The British Virgin Islands, a chain of islands well known as a premiere sailing destination, seem to have more than its fair share of stunning beaches as well. We’ve been asked by many to recommend our favorite BVI beach and well, it’s hard to even narrow it down to our favorite 5 – and I’m quite sure there are still more to discover. All of the beaches listed below are beautiful in their own way and we’ve enjoyed the time we’ve been able to spend on each one. Really though, if you’re on any beach in the BVI, you are one lucky beach bum.
Best Beaches of the British Virgin Islands
Deadman’s Beach/Little Deadman’s Beach, Peter Island
All information is correct to our knowledge at the time of writing, but be sure to verify current information before your visit. Pictures and other content may not be re-used without written consent from Rum Therapy, LLC
Sandy Cay, or Honeymoon Cay, a small 3 acre private island northeast of Paradise Island in the Bahamas is famous primarily for one thing. Sure it’s been used to film numerous fashion spreads and commercials. Sure it’s said to be one of the most photographed islands in the Bahamas, but what is Sandy Cay or Honeymoon Cay best known for?
Sandy Cay is known as the island shown in the title card during the beginning theme of Gilligan’s Island first season. That’s right, Gilligan’s Island.
As avid fans of Gilligan’s Island back in the day (the re-runs of course!), we were excited to find out about the island during an excursion and enjoyed having our picture taken in front of it.
And of course, as soon as we returned home, we watched the first episode of Gilligan’s Island again to see the tiny island we got to visit (see video below at :56).
Now I’m sure the little island has changed a lot since Gilligan’s Island first aired in 1964 due to hurricanes and other storms, erosion and even man, and if this is the island used a the photograph for the opening, its looks have changed a bit. Still, we choose to believe it was Sandy Cay. And regardless, we wouldn’t mind being stranded there for a while after a three-hour tour…as long as there’s rum!
Imagine being picked up at the dock next to your hotel and whisked away over the crystal clear water of the Bahamas where you spend the day snorkeling over gorgeous reefs, zipping along on a tube in the warm water, walking in the sugar soft white sand on a deserted beach and being treated to some delicious fresh conch salad and rum punch.
Before leaving last month on our much anticipated trip to the Bahamas, we received an email from Team BBE that said “Will you be traveling to Nassau for the RumBahamas Festival? If so, would you be interested in meeting up for an afternoon of fun in the sun on an excursion to our private beach on Rose Island?” We quickly googled Bahama Boat Excursions and emailed back YES!
(Note – this excursion is no longer available)
Capt. Aztec King and Chris Vykouthlas, owners of Bahama Boat Excursions
Bahamas Boat Excursions is the brainchild of long time friends Chris Vykouthlas and Capt. Aztec King who are incredibly lucky to have turned what most people dream of experiencing on vacation into a way of life, and gives them the opportunity to share their love of their islands. They, along with Creative Director, Casey Wray, make up Team BBE.
The day of our excursion, we were picked up at the dock of our hotel by Chris and Capt. Aztec and were immediately struck by their friendliness and excellent customer service. They went out of their way to make sure we had an experience like no other.
Our day began with an exhilarating ride out to private Rose Island on Mary Jane, one of 3 (soon to be 4) boats in their fleet. What did our afternoon of fun in the sun with Bahama Boat Excursions include?
Plenty of warm Bahamian sunshine while skimming over the incredibly clear blue water.
Great snorkeling
Stingray sightings
Swimming with the turtles
A thrilling ride on the tube!
Time to ourselves on a beautiful, private, pristine beach
Amazingly crystal clear water
A quiet beach oasis with chairs and umbrellas for total relaxation…
Rum punch and a delicious conch salad
Plenty of time to walk the white sand beach
And a stop on the way home at Sandy Cay to have our picture taken in front of the island used in the opening credits of Gilligan’s Island.
That, and more, made for a excellent day of fun in the sun. Water-logged and sun-kissed from our day of exploring the waters and beaches around Nassau, we headed back totally relaxed and full of new memories from our time with Team BBE. To say we had a blast is an understatement. It was truly one of the best days we’ve had on (and in!) the water.
If you are planning to travel to Nassau and would like more information on Bahama Boat Excursions, email Team BBE at [email protected], check out their website and follow them on Facebook. Voted a top activity in the Bahamas by travelers on Trip Advisor, they tend to book up quickly, so be sure to plan ahead!
Team BBE offers a variety of excursions ranging from an afternoon of relaxation on private Rose Island for up to 6 people, watersport excursions, fishing charters and an excursion to the Exuma Cays. They can also arrange to take larger groups of up to 120 passengers for 4, 6 or 8 hour private excursions over to Rose Island where they offer groups a live grilling station with a professional chef, full bar, music, water sports, kayaks, snorkeling, hammocks, volleyball… and more! Their services can be fully customized to fit the wants and wishes of their visitors from corporate groups, field trips, wedding parties, bachelor or bachelorette parties, family reunions, you name it – they look forward to exceeding your expectations!
To see more posts on the Bahamas and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory
Update: Sandy Spit survived the hurricanes of 2017, but lost the little vegetation it had to begin with! Local residents have been planting a few small trees that we hope will eventually take and re-vegetate Sandy Spit. Here’s a photo of a recent visit (post Irma).
I don’t know what it is about small, uninhabited tropical islands that gets us all excited. Maybe we watched a few too many episodes of Gilligan’s Island, or maybe it’s just the allure of complete, peace, quiet and solitude…
Whatever it is, our first visit in 2010 to Sandy Spit in the British Virgin Islands ranked right up there with visits to other favorite uninhabited tropical island such as Mopion and Petit Tabac in the Grenadines and Sandy Island, Carriacou. We had Sandy Spit all to ourselves for a few wonderful hours and spent the time wandering around, lounging in the sun, enjoying a wee bit of rum punch and enjoying the sound of the gentle waves lapping the shore.
It can take all of 10 minutes to walk around Sandy Spit – if you walk slowly! From Sandy Spit, it’s just a short distance to Green Cay, and on calm days this area can be a great place to snorkel. There are some great diving areas around Green Cay as well.
Green Cay as seen from Sandy Spit Sandy Spit is rumored to have gotten it’s name because it’s just “spitting distance” from Jost Van Dyke. It’s also quite close to it’s slightly larger sister island, Sandy Cay and many people try to spend time at both while in the area.
The island is sand all the way around with just a bit of foliage in the middle. To the east you can see Tortola, and to the west you can see Little Jost Van Dyke and Jost Van Dyke.
Tortola on the east
The first time we visited Sandy Spit, we arrived via a cat during a week-long sail in the BVI. The second time, we rented a dinghy in Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke. Just a word of advice – if taking a dinghy over, be sure to check weather conditions before embarking on the journey. When there is a strong north swell, it can be difficult – if not dangerous to beach your dinghy on Sandy Spit. We know this now…
On calm days, the snorkeling is excellent and the surf is calm and great for swimming, floating and pure relaxation.
Jost Van Dyke in the distance
Ahhh…Sandy Spit. A Gilligan-esque slice of paradise!
Have you spent time on Sandy Spit?
To see more posts on the British Virgin Islands and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory
Between Tortola and Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands there’s a small uninhabited island called Sandy Cay.
Sandy Cay is quite small, yet larger than it’s also uninhabited sister island to the north, Sandy Spit. Both islands have become popular with the many people who love to sail the BVI and with excursions from neighboring islands, yet are so very fun to visit and you might still find yourself enjoying the island by yourself, depending on the time of year you visit.
What we liked most, well there’s really nothing we didn’t like…but the island has an amazingly beautiful beach that wraps around nearly half of it, gorgeous blue water and great views of neighboring islands.
We’ve visited Sandy Cay a couple of times and during one of our visits we took the path that cuts through the center of the island. We left from the beautiful, warm, sandy beach on the south side and worked our way through what felt like a jungle.
On the path we saw a multitudes of crabs scurrying around as well as lush green foliage.
View of Tortola from Sandy Cay
The path began to open up after a few minutes and we could see just how different this side of the small island was from the other. Instead of palm trees, there was cactus and the shoreline on this side was very rocky and rough.
Instead of palm trees, we saw cactus, and the shoreline on this side, although still beautiful, was very rocky and rough.
From our vantage point on this side of Sandy Cay, we could see Sandy Spit’s white sliver of sand in front of Green Cay with Little Jost to the left.
After spending a few moments checking out the phenomenal view, we headed back to the south side to spend some time on the white sand beach and play in the crystal clear blue water…
From Trellis Bay, we headed over to the island of Jost Van Dyke. On our previous sail, the conditions were not favorable the day we were to head to JVD, so we were not able to get there and that made us even more excited to visit this time.
We made our first stop on beautiful little Sandy Cay between Tortola and Jost.
After spending some time in the water we took the hike through the center of the island.
We made our way back to the boat and headed just a short hop north to an even smaller uninhabited island called Sandy Spit.
The snorkeling was excellent and we felt like we had our own private island for just a few hours…
After spending a quiet night moored at East End Harbour, JVD, we began the last day of our trip motoring into White Bay.
We spent the day visiting all of the great beach bars on White Bay from one end to the other – for research purposes, of course, as well as lounging in its crystal clear blue water…
One more Nilla Killa and a few more minutes of sand and sun and we headed back to the boat for a short nap and a sail to Norman Island to spend our last night at the Willie T…
After an excellent dinner aboard the cat prepared by our Chef, our Captain dinghied us over to the Willie T where we spent the rest of the evening having a great time. We made a lot of new friends that probably didn’t remember us the next day and the only problem we had was finding our dinghy after an evening of revelry! Hmmm…and some of us somehow ended up with a Willie T tattoo… ;)
The Baths, Virgin Gorda
