Granite-and-limestone Caribbean island in the British Virgins, famous for The Baths and sheltered North Sound.
Virgin Gorda is the third largest of the British Virgin Islands and the most distinctive — a long, dragon-shaped sliver of granite and limestone running for ten miles from the airport at the south end to North Sound at the top. Christopher Columbus sighted it in 1493 and named it the "fat virgin" because of the round, reclining profile of the central hill (Gorda Peak), which from the sea genuinely does look like a sleeping body. The island is more spacious and less crowded than Tortola and rewards visitors with two of the most extraordinary natural features in the Caribbean.
The southern third is where most people stay. Spanish Town (also called The Valley) is the small administrative centre, with the ferry dock, the airport, the main supermarket, and a strip of low-rise shops and bars. A 20-minute walk south of town is The Baths — Virgin Gorda's most famous attraction and one of the great Caribbean landscapes — a beach scattered with house-sized granite boulders that form natural pools, grottoes and ladder-climbing routes through the rock. The path through the boulders to neighbouring Devil's Bay is one of the best short walks in the West Indies. Just south is the Copper Mine National Park, a 19th-century Cornish mining ruin perched on the cliffs.
The middle of the island is dominated by Gorda Peak National Park — a 265-acre reserve of subtropical dry forest, with the highest point on Virgin Gorda (414 metres) at its centre. The summit is reached by an easy 45-minute trail and gives one of the best panoramas in the BVI. Most of the road north from Spanish Town runs along the east coast and passes a string of secluded beaches — Savannah Bay, Pond Bay, Mahoe Bay — that are usually empty.
North Sound, the wide protected bay at the top of the island, is the principal sailing destination in the BVI. The road runs out at Gun Creek; the rest of North Sound — including the resort enclaves of Leverick Bay, the Bitter End Yacht Club, Saba Rock and the private islands of Necker and Mosquito — is accessed by boat. North Sound is sheltered on three sides and ringed by reefs, with consistent trade winds and outstanding snorkelling. It is where many BVI charter boats end up.
North America > British Virgin Islands > Virgin Gorda
Guide
Getting Around
Virgin Gorda has one main road running roughly north-south for about 10 miles, from Spanish Town and the airport in the south to Gun Creek (the launching point for North Sound) at the north end. There is no other road, and no land link to the resorts around North Sound itself.
Rental car/jeep. The easiest way to see the southern and central island. Several local agencies operate from Spanish Town; expect to spend US$80–100 per day for a small four-wheel-drive jeep, which is the recommended vehicle because the dirt roads to the more remote beaches require some clearance. Driving is on the left. You will need a temporary BVI driver's licence, which the rental agency arranges (US$10) on production of a valid home licence.
Taxi. Plentiful and shared with other passengers as standard. Fixed fares are published by the BVI tourist board — the typical fare from the ferry dock to The Baths is about US$10–15 per person.
Ferry to North Sound. From Gun Creek a free shuttle ferry crosses to Leverick Bay; the Bitter End Yacht Club has its own free shuttle on a regular schedule from Gun Creek and Spanish Town.
By boat. Most visitors with a charter sailboat use it as their primary way to move around the island, anchoring at The Baths in the morning, Spring Bay or Savannah Bay for lunch, and North Sound for the night.
There is no scheduled public bus service.
Guide
Getting There
Virgin Gorda is reached either by air or by ferry; there is no road link to anywhere else.
By air. Virgin Gorda Airport (VIJ) is a single-runway strip just inland from Spanish Town. There are several daily services from Tortola (Beef Island, EIS, 15 minutes), with onward connections from San Juan in Puerto Rico, St Thomas in the USVI, and (occasionally) Antigua. The local operators are Cape Air, BVI Airways and Inter-Caribbean. The runway is short and the approach is over hills — flights are sometimes diverted in bad weather.
By ferry from Tortola. Speedy's, Smith's and Inter-Island Ferry all run several services a day between Road Town on Tortola and the Spanish Town ferry dock. The crossing takes about 30 minutes. There are also direct ferries from Road Town to North Sound (Bitter End / Leverick Bay) on certain days.
By private boat. Virgin Gorda is a standard stop on most BVI charter itineraries. The principal anchorages are off The Baths (with mooring balls; no overnight anchoring inside the rocks), at the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour in Spanish Town, and throughout North Sound.
From the USVI. Speedy's operates a direct passenger ferry from Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas to Spanish Town, typically one or two days a week. Crossing time about 90 minutes, plus border clearance at both ends.
Guide
Things to Do
The Baths are the headline. There is nothing else like them in the Caribbean: house-sized granite boulders piled in the shallows at the south end of Virgin Gorda, forming a network of sea-filled grottoes and natural pools you can swim and clamber through. The trail south through the boulders to Devil's Bay is one of the best short walks in the West Indies, with ladders and rope-handles where the route gets tight.
Gorda Peak National Park is a 265-acre reserve in the middle of the island, with two well-graded trails to the 414-metre summit. The viewpoint at the top gives a panorama over most of the BVI. The Copper Mine National Park on the south-east coast preserves the ruins of a 19th-century Cornish copper mine in a striking cliff-top setting.
The beaches are exceptional even by BVI standards. Savannah Bay is a mile of empty white sand on the east coast, with snorkelling at the reef at the southern end. Spring Bay, just north of The Baths, is much quieter and has its own scaled-down granite boulders. Mahoe Bay is the protected cove at Mango Bay Resort.
North Sound is the principal sailing destination in the BVI — a wide, sheltered bay with the Bitter End Yacht Club, Saba Rock, Leverick Bay and the private resorts of Necker Island and Mosquito Island around its edge. It is reached by boat from Gun Creek at the end of the north road, or by ferry from Spanish Town.
