A live travel companion for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands: which beach is calm today, when the next ferry leaves, what a taxi is legally allowed to charge you, how long the airport line is, which cruise ships are in port, and where to watch it all on a live camera. Thirteen islands across two territories, 89 beaches, and 21 scheduled ferry crossings — all of it below, and all of it free.
Sunday, October 25: 1 cruise ship in port across the Virgin Islands today — 1 ship in the BVI (~2,153 passengers ashore).
The Virgin Islands are two territories and one archipelago: you can see the BVI from a St. John beach, but getting there is an international crossing. Below is every island this guide covers, what it is, and what is on it.
No passport for US citizens, US dollars, US cell service. St. Thomas and St. Croix have airports; St. John and Water Island are reached by ferry.
The arrival island. Cyril E. King (STT) is the territory's main airport, Charlotte Amalie is the capital, and Red Hook on the east end is the ferry hub for St. John and the BVI. Cruise ships berth at Havensight and Crown Bay.
16 beaches on St. ThomasAlso hereRed Hook Ferry Terminal · Charlotte Amalie Ferry Dock · Havensight Cruise Pier (West Indian Dock) · Crown Bay Cruise Pier · Yacht Haven Grande Marina · Red Hook Car Barge Ramp · Duffy's Love Shack · Iggies Beach Bar
Open on VIslandGuideTwo-thirds of St. John is Virgin Islands National Park, so the north-shore beaches are undeveloped and free to enter. There is no airport — everyone arrives by ferry into Cruz Bay from Red Hook or Charlotte Amalie, or by car barge across Pillsbury Sound.
19 beaches on St. JohnAlso hereCruz Bay Ferry Terminal · Enighed Pond Car Barge Dock · Woody's Seafood Saloon · The Longboard · Joe's Rum Hut · Skinny Legs Bar & Grill · High Tide Bar & Seafood Grill · Driftwood Dave's
Open on VIslandGuideThe fourth US Virgin Island, a short ferry hop from Crown Bay on St. Thomas. Honeymoon Beach is the reason to go; there are no taxis in the usual sense and most visitors walk or take a golf cart from the dock.
4 beaches on Water IslandOpen on VIslandGuideThe largest and least crowded of the US Virgin Islands, 40 miles south of St. Thomas and reached by its own airport (STX) or the seaplane. Christiansted and Frederiksted are the two towns; cruise ships call at the Frederiksted Pier.
24 beaches on St. CroixAlso hereFrederiksted Cruise Pier · Christiansted Harbor Dock · Rhythms at Rainbow Beach · Brew STX · Stiix Bar & Restaurant · Deep End Bar & Grill · Tutto Bene · Savant Restaurant
Open on VIslandGuideA separate country. Every crossing from the USVI is an international border: passport, BVI e-card, and roughly $40 per person in port fees, departure tax and environmental levy on top of the fare.
The BVI capital and the charter-boat capital of the Caribbean. Road Town holds the cruise pier and the big bareboat bases; Beef Island (EIS) is the airport; West End is the ferry gateway from the USVI. A passport is required to get here from the US side.
7 beaches on TortolaAlso hereRoad Town Ferry Terminal · Soper's Hole / West End Ferry Terminal · Village Cay Marina · Beef Island Ferry Dock (Trellis Bay) · Pusser's Landing · Myetts Garden Grille & Bar · Rhythm & Sands (was Quito's) · Bomba's Surfside Shack
Open on VIslandGuideEight square kilometres, a few hundred residents, and the best-known beach bars in the Caribbean — the Soggy Dollar at White Bay, Foxy's at Great Harbour. Reached by ferry from Tortola and St. Thomas, or by day-trip charter.
4 beaches on Jost Van DykeAlso hereGreat Harbour Entry Dock · White Bay Beach Landing · Soggy Dollar Bar · Foxy's Tamarind Bar · Ivan's Stress Free Bar · One Love Bar & Restaurant · Ali Baba's Heavenly Bar & Restaurant · Corsairs Beach Bar & Restaurant
Open on VIslandGuideHome of The Baths, the granite boulder field on the island's south end that is the most-photographed place in the BVI. Spanish Town takes the ferries; North Sound at the far end is a separate world of moorings and resorts.
5 beaches on Virgin GordaAlso hereSpanish Town Ferry Dock (The Valley) · Gun Creek Dock (North Sound) · Mad Dog Bar & Grill · Bath & Turtle Restaurant & Bar · Chez Bamboo · The Rock Café · Fischer's Cove Beach Restaurant · Top of the Baths Restaurant
Open on VIslandGuideThe odd one out — a flat coral atoll rather than a volcanic peak, 15 miles north of the rest and ringed by the Caribbean's third-largest barrier reef. Famous for Loblolly Bay and for lobster cooked on the beach.
5 beaches on AnegadaAlso hereSetting Point Ferry Dock · Cow Wreck Beach Bar · Big Bamboo Beach Bar (Loblolly Bay) · Neptune's Treasure Bar · Anegada Beach Club · Lobster Trap Restaurant · Potter's by the Sea · Anegada Flamingo Colony
Open on VIslandGuideUninhabited or private islands with no public ferry line. You reach these by charter, day trip or your own boat — or the island's own shuttle where it runs one — they are anchorages and beach clubs, not places to stay ashore.
Uninhabited, and the likeliest original for Treasure Island. The Bight is one of the busiest overnight anchorages in the BVI; The Indians and the caves at Treasure Point are the snorkel stops. Pirates Bight runs a daily shuttle from Hannah Bay, Tortola.
1 beach on Norman IslandAlso hereThe Bight (Norman Island) · Willie T's Floating Bar (Norman Island) · Pirates Bight (Norman Island) · The Indians (Norman Island) · Norman Island Treasure Caves · Pelican Island Snorkel
Open on VIslandGuideA private island across the Sir Francis Drake Channel from Tortola. Deadman's Bay is the long north-facing beach; Great Harbour and Little Harbour are charter anchorages.
2 beaches on Peter IslandAlso herePeter Island Resort Dock · Peter Island Resort Restaurant · Drunken Pelican (Peter Island Yacht Club)
Open on VIslandGuideA small island on the south side of the channel with a mooring field, an eco-conscious beach club, brewery and rum bar, and Cistern Point for snorkelling.
1 beach on Cooper IslandAlso hereCooper Island Beach Club Dock · Cooper Island Beach Club · RMS Rhone Wreck (Salt Island) · Sail Caribbean Divers (Cooper Island) · Cooper Island Beach Club Boutique
Open on VIslandGuideA marina-resort island off Tortola's north-east corner, reached by its own ferry from Trellis Bay. Mostly a charter and resort stop rather than a day-trip destination.
Also hereScrub Island Marina · Donovan's Reef (Scrub Island) · Cardamom & Co. (Scrub Island) · One Shoe Beach Bar (Scrub Island) · Scrub Island Outpost · Marina Cay Bar & Grill
Open on VIslandGuideA private island between St. Thomas and St. John, open to day visitors by reservation with its own ferry from Cruz Bay. Beach club, restaurant and pool on a cay that had no public access at all a few years ago.
1 beach on LovangoAlso hereLovango Resort Dock · Lovango Cay Snorkeling · Waterfront Restaurant (Lovango) · The Sandpit (Lovango) · The Shops on Lovango
Open on VIslandGuideEvery hop is a ferry, a car barge or a short flight — there are no bridges between any two Virgin Islands. Taxi fares are set by government tariff rather than a meter, so the price is knowable before you get in.
21 scheduled crossings with fares, durations and today's timetable. Bringing a car to St. John? That is the car barge, not the passenger ferry.
Within the USVI — no passportUSVI fares come from the VI Taxicab Commission tariff and BVI fares from the Road Traffic (Passenger Fares) Regulations. Both are per person, not per car, with published surcharges for night runs, luggage, waiting and phone dispatch. 168 individual routes are priced.
Departure and arrival load by half-hour, with a TSA queue model for St. Thomas — built to answer “how early do I need to be at the airport?” rather than to show you a departures board.
AirportsEvery beach, bar, restaurant, dock and sight in this guide on one map, with the inter-island crossings drawn between them. The place names above are all pins on it.
Also usefulWind direction decides this more than anything else. The trades blow from the east most of the year, so south- and west-facing beaches stay calm while north shores take the winter swell — and sargassum landfall moves the answer again, week to week.
Ranks the beaches by current wind, swell and shelter, so a calm beach is a result rather than a guess.
Satellite seaweed readings for the territory, refreshed from the NOAA AFAI feed — which coasts are clear and which are not.
How busy each beach is likely to be today, read against the cruise-ship calls that drive most of the crowding.
Seven-day wind, swell and rain by island — the inputs behind every answer on this page.
All 89 beaches across the islands have their own page with access, parking, facilities and the nearest taxi endpoint. The best-known 5 on each island are linked above; the rest are pins on the map.
Ship days set the rhythm of the whole territory: taxi queues, beach crowds, restaurant waits and how busy The Baths gets. Deep-water berths are at Charlotte Amalie, Frederiksted and Road Town; the rest are tender anchorages where passengers come ashore by boat.
The cruise-ship tracker carries today, the week ahead and a 90-day roll-up by cruise line.
Public cameras cover harbours, beach bars, the Cruz Bay ferry dock and the car-barge ramp. Some islands carry no camera at all — those pages say so and point at the nearest live view rather than pretending otherwise.
All of them together on the webcam hub.
Three different things get called “a charter” here: a day trip on someone else's boat with a captain, a crewed week, and a bareboat you sail yourself. The BVI is the largest bareboat market in the world; the USVI is where most day trips leave from.
Describe the trip once and let operators bid on it, rather than emailing boats one at a time.
Book directlyEvery anchorage in the British Virgin Islands with its mooring balls, price, operator and VHF channel, plus where you can anchor and where you cannot.
A curated bareboat week through the BVI, adjustable stop by stop, with the crossing times between anchorages.
High season runs mid-December through April. The off season, roughly mid-August to mid-November, is peak hurricane season and the window when a large share of BVI bars, restaurants and resorts close entirely for their annual break — including some of the ones people plan whole trips around.
Who is shut for the season and when each reopens, tracked through the autumn.
Assemble beaches, bars and crossings into a day-by-day plan that accounts for the ferry timetable.
Passports, currency, driving on the left, tipping, hurricane season and the rest of the practical questions.
Longer pieces on the questions that take more than a sentence.
All of them on the travel blog.
Not for the U.S. Virgin Islands if you are a US citizen — St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix and Water Island are US soil and a domestic flight gets you there. The British Virgin Islands are a different country: every crossing to Tortola, Virgin Gorda or Jost Van Dyke needs a passport, the BVI e-card, and roughly $40 per person in port fees, departure tax and environmental levy on top of the ferry fare. See the passport guide.
Yes. Both territories publish a fixed tariff and drivers are required to charge it — there are no meters. Fares are per person rather than per car, which surprises most first-time visitors, and surcharges for night runs, extra luggage, waiting time and phone dispatch are published alongside. Look up your route on the fare calculator.
Passenger ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay — the shortest and most frequent crossing — or from Charlotte Amalie if you are staying in town. With a rental car you need the car barge, which runs the same water on its own schedule and takes vehicles only. The full walkthrough covers both.
Three do. Cyril E. King (STT) on St. Thomas takes most arrivals; Henry E. Rohlsen (STX) serves St. Croix; Terrance B. Lettsome (EIS) on Beef Island serves Tortola and the BVI. St. John has no airport at all — you fly to St. Thomas and take the ferry. Current crowd and queue forecasts are on the flights page.
June through November, with the real risk concentrated in August, September and October. The bigger practical issue for most trips is not a storm but closures: many BVI bars, restaurants and charter operations shut for several weeks in that window. The closure tracker lists who is currently shut.
Yes — public cameras cover the Cruz Bay ferry dock, the car-barge crossing, several beach bars and a number of harbours across nine islands. Start at the camera hub, or check the sea state on the weather page and today's ship count on the cruise tracker.