.
The south side is the working side: Road Town, the marinas, the ferry docks, and the Drake Channel with the sister islands, Norman, Peter and Cooper, an hour across. The north shore is the beach side: Cane Garden Bay, Long Bay, Apple Bay and Josiah’s Bay, facing Jost Van Dyke and the sunset. Soper’s Hole at the west end and Trellis Bay at the east end are the two other places a yacht stops.
A week touches Tortola three times: the morning you board, the night before Jost on the north shore, and the last morning back to the dock. Our guide to starting in the USVI or the BVI settles the first of those; this page is the rest.
Must-dos on Tortola
- A sunset at anchor in Cane Garden Bay, with Jost Van Dyke on the horizon and the beach bars behind you
- An afternoon on Long Bay, the mile of north-shore sand with one beach bar on it
- The customs stop at Soper’s Hole, cleared from the water taxi on the way to the yacht
- Aragorn’s Studio at Trellis Bay, and the fireballs if your week has a full moon in it
- The Nanny Cay morning: board, brief, and be off the dock in an hour
From our visits to Tortola
Every November, the BVI Charter Yacht Show at Nanny Cay, and the fam trips that follow it.
Our DMA Yachting and Amwax team comes to Tortola every year for the BVI Charter Yacht Show. It is held on the docks at Nanny Cay, and for a week we step on and off the whole BVI fleet, meet the crews, and check what has changed since last season. We stay in the villas at Nanny Cay, and the evenings end at Peg Legs on the beach by the marina.
Tortola is also where our fam trips start. From Nanny Cay we head out after the show on the boats we want to know better, to try a new crew and see a place we have not been to yet; the notes on Peter Island, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke and Anegada on this site come from those trips. The photos above are the team at the November 2025 show.
Klara Jakobsen, Yacht Reviewer at DMA Yachting, November 2025
Nanny Cay: the charter capital
Nanny Cay is where the BVI charter fleet lives. It is the biggest marina in the islands, on the south coast between Road Town and West End, with two basins full of charter catamarans, a boatyard, a hotel, a chandlery and a small beach on the outside of the breakwater. The BVI Charter Yacht Show is held on these docks every November, which is why our team has boarded here more often than anywhere else in the Caribbean.
It is not a place you linger. Our own charter in November 2025 boarded after breakfast, had the briefing at the dock, and was off the outer basin by ten; by noon the boat was anchored in the Bight at Norman Island with the first swim done.
Guests arriving from St Thomas reach Nanny Cay by water taxi in about two hours from the airport, or by ferry to West End and a fifteen-minute taxi. The Nanny Cay hotel is the one to book for the night before if the flights land late.
West End and Road Town: customs, ferries and the water taxi
Soper’s Hole at West End is the port of entry. The water taxi from St Thomas pulls in at the customs dock on the north side of the harbour, you clear in from the boat, and it carries on to Nanny Cay; most guests never step ashore. Yachts arriving from the USVI do the same on a mooring, and the wharf behind, with Pusser’s Landing and a row of pastel shops, is there if the queue is long. Our team cleared in here by water taxi for the November 2024 show, and the whole stop took twenty minutes.
Road Town, the capital, is twenty minutes east along the south coast. Yachts based at Village Cay board here, the Red Hook ferry lands here, and the customs house is on the waterfront. Klara’s tip from the show week, for anyone flying home via St Thomas: take a taxi to Road Town and the ferry to Charlotte Amalie, rather than the West End boat, and you land next to the airport. The full ferry and water-taxi picture is in our guide to getting to the BVI.
The north shore: Cane Garden Bay, Long Bay, Apple Bay and Josiah’s Bay
The north shore is the side of Tortola a charter comes back for. Cane Garden Bay is the anchorage: a wide bay facing west with a mooring field, a beach lined with restaurants and bars, and the sunset landing straight in the middle of it. We anchor here for the night before Jost, because White Bay is half an hour away the next morning (Mo’s family charter on ATLAS did exactly that in November 2025, tender to the beach after dark, under way at seven), and because the evening ashore is the best on the island: Quito’s and Myett’s on the sand, live music most nights, the pier in the middle for the tender. Our beach bar guide has the detail. In winter a north swell can roll in, and captains move round to Soper’s Hole when it does.
Long Bay, west of Cane Garden Bay, is a mile of sand with one resort and one thatched beach bar on it, and nothing else. Mo’s family spent an afternoon here in November 2025 before their charter: cornhole on the sand, the kids in the shallows, a drink at the bar with the whole beach in view. It is a beach you drive to, not anchor off, and it is the quiet one.
Apple Bay next door is the surf beach, with Sebastian’s on the Beach at the water’s edge and Bomba’s shack a little along. Josiah’s Bay on the east side of the north shore is the other surf beach, a long strand with a salt pond behind it and a beach bar at one end; we flew the drone over it the day before the Long Bay afternoon, with surfers on the break and paddleboards inside it. Both are for a land day before or after the charter rather than a stop on the route.
The east end: Trellis Bay, the airport and Aragorn’s Studio
Trellis Bay is the anchorage at the east end, on Beef Island, which is joined to Tortola by a bridge and holds the airport. The airport runway ends a few hundred metres from the dock, so yachts collect guests here straight off the island-hopper from San Juan or St Thomas, and drop them here for the flight home. It is the shortest transfer in the BVI and one we recommend to anyone flying into Beef Island.
The bay is known for one man. Aragorn Dick-Read’s studio is on the beach: cut-metal sculpture, prints, pottery, and the steel fireballs he builds for the Full Moon Party, when they are set on stands in the water and lit after dark. Klara visited the studio during the November 2024 show week and photographed him pressing mahogany leaves for a print; the fireballs in the photos are his. If a full moon falls in your week, this is the night to be here, and the Loose Mongoose on the beach does the dinner.
From Trellis Bay it is a short run to Guana Island for a quiet morning, and it is the usual jumping-off point for Anegada when the route goes north from the east end.
Fitting Tortola into the week
Tortola is the start, the end, and one night in between. Boarding is at Nanny Cay, Road Town or Trellis Bay depending on where the yacht is based and where you fly in; the night in between is Cane Garden Bay, the evening before Jost Van Dyke. Our popular seven-day loop and the full route with Anegada both start at Nanny Cay; the St Thomas round trip clears in at Soper’s Hole.
Passage times as our boats run them:
- Nanny Cay to Norman Island (the Bight): 45 minutes to an hour; to Peter Island: 30 minutes; to Cooper Island: an hour and a half.
- Soper’s Hole to Norman Island: 45 minutes; to Jost Van Dyke: 40 minutes.
- Cane Garden Bay to White Bay, Jost Van Dyke: 30 minutes.
- Trellis Bay to Anegada: about two and a half hours under sail, under an hour on a power catamaran.
- Cooper or Norman back to Nanny Cay on the last morning: an hour to an hour and a half.
People also ask about Tortola
Is Tortola worth visiting on a BVI yacht charter?
Tortola is where the charter starts, so you will see it either way. The part worth time is Cane Garden Bay, for a night at anchor with the sunset and the beach bars. The rest of the week belongs to the smaller islands.
Where do most Tortola yacht charters start?
Nanny Cay, the biggest marina in the BVI, on the south coast. Some yachts board at Village Cay in Road Town, and yachts meeting guests off the Beef Island flight board at Trellis Bay. Guests coming from St Thomas clear customs at Soper’s Hole or Road Town first.
Should we spend a night on Tortola?
One, in Cane Garden Bay, on the way to Jost Van Dyke. Boarding day itself is better spent getting to Norman Island, an hour away, than sitting at the dock. If flights land late, the Nanny Cay hotel is the night-before option.
What is the best Tortola beach for charter guests?
Cane Garden Bay if you want the bars and the sunset from the anchorage; Long Bay if you want a mile of sand with one beach bar. Apple Bay and Josiah’s Bay are the surf beaches, for a land day before or after the charter.
Can you fly straight to your yacht on Tortola?
Yes. The BVI airport is on Beef Island at the east end, and yachts collect guests from the Trellis Bay dock a few hundred metres from the terminal. Most guests still fly to St Thomas for the flight choice and cross by water taxi or ferry; our start guide explains when each is the better choice.
What is the Full Moon Party at Trellis Bay?
A beach party on Trellis Bay on the night of the full moon, with a barbecue, live music, stilt walkers and Aragorn Dick-Read’s steel fireballs burning on stands in the water. If a full moon falls in your charter week, the captain can route the yacht there for the night.
BVI itineraries that start on Tortola.
