If you plan to go to any of the other islands besides St. John - bring your passports. The BVI's frown on people just showing up on Jost van Dyke or Tortola - or any of the good channel island dives like Norman, Cooper, Salt (the Rhone) etc. All of which are in the BVI's.
The Marriott has kind of a meh dive operator from what I've read - they do the cruise traffic also. Better to take the short drive to Bolongo Bay and dive with St. Thomas Diving Club - or a short distance farther to Red Hook and Red Hook Diving. Or Admiralty or Blue Island Divers in town - a short drive the other direction.
The "party"
some nights will be at Duffy's Love Shack in Red Hook -
Duffy`s Love Shack There's also Iggies at Bolongo Bay nearby but I haven't seen it at night.
Home » Iggies Beach Bar If Molly Malone's is still open in Red Hook it's a good locals
afternoon drinking bar. Just across from Red Hook Diving also - same building. So that would be convenient...
One fun thing to do since you'll have the boat is to go island bar hopping. You'll first have to cross to the BVI's and clear customs both ways (St. John is more convenient for this)but there's a lot of fun day bars you can go to. We chartered a boat to try to see how many we could hit in one day - our plan was one-two drinks per island. We managed at least 7 - after that things are fuzzy...we sort of exceeded the plan at some.
Some that were pretty fun - IDK exactly where some of these are since we left the driving to the captain - Pussser's Marina Cay, Foxy's, the Willy T, (floating ship bar), Jumbies at Leverick Bay. Soggy Dollar Bar looks oddly familiar also. Here's a complete list more or less:
British Virgin Islands | Beach Bars At some you can moor off and swim in - at a couple the shallow reef makes that a very bad idea.
One thing to kind of notice is that many of them are on opposite sides of the channel between Tortola and Virgin Gorda. Many on Jost Van Dyke. Or the little islands south of VG. I wouldn't go to Biras Creek or those in that area - too far removed from everything else. So you kind of have to pick one side or the other to minimize your travel time. Or rent a fast boat. IMO the Anegada bars are too far from everything else - it's north of Tortola by a considerable distance.
For this last one, I'm
not responsible if you don't get back - or wake up on the beach the next morning next to strange people. Maybe not even on the same island that you started on. So here goes:
Bomba's Shack on Tortola is legendary. Google it. He throws epic full moon parties. One is August 10th. It's not uncommon for famous celebrities that are staying at Biras Creek, Little Dix Bay or Necker Island (Richard Branson's place) to cruise over for one. Mushrooms may also be involved in some capacity.
Bomba's Surfside Shack on Tortola, British Virgin Islands
