Deciding between St. John or BVIs?
 

Hi, my hubby and I are planning on heading to either St. John, Tortola or Virgin Gorda next spring. Can anyone tell me what differences I should expect, such as difference in beaches, snorkeling, other activities, friendliness of the people, and hotels? Just having a hard time deciding. Thanks for any information.

St. John and Virgin Gorda have very similar vibes - both have great beaches , good to very good snorkeling and friendly locals. Tortola is more built up and has fewer beaches. All three islands were severely affected by recent hurricanes and still in recovery. Tortola has made the most progress, the other two islands still ned a lot more time to recover. Don't know what the situation will be like next spring.

Both have great beaches and snorkeling. Virgin Gorda's beaches feel a little more exotic to me because of the granite boulders. VG is quieter and more remote, usually more expensive to get to. My sense from my February trip to STJ and recent pics of VG is that St John has come back a little more quickly in terms of regrowth of vegetation. It was more lush to begin with.

Thanks for the information. It sounds like they are very similar, is there anything else you can think of that would make them different? How do most people get to Virgin Gorda? Is there an airport there or do you have to fly in somewhere else and then go by boat? Thanks a lot for any info!!

Yes, there's an airport on Virgin Gorda but If I'm not mistaken it is currently closed so ferry or private water taxi are currently only viable options. Go here for ferry schedule: http://www.bestofbvi.com/info/info_bviferry.htm

When we’ve gone to VG, we’ve landed at the Beef Island airport in Tortola, collected our luggage and walked a couple hundred yards to the water’s edge where the ferry is either there or on its way.

Thanks for the information! Since this might be my last time that I get my husband to the Caribbean, I'm really trying to pick the right islands. So if anyone has any other ideas of why one would pick Virgin Gorda over St. John or vice versa, I would appreciate any thoughts or ideas. Thank you so much.

Frankly, I would do in depth research before going to either place. They were decimated in the recent hurricanes, twice. V.G. was worse off I recall, but for a once in a lifetime experience I’d pick some other destination.

How about a split? 4 nights in each. Both are spectacular.

By spring everything should be back be back to normal

I only know the beaches are lovely at either place.

Hi Blamona, I was trying to pick a second island out of these two, because we're already going to Anguilla :-) So I'm already splitting. Thanks though!

How long is you’re trip? That’s not an easy split—Anguilla and VIs

Yes, @palmtree2384, I was thinking the same thing as Blamona. It's particularly difficult to split a trip between Anguilla and either St. John or especially Virgin Gorda. There's just no easy way to get to one from the other. Anguilla has very few flights, and they are all pretty expensive; I'm sure it will take you multiple connections to get to any of these islands. A better combination with Anguilla would be St. Martin, which is a relatively short ferry ride away. Alternatively, you could go to St. Barth, though it can be very expensive.

Hi Blamona, well when the trip was originally planned for St. John and Anguilla it didn’t look too hard to get a flight from St. Thomas to St. Maarten and then ferry over to Anguilla. Am I not seeing it right? It actually said the flight was only like $150 a piece. We were planning on five nights in St. John and then 6 or 7 nights on Anguilla. Then I started having second thoughts about St. John and started thinking about Virgin Gorda instead. Thanks for the information.

You’ll lose a day traveling but Seaborne has a daily one-stop flight via SJU between STT and SXM with one-way fare for about $100 PP. From SXM you’ll need ferry or another short commuter flight to reach AXA.

FYI - right now getting to/from Virgin Gorda is difficult. Airport is closed so only way is by ferry usually via Tortola.