Straight after Antigua, our cruise ship headed to the British Virgin Islands.

The British Virgin Islands form a speck in the Eastern Caribbean close to their US counterparts.  With only 25400 inhabitants and at only 59 square miles in size, the British Virgin Islands attract people who want to get away from it all…  And cruise ships!

We weren’t that excited by the prospect of a stop here.  Mainly because there seemed little to do.  The shore excursions consisted mainly of beach time either on the main island of Tortola, where we were landing, or on other islands.  The tours that were about seeing more of Tortola didn’t seem to be seeing much at all because there isn’t much to see.  We decided to be content with exploring the capital, Road Town.  Here is how we spent our half day in Tortola with kids on a budget.

Road Town

Exploring Road Town

Our morning in Tortola consisted of exploring this town.  The cruise ship dropped us off right in the center of things, so it is easy to do.  For a capital, it sure is small!

It is also charming, with jungle covered walkways and roosters and hens roaming freely.  Unfortunately, it is also packed full of cars on just a couple of tiny roads, so it is not very pedestrain friendly.  Often the cars had trouble fitting in the streets, so it was hard to fit pedestrians as well. S stayed on the ship in the kids’ club.  I wouldn’t have liked walking round these streets with her.

Exploring Road Town

We had copies of a guidebook with us so we walked past the places mentioned in this.  We agreed with the guide book that there are no must see sights.  We went past the Government House, St George’s Episcopal Church, HMS Prison and some other sites mentioned, but they were far from anything special.

St George’s Episcopal Church

We had hoped to take Z to the JR O’Neal Botanic Gardens but they were a bit of a walk and torrential rain started on our way there, so we headed back into the center of town.  Here, we stopped at a cool looking garden bar on the waterfront to have a chill, beer and check my email.

Exploring Road Town

Budget

We spent US$7 on beers, so well within our $50 budget.  The currency here is US dollars.

The verdict?

The British Virgin Islands seem far removed from Britain – they don’t remind me of Britain at all!  They didn’t remind me of the US Virgin Islands either.  Road Town is a pleasant place to walk around, but not particularly inspiring, although I did find it charming.  It is always nice to experience something different and that is what we did here.

Our cruise ship from Road Town

It is a great place for a cruise ship stop  as I can’t imagine flying here to have a holiday.  That is, of course, its attraction.  You can’t fly here directly from the US mainland or Europe, so it attracts people who want to get off the beaten track.  Regardless, I did enjoy our time here.

You can also read about our tips for travelling with young kids on a Caribbean cruise, our overall thoughts about our Carnival Caribbean cruise, our stop on the US Virgin Islands and our next stop in the Bahamas!

Sound interesting? Have you been to the British Virgin Islands?