This 7-day BVI yacht charter itinerary is the full version of the islands: the classic loop, Norman, Cooper, The Baths, North Sound, Guana and Jost, plus Anegada, the flat coral island 14 miles north of Virgin Gorda that most one-week charters never reach. It is the week for guests who want to see everything. The price is two longer passages and earlier starts, and what you get for it is the best reef in the BVI, the emptiest beaches, a lobster dinner on a dock, and two stops a day where the relaxed week gets one.
Any crewed yacht can run it, and we recommend it first to guests on a motor yacht or a power catamaran, because Anegada is a detour and on those boats the two crossings are under an hour. On a sailing catamaran they are two to three, which is still a fine morning at sea; the captain leaves after an early breakfast and you lose nothing but a slow start. If you would rather keep every leg short and the days slow, the popular island loop is the same islands without Anegada. Each day below is split into morning, lunch, afternoon and evening, with where the boat sleeps.
Day by Day Route
- Day 1: Nanny Cay, Tortola to Norman Island
- Day 2: Norman Island to Cooper Island via Peter and Salt
- Day 3: Cooper Island to The Baths and Spanish Town
- Day 4: Spanish Town to North Sound via the Dog Islands
- Day 5: North Sound to Anegada
- Day 6: Anegada to Guana Island and Scrub Island
- Day 7: Guana Island to Jost Van Dyke
Day 1 – Nanny Cay, Tortola to Norman Island
Midday: boarding at Nanny Cay
Boarding at Nanny Cay Marina is around midday: welcome drinks, bags into the cabins, the safety briefing, and a walk through the toys so everyone knows what is coming off the deck this week. Flying into Beef Island (EIS) you are here in 30 minutes; from St Thomas (STT) a water taxi takes about 40 minutes including customs, and some of the boats we book can collect you in St Thomas directly. Norman Island is six miles away, the shortest leg of the week on purpose.
Afternoon: The Caves and The Indians, both
On the relaxed loop you pick one of Norman’s two snorkels on the first afternoon. On this route you do both. The three Caves at Treasure Point first, swimming from the tender into the dark with the light bouncing green off the sand floor, then ten minutes round to The Indians, the four pinnacles off Pelican Island with the shallow side full of fish and the deep side dropping away. Both are National Parks day moorings; the captain takes the Caves while the day boats are at the Indians and swaps when they leave.
Evening: Pirate’s Bight and the Willy T
Pirate’s Bight is the restaurant on the beach, with the trail up Spyglass Hill behind it for a sunset walk. The Willy T is the floating bar anchored off the beach in The Bight, back in its original spot since 2019. Family-friendly until the sun goes down, then people jump off the top deck and it gets loud. Tender back whenever you have had enough; the boat is a hundred metres away.
Overnight: The Bight, Norman Island, on a mooring.
Don’t Miss
- The Caves and The Indians in one afternoon
- Sunset from Spyglass Hill
- The top deck at the Willy T
Day 2 – Norman Island to Cooper Island via Peter and Salt
Morning: the RMS Rhone before the dive boats
Twenty minutes east to Salt Island and the RMS Rhone, the Royal Mail steamer that broke in two in the hurricane of October 1867. It is a marine park, moorings only, and the dive operators from Tortola arrive around ten, so a boat that leaves The Bight straight after breakfast has the wreck to itself. The stern lies in 20 to 35 feet and is a genuine snorkel on a clear morning; the bow is in about 80 feet for divers, and most of the boats we book carry tanks and a divemaster.
Lunch: Deadman’s Bay, Peter Island
Back west for lunch at anchor in Deadman’s Bay, the long beach in front of Peter Island Resort, which reopened in December 2024 after a seven-year rebuild with the rooms moved down onto the sand. Turtles graze the seagrass under the boat. Sea scooters and the paddleboards go in here; the water is flat and there is nothing to hit.
Afternoon: Cooper Island
Cooper Island has 40 mooring balls and no anchoring in the field, and they go by early afternoon. It is a short hop from Peter, so you are tied up before the afternoon rush. Snorkel Cistern Point at the south end of the bay for turtles and rays, then dinghy in to the Cooper Island Beach Club: the BVI’s only solar-powered microbrewery, a rum bar with more than 400 rums, and a coffee shop with gelato.
Evening: dinner at Cooper Island Beach Club
Dinner needs a reservation and your captain books it before the week starts. Feet in the sand, boats lit up on the moorings, a two-minute tender ride home.
Overnight: Manchioneel Bay, Cooper Island, on a mooring.
Don’t Miss
- The Rhone before the dive boats
- Sea scooters in Deadman’s Bay
- A rum flight at Cooper Island Beach Club
Day 3 – Cooper Island to The Baths and Spanish Town
Morning: The Baths at opening
Twenty minutes to The Baths, and the captain leaves Cooper early enough to be on the National Parks mooring before the first excursion lands. The boulders are granite, pushed up as molten rock millions of years ago and slowly uncovered by erosion, some of them 40 feet across, leaning together to make the pools and caves you walk and swim through. Tender to the swim line and wade in (dinghies are not allowed on the beach), ten to fifteen minutes on the trail to Devil’s Bay with ladders and rope handrails, and The Cathedral halfway along for the photograph. Snorkel off Devil’s Bay at the end.
Lunch: Savannah Bay
Where the relaxed loop eats lunch on the mooring, this route moves. Savannah Bay, ten minutes north up the west coast, is a long empty beach with a reef across the mouth and almost never another boat in it. Lunch at anchor, a swim to the sand, and the toys back out.
Afternoon: Spanish Town, or stay on the hook
Back south to anchor off the beach in front of CocoMaya. Most guests stay in the water: paddleboards to the beach, a swim, or an hour on the eFoil with the crew spotting. If you want ground under your feet, the tender drops you in Spanish Town, the oldest settlement on the island Columbus named the Fat Virgin 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.
Evening: dinner at CocoMaya
CocoMaya is the dinner our captains push for on Virgin Gorda. On a calm evening the tender goes straight to their dock. Asian-Latin fusion, a step above beach-bar fare, a fire pit with s’mores for the kids, hammocks on the waterline and a DJ later on. Dinner only, Monday to Saturday from 5pm, and they handle dietary requirements without fuss. Klara’s own notes from a night there are on the island loop itinerary.
Overnight: Anchored off Spanish Town, in front of CocoMaya.
Don’t Miss
- The Cathedral before the crowds
- Savannah Bay to yourselves
- Sunset dinner at CocoMaya
Day 4 – Spanish Town to North Sound via the Dog Islands
Morning: the Dogs and the Kodiak Queen
The run north along Virgin Gorda’s west coast has three stops on the way, and on this route you take all of them. George Dog and Great Dog have day moorings and the clearest water on this side of the channel; off Great Dog is the airplane wreck, a small plane sunk in 1993 in about 40 to 50 feet, visible from the surface on a calm day. A few minutes on, off Long Bay, is the Kodiak Queen, a Pearl Harbor survivor sunk in 2017 with an 80-foot steel kraken wrapped around her hull, a dive in 57 feet.
Lunch: Bitter End Yacht Club
Round Mosquito Island into North Sound, the big protected lagoon at the top of Virgin Gorda, and tie up at the Bitter End Yacht Club for lunch on the dock. It was rebuilt after Irma as a smaller, sharper version of itself, and the marina takes yachts alongside if you would rather spend the afternoon here without a tender.
Afternoon: Eustatia Sound and Leverick Bay
The kite and foil school at Bitter End takes you out to Eustatia Sound, the flat-water lagoon behind the reef; the e-foil rental is on Saba Rock. The quiet option is the beach and reef at Prickly Pear. Leverick Bay on the west side has the spa, and from late December to the end of April the Michael Beans pirate show at 5pm.
Tonight the captain reads tomorrow’s forecast. The Anegada crossing wants a settled sea and good light for the channel through the reef, and if the day says no, the loop continues to Jost with a day in hand.
Evening: sunset at Saba Rock
Saba Rock sits on its own tiny island in the middle of the sound, reopened in October 2021. 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. The Bitter End concierge will run you across if you give them your berth or mooring number.
Overnight: North Sound, alongside at Bitter End or on a mooring off Leverick Bay.
Don’t Miss
- The airplane wreck and the Kodiak Queen in one morning
- Foiling in Eustatia Sound
- Tarpon feeding and sunset at Saba Rock
Day 5 – North Sound to Anegada
Morning: the crossing to Anegada
This is the day the whole route is built around. Anegada is 14 miles north of the sound: under an hour on a power catamaran or motor yacht, two and a half to three hours on a sailing catamaran, so the captain leaves after an early breakfast and you are anchored before lunch either way. The island is coral, not volcanic, the only one in the BVI, and so flat, 28 feet at its highest point, that you do not see it until you are almost on top of it. Horseshoe Reef runs 18 miles off its southeast side, one of the largest barrier reefs in the Caribbean, and has claimed more than 300 ships, which is why the entrance is a marked channel taken by eye in good light.
One thing to know before you book: the anchorage at Setting Point is shallow, six to eight feet. Power catamarans and motor yachts drawing under about six feet go all the way in; a deeper motor yacht anchors outside the reef and tenders in, which works but is a longer ride. Your broker will tell you which your boat is.
Lunch: Setting Point, and order the lobster
Lunch on the hook, or ashore at the Anegada Reef Hotel or Potter’s by the Sea on the dock. This is when you order tonight’s lobster: the restaurants cook to order and want to know by early afternoon how many they are pulling from the pens.
Afternoon: the north shore, with time to spare
Arriving by lunch gives you the whole afternoon, which is the point. A taxi or rental scooter crosses the island in fifteen minutes to Loblolly Bay and Cow Wreck Beach on the north shore, where you snorkel from the sand on the inside edge of the reef and the beach is empty. The Cow Wreck Beach Bar is the one with the bench in the water. On the way back the salt ponds hold the BVI’s flamingos, reintroduced in 1992; the driver knows where they were this morning.
Evening: Anegada lobster
Anegada lobster is grilled over driftwood and sea grape, split and served plate-sized at the Lobster Trap, Wonky Dog, Potter’s or the Anegada Reef Hotel, all on the water at Setting Point and all a two-minute tender ride from the boat. Book the one your captain rates this season.
Overnight: Setting Point, Anegada, at anchor.
Don’t Miss
- Snorkeling from the beach at Loblolly Bay
- The flamingos at the salt ponds
- Lobster on the dock at Setting Point
Day 6 – Anegada to Guana Island and Scrub Island
Morning: the sail back south
Twenty miles south-west with the sea behind you, an hour under power or three under sail, leaving once the light is good enough to read the channel out through the reef. Coffee on the way, and you are at Guana Island by late morning.
Lunch: Monkey Point, Guana Island
On the mooring at Monkey Point, and you snorkel before you eat. 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. National Parks day moorings only, so this is a long lunch, not the overnight.
Afternoon: Scrub Island, or a quiet bay on Great Camanoe
With the crossing behind you, the afternoon is free, and it goes one of two ways. The resort option is Scrub Island, fifteen minutes east: a marina that takes yachts up to 160 feet alongside, the pool and the Ixora spa open to marina guests, and the One Shoe Beach bar for sundowners. The quiet option is Lee Bay on the west side of Great Camanoe, an anchorage with nothing ashore, good snorkeling along the rocks and usually nobody else in it.
Trellis Bay, next to the airport, is the one bay on this coast we would skip: it is the most crowded mooring field in the BVI after Cane Garden Bay and the planes come in over the anchorage. The exception is a full moon, when Aragorn’s Fireball Full Moon Party lights the steel sculptures in the water at dusk and it is worth the noise for one night.
Evening: dinner ashore at Scrub Island, or dinner aboard at Guana
If you took the berth, dinner is a walk down the dock: Donovan’s Reef on the marina or Cardamom & Co at the resort, and Marina Cay across the water has reopened as a bar and grill run by the same team, a five-minute tender ride for a drink with the airport lights behind it. If you took the quiet bay, the chef cooks and the captain moves to White Bay on Guana’s west side for the night in settled weather, or to Cane Garden Bay, which sets up the short hop to Jost in the morning.
Overnight: Scrub Island marina, or at anchor off Guana Island or Cane Garden Bay.
Don’t Miss
- Turtles and tarpon at Monkey Point
- Sundowners at One Shoe Beach, Scrub Island
- A quiet night after Anegada
Day 7 – Guana Island to Jost Van Dyke
Morning: Sandy Spit and the Bubbly Pool
An hour west to Jost Van Dyke, the island our whole team has turned into a tradition. Start on the east end with Sandy Spit, one palm and one sandbar, empty before ten, then a mooring at Diamond Cay by Foxy’s Taboo and a ten-minute walk to the Bubbly Pool, a rock basin that 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, and your captain knows which morning it is.
Lunch: Hendo’s Hideout, White Bay
Round 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.
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. Get a cold one, walk back into the water, and drink it standing waist-deep looking at your boat. It is busy because it is that good; Gertrude’s and One Love are a short walk along the sand if you want the same view with fewer people.
Evening: Foxy’s, Great Harbour
White Bay rolls at night, so the captain moves round to Great Harbour, which puts you at Foxy’s, where Foxy Callwood has hosted sailors since 1968 and still wanders the tables with a guitar. Little Harbour next door is the quiet version, with lobster on the dock at Sidney’s Peace and Love.
Overnight: Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke.
Departure morning: Jost to Nanny Cay
About an hour and a half back to Tortola, with a last swim at Sandy Cay on the way if the flight allows. Guests leaving from St Thomas are dropped at Soper’s Hole for the water taxi, or run straight across to Red Hook on boats that carry the USVI permit.
Don’t Miss
- Sandy Spit before ten
- A Painkiller in the water at Soggy Dollar
- Live music at Foxy’s
