traveldk.com

The heart of Virgin Gorda’s commerce and transportation, Spanish Town is squeezed between the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea. Most of its shops and restaurants are housed at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor. Lively Lee Road bisects the west side of town, with the tiny strip of an airport on the east. The ferry dock sits a short walk from Yacht Harbor. Residents often refer to Spanish Town as The Valley, but that is in fact the name of the island’s southern part.

Very close to the busy Baths National Park (seeThe Baths National Park, Virgin Gorda), the white, sandy Spring Bay Beach provides a peaceful respite worth the five-minute walk from the road. Pretty natural pools created by huge boulders provide perfect swimming and snorkeling. Swings and picnic tables on a grassy lawn get you out of the sand. You’ll find a few restaurants at the nearby Baths and along the 10-minute drive to Spanish Town.

Built on the ruins of a 19th-century plantation, this lovely 17-acre spot features more than 1,500 native and exotic species of plants, including 60 stunning orchid species. Even if you’re not into botany, the plants are beautiful to look at and the location tranquil. Those keen on history will enjoy exploring the workers’ village, factory, and other buildings standing since sugarcane grew in the surrounding fields.

Ride the cable car for great views from 700 ft (210 m) above the harbor.

With a shopping center that’s home to a Kmart department store, grocery stores, movie theaters, and fast food places, Sunny Isle and its environs are the heart of the island’s economy. Go there for a gander at island life. Visitors find it a great place to shop for incidentals at better prices than in hotel or in-town shops, and it’s a convenient lunch stop on your drive from Christiansted to Frederiksted.

An oasis of quiet in the busiest area in St. Thomas, Tillett Gardens is a courtyard filled with a handful of arty shops definitely worth a look. Back into the traffic and congestion that hallmarks the rest of the area, there are several large shopping malls with grocery stores, one of the island’s two Kmart department stores (seeKmart), and other chain shops. This area is also the heart of fast food eating in St. Thomas. The enclosed Tutu Park Mall has a small food court and public bathrooms.

Hordes of cruise ship passengers and day-trippers vie for a patch on this long, white sand beach. Palms and seagrapes provide shade, and two lifeguards ensure safety. The beach has cool showers, flush toilets, covered pavilions, a snack bar, and snorkel rentals. Its underwater snorkel trail provides an easy introduction to snorkeling and the marine world, but there is more sea life around the small island, Trunk Cay, that sits in the middle of the bay.

This seaside university offers associate, bachelor’s, and graduate degrees to students from all over the Caribbean on a prestigious campus that served the US military during World War II. The school held its first classes in 1963 as a junior college. Attend performances that range from ballet to reggae at the school’s Reichhold Center for the Arts (seeReichhold Center for the Arts, St. Thomas), see games at the UVI Sports and Fitness Complex, take a swim at the white, sandy Brewers Bay Beach, or just stroll the spacious grounds.

This area gets busy when the ferries from St. Thomas, St. John, and Jost Van Dyke arrive. If you’re arriving from outside the BVI, you’ll clear BVI Customs and Immigration here. The area around the ferry dock has a couple of basic restaurants and convenience stores. Soper’s Hole marina with restaurants and shops sits within walking distance across the harbor. There are small hotels near the ferry dock and the marina.

The showpiece of the island’s plantation history, Whim Plantation Museum (seeWhim Plantation Museum) typifies plantations established by the Danish West Indian Company in the 1730s. Planters first grew cotton, but records show that by 1754 sugar was the main crop, a status it enjoyed until the 1920s. Refurbished by the St. Croix Landmarks Society, the plantation has an oval great house full of antiques. The outbuildings spread over its 12 acres include a windmill, sugar factory, and kitchen. Sugarcane still grows in nearby fields.