Cane Garden Bay is the showpiece beach of Tortola — a long crescent of white sand on the north-west coast, sheltered by green hills and lined with palms. The water is calm and clean and the swimming is straightforward. A row of beach bars sits just back from the sand, busiest in the evenings when the day-charter yachts come in to anchor for sundowners.
The village behind the beach is small but lively, and the Callwood Rum Distillery at the eastern end of the bay is worth half an hour for the rum tasting alone. The cruise-ship crowd descends on the bay on busy days; arrive in the morning or stay into the evening for the best of it.