anyone been to tortola lately?
 

we are going in december and have never been. been to st. john and LOVED it. plan on a week at brewers bay camp and a week at lambert beach resort. any suggestions/ insights?

My husband and I were in Tortola nearly 10 years ago. We stayed on the southeast side of the island at Fort Recovery. Very nice, but the 'beaches' are not powdery sand. For a good sandy beach go to the west side. The island is rather small so it can be toured very easily in a day. An excellent side trip is to Virgin Gorda. Too expensive to stay there but a wonderful outing.<BR>Tortola is an excellent place. The people are very congenial. <BR>We went at about the same time that you are going. Wonderful weather. We got one of the guys who worked at our resort to take us out on a tour first and then rented a jeep and went by ourselves. You should enjoy it.

We went to Tortola several years ago and loved it! We took a day trip to St. Johns and much prefered Tortola. Beaches at St. John's are bigger and there are more people, but we didn't go in the high season. We thought St. John felt too much like home, not enough like a new experience. Try Bomba's Shack, especially if it is a full moon. Fun, funky place(shack is an apt description) with a big following. If you didn't take any of the day trips while on St. John, you should do it this time. Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke, and others are quite beautiful. Get a Fodor's guidebook for lots of good dinner and sight seeing references. I would post some of ours, but they may be out of date! Do remember that some of the places in Road Town were fun and some where toooo touristy, especially Pusser's Landing. Smuggler's Cove and Cane Garden Bay are the two best beaches! Have a great trip!

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Message: I recently traveled to Tortola (a couple of weeks ago) for a honeymoon and visited several hotels during an island tour, could not pass up the chance to see them while touring the whole island; I checked them out for future trips back. Also, they were options I considered. I really liked Tortola!!! I stayed at Lambert Beach Resort.<BR><BR>I checked out Prospect Reef-great outer appearance, but run down hotel rooms inside, more like a motel 6 to me. Only the 2 bedroom suites were appealing to me. For the rooms I saw (1 bedroom studio, 1 bedroom suite, 2 bedroom suite), I liked the idea of a bed with nice lace netting around it. The hotel is close to Road Town so great location for sightseeing. No beach as previously stated. Check out the Road Town bakery for great pastries near the ferry dock (walking distance).<BR><BR>Anyway, I also checked out Long Bay Beach Resort. It is across town from the Airport, a 45 minute ride, $35 fare I think. Auto rentals are available on site. I thought the villas were very nice. The 2 bedrooms have a suite upstairs and a separate one downstairs. You get the kitchen, sitting area/room and bar-b-que grill on the top level. Sorry, no BBQ grill on the 1st level. You can rent the whole villa or just one level. Nice views of beach from the villas. The resort has a beach below by the bungalows, but choppy water. People are shuttled to Smugglers Cove. Next trip, I may stay here. I am not a beach person, can take it or leave it. Definitely one of my options. <BR><BR>I stayed at Lambert Beach Resort. The staff made it a fun trip, very helpful and friendly. I stayed in a beachfront villa, mind you the beach has a row of trees in front of them. The place has a huge freshwater pool & tennis courts. Also, this place is on the beach and a nice beach at that. You can see other islands from this location. The room came with a king bed (2 twins put together is common in the Caribbean), no TV (not a problem), 2 toilets (one was a bidet), bathtub/shower, and a patio with a sink & refrigerator. I met some guests who stayed there last year and were back for another trip. I think Long Bay Beach Resort had better rooms, but Lambert definitely had a better beach. I would definitely stay there again. This place is 20 minutes from Road Town, $18 taxi fare.<BR><BR>By the way, take bug repellent..lots of trees at Lambert. Lots of insects in Tortola. I used Off the one with no scent, but other guests swore by Skin-so-soft by avon. Lambert's provides bug repellent, Off the one with a strong scent.<BR><BR>I ate at C&F 2 times because the food was so so good (the Y2K platter & the lobster dinner). I also ate at the Secret Garden which is near the Tamarind Hotel in Josaih's Bay (I think). Others at Lambert's raved about Thelmas, but I didn't get a chance to go there.<BR><BR>I also took a day trip to the Baths in Virgin Gorda. Beautiful and good snorkeling!!! <BR><BR>Hope this helps.