“A private-island resort with a spa for the afternoon, and a bay to yourself for the night: Peter Island is the quiet luxury stop of the BVI.”
Peter Island is the largest private island in the BVI, and the whole of it belongs to one resort. Peter Island Resort reopened in 2024 after a rebuild from the ground up, with 52 rooms, its own marina in Sprat Bay, a spa the size of a small hotel and five beaches, and nobody else lives there.
It lies four miles south of Road Town on the far side of the Drake Channel, next to Norman Island. The resort and Sprat Bay are on the north-west corner facing Tortola; Deadman’s Bay, the beach everyone photographs, is on the north side; Great Harbour and Little Harbour, the two quiet anchorages, are between them along the north shore. The south coast is empty.
In a charter week it is the stop between Norman and Cooper on day two: a beach and a swim for most boats, a resort afternoon and a night at anchor for the ones that want it. It is 30 minutes from Nanny Cay, which is also why crews use it as the last night before the run back to the dock.
Must-dos on Peter Island
- An afternoon at Peter Island Resort: dock in Sprat Bay, the pool, the beach bar and a treatment at the spa
- The golf-cart tour of the island, up to the ridge with the anchorages on both sides below
- Deadman’s Bay, the palm-lined beach with a mooring ball in front of it
- A night in Great Harbour, with a fair chance of being the only boat
- Sunrise from the bow in glassy water, coffee in hand, before anyone else is up
From our visits to Peter Island
November 2025, aboard the catamaran INDULGENCE, half a day at the resort and a night in Great Harbour.
We docked at Peter Island Resort for half a day and toured the island in golf carts. The resort has a huge wellness centre, which we visited, a nice beach bar, the restaurant, the pool and a pickleball court. I would only recommend it for guests who want a luxury day ashore, perhaps with a treatment at the spa; docking gives you the run of the facilities for the day.
For the afternoon and evening we anchored in Great Harbour, and we were the only catamaran in the anchorage, which is incredible. We swam and had dinner on board. It is not worth a shore excursion, but it is a beautiful bay for sunrise, which I was up for with coffee on the bow: glassy water, perfectly peaceful.
Klara Jakobsen, Yacht Reviewer at DMA Yachting, November 2025
Sprat Bay and Peter Island Resort: the dock, the pool and the spa
Sprat Bay is the resort’s harbour on the north-west corner, a small dredged basin with a dock that takes yachts up to 200 feet and mooring balls outside it. We came in from the bow on INDULGENCE in November 2025 and were tied up by mid-morning; the resort staff meet the boat, and from the dock it is a two-minute walk to the pool.
The resort is the reason to stop. Docked yachts get the Yacht Club Experience included: the infinity pool over the beach, the beach cabanas, the Drunken Pelican restaurant and bar, the sports courts, and the shuttle to the beaches. The Spa at Peter Island is the biggest in the BVI, a run of treatment rooms opening onto the garden with a hillside hot tub above the windward shore, and it is the thing to book ahead through the crew. Yachts on a mooring or at anchor buy the same access as a day pass. Our BVI hotels guide covers the resort as a place to stay before or after the charter.
The golf-cart tour goes up the island road to the ridge, with Deadman’s Bay on one side and the anchorages on the other, and it is the best view of the Drake Channel you get without a drone.
Dock, moor or skip: which resort day for which group
- Dock for the day: pool, beach, restaurant and courts included, the spa booked separately. The choice for a group that wants a luxury afternoon ashore, or a wellness treatment mid-week.
- Mooring ball and a day pass: the same facilities without the berth, for a shorter visit.
- Skip it: most crews do. The beach at Deadman’s Bay and a night in a quiet bay are Peter Island for free.
Deadman’s Bay and Dead Chest: the beach
Deadman’s Bay is the beach: a curve of palm-lined sand on the north shore, east of the resort, with mooring balls in front of it and the resort’s beachfront rooms at one end. The name is the one in the sea shanty; Dead Chest, the bare island off the point, is where Blackbeard is said to have marooned fifteen men with a bottle of rum.
It is the lunch stop on the classic day two, between the Indians in the morning and Cooper Island for the night. The mooring balls are the resort’s and bookable; the beach is the resort’s too, so the bar and the loungers are for its guests, and charter guests swim from the boat and walk the sand. The snorkel is along the rocks at the east end.
Great Harbour, Little Harbour and White Bay: the quiet anchorages
Great Harbour and Little Harbour are the two deep bays on the north shore, and they are where a crew takes a group that wants a night with nobody around. Great Harbour, in the middle of the north shore, is the bigger of the two, hills on both sides, anchor in sand; on our November 2025 night we had it to ourselves, and the water at dawn was flat enough to mirror the hills. There is nothing ashore, which is the point.
Little Harbour, further west towards the resort, is smaller and takes only a handful of boats. The captain of one of our catamarans calls it his favourite spot in the BVI, and it is on our list of secluded anchorages. White Bay on the south coast is the third option, a beach with mooring balls and swell when the wind is south of east.
All three are a mile or two from the resort, so the pattern that works is the resort by day and one of these for the night, or straight to the bay if the resort is not your group.
Fitting Peter Island into the week
Peter Island is a day-two island, or the last night. From the Bight at Norman it is half an hour along the channel; from Nanny Cay it is 30 minutes across it, which is why the popular seven-day loop beach-hops it on day two and why crews coming back from Jost or Virgin Gorda spend the final night here rather than at the dock.
Passage times as our boats run them:
- Norman Island (the Bight) to Deadman’s Bay or Sprat Bay: about 30 minutes.
- Nanny Cay to Great Harbour: 30 minutes; Road Town to Sprat Bay: 25 minutes.
- Peter Island to Cooper Island: about an hour; to Salt Island and the Rhone: 40 minutes.
- The Indians are on the way from Norman, a 15-minute detour.
People also ask about Peter Island
Is Peter Island worth visiting on a BVI yacht charter?
Yes, in one of two ways. Dock at the resort for a luxury afternoon with the pool, the beach and the spa, or skip the resort and anchor in Great Harbour or Little Harbour for the quietest night of the week. Deadman’s Bay is the beach stop either way.
Can yachts overnight at Peter Island?
Yes. The resort dock and mooring balls in Sprat Bay and Deadman’s Bay are bookable, and Great Harbour, Little Harbour and White Bay are anchorages with no fees and often no other boats. All are a short run from Tortola, so it is a common last night.
What does docking at Peter Island Resort include?
Overnight dockage includes the Yacht Club Experience: the pool, the beach cabanas and shuttle, the Drunken Pelican restaurant and the sports courts. Spa treatments are booked and paid separately. Yachts on a mooring ball or at anchor buy the same access as a day pass; the crew arranges both.
What is Peter Island best known for?
Peter Island Resort, the private-island hotel with its own marina and spa; Deadman’s Bay, the palm beach in front of it; and the quiet anchorages on the north shore. Dead Chest, the island off the point, is the one in the pirate shanty.
Is Peter Island good for first-time BVI guests?
Yes. It is 30 minutes from Tortola and Norman Island, the water is calm, and a first-timer gets both sides of the BVI in one stop: a resort afternoon and a bay to themselves.
Is the spa worth the time off the boat?
If someone in the group wants a treatment mid-week, this is the place to have it: the biggest spa in the islands, treatment rooms on the garden, a hot tub on the hillside. Book it through the crew before you arrive; the pool and the beach fill the rest of the afternoon.
BVI itineraries that stop at Peter Island.
