“The islands’ biggest rum selection and homemade ice cream on the beach? You must make a stop at Cooper Island.”
Cooper Island is the BVI stop that runs on one beach club. Nobody lives on the island except the people who work at Cooper Island Beach Club, and the club owns the evening: the moorings in front of it, the restaurant on the sand, a rum bar with several hundred bottles on the shelves, its own microbrewery and a coffee shop, all solar-powered.
It sits in the middle of the Sir Francis Drake Channel, halfway between Norman Island and Virgin Gorda, which is why it is night two on most routes. Manchioneel Bay on the west side is the anchorage, Cistern Point at its south end is the snorkel, and Wreck Alley and the RMS Rhone off Salt Island are the dives next door.
The popular seven-day loop and the full island route both put Cooper between Norman or Peter and The Baths, and the crews like it for the same reason the guests do: an hour’s sail, a mooring by early afternoon, and nothing to organise ashore.
Must-dos on Cooper Island
- A flight of four at Cooper Island Brewing Co., the only microbrewery on a BVI island stop
- Rum on the Rum Bar terrace, one of the biggest rum lists in the Caribbean
- Snorkeling Cistern Point from the tender or straight off the boat
- A dive on Wreck Alley or the Rhone from the mooring in the bay
- Dinner on the sand at the Beach Club, booked by the crew that morning
From our visits to Cooper Island
November 2025, with my family, aboard the catamaran ATLAS, a lunch stop on day two.
We came from Norman Island after a morning swim at Kelly Cove and were on a mooring off the Beach Club just after one. The tender ran us to the pier, and the boardwalk goes straight up from the beach to the sign.
Lunch was loungers under the sea grapes on the beach, then the brewery: a flight of four on the bar, dark island stout to tropical lager, with the chalkboard behind it. We carried the next flight down to the water and drank it with our feet in the sea while the kids swam. The Rum Bar next door has a wall of bottles that takes a minute to read.
By four we were under way for Virgin Gorda with the floating pool back on deck, and a flying fish crossed the bow on the way. Cooper is a lunch you could turn into a night without any regret.
Mo Pristas, Co-founder, DMA Yachting, November 2025
Manchioneel Bay: the Beach Club, the Rum Bar and the brewery
Manchioneel Bay is the whole of Cooper Island for a charter: a curve of sand facing west with the Beach Club on it and a mooring field in front. The moorings belong to the club, are first come, and fill on winter afternoons by three, so captains coming from Norman or Peter leave after breakfast. There is room to anchor outside the balls in deeper water.
Ashore, everything is within fifty yards of the pier. The restaurant does lunch and dinner on the sand and takes the booking through the crew; our BVI restaurants guide lists it as one of the two easiest special dinners on the main route. The Rum Bar on the terrace behind it is the biggest rum selection in the Virgin Islands, several hundred bottles, with a bartender who will build a flight of those too. Cooper Island Brewing Co. pours its own lager, pale ale, IPA and a dark island stout, and a flight of four comes on a wooden paddle you can carry to the beach.
The Coffee Box on the beach does espresso and pastries in the morning and homemade ice cream until half past four, there is a gift shop, and eight rooms for guests who are not on a boat. The sunset comes straight into the bay, which is the reason to be back on deck by six.
Lunch stop, overnight or dive day
- Lunch stop: mooring by one, swim, brewery flight on the beach, away by four for Virgin Gorda. This is what most crews do on day two.
- Overnight: Cistern Point snorkel in the afternoon, dinner on the sand, rum on the terrace, sunset from the mooring. The calmest night of the week.
- Dive day: Wreck Alley or the Rhone in the morning with a dive boat that meets you on the mooring, Beach Club lunch after.
Cistern Point: the snorkel at the end of the bay
Cistern Point is the rocky headland at the south end of Manchioneel Bay. The reef around it is shallow enough to snorkel from the surface, with fans, tarpon and turtles in the grass, and a wall on the outside where the water drops away. It is on our BVI snorkeling guide and is the reason to arrive with daylight left.
There are National Parks day moorings on the point for the tender or a small boat; from the mooring field it is a five-minute tender ride or a long swim along the shore. Best in the afternoon light, and calmer than the outer sites when the channel is up.
Wreck Alley and the RMS Rhone off Salt Island
Wreck Alley lies off the west side of Cooper, between the island and Salt Island: four vessels sunk on purpose as dive sites in 40 to 80 feet of water, home to rays, barracuda and the odd turtle. A mile south-west of it is the RMS Rhone, the mail steamer that went down in the 1867 hurricane and the most famous dive in the BVI. Both are in our BVI dive site list.
Dive operators from Tortola and Virgin Gorda meet yachts on the Cooper moorings, which is what makes Cooper the dive night of the week. Non-divers snorkel the Rhone’s shallow stern section in 15 to 30 feet or stay on the beach; the crew books the boat the day before.
Fitting Cooper Island into the week
Cooper is night two on most BVI weeks, or the lunch between Norman and The Baths when the week is short. It is the shortest legs of the whole route in every direction, which is why it is where guests who are still finding their feet get a calm afternoon and an early night.
Passage times as our boats run them:
- Norman Island (the Bight) or Peter Island to Manchioneel Bay: about an hour.
- Manchioneel Bay to The Baths on Virgin Gorda: an hour and a half; to Spanish Town: an hour and three-quarters.
- Cooper to Salt Island and the Rhone: twenty minutes by tender or dive boat.
- Cooper to Nanny Cay on the last morning: an hour and a half, which is why it also works as the last night.
People also ask about Cooper Island
Is Cooper Island worth visiting on a BVI yacht charter?
Yes, on nearly every route. It sits halfway along the channel, the moorings are in front of the Beach Club, and the evening needs no plan: dinner on the sand, the Rum Bar, the brewery. It is the night first-time charter guests remember as the easy one.
Can yachts overnight at Cooper Island?
Yes. The Beach Club moorings in Manchioneel Bay are first come and full by mid-afternoon in season, so captains arrive by lunch. Yachts that miss a ball anchor outside the field or carry on to Virgin Gorda.
What is Cooper Island best known for?
Cooper Island Beach Club and its Rum Bar, the Cooper Island Brewing Co. microbrewery, the Cistern Point snorkel at the south end of the bay, and the wreck dives on Wreck Alley and the RMS Rhone off Salt Island next door.
Is Cooper Island better than Norman Island?
They do different jobs. Norman has the caves, the Indians and the Willy T, and is the first night. Cooper is calmer, one beach club with everything on it, and is the second night. Most weeks do both.
Can you start a charter on Cooper Island?
No, there is no charter base. Weeks start at Nanny Cay, Road Town or Scrub Island on Tortola, or in St Thomas, and Cooper comes on day two.
Is the Beach Club dinner worth the evening off the boat?
Yes, if you want one table ashore before The Baths. The restaurant is on the sand two minutes from the mooring, the crew books it in the morning, and the Rum Bar terrace is the after-dinner stop. Groups that prefer the chef stay aboard and go ashore for the rum only.
BVI itineraries with a night at Cooper Island.
