Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Just so you know Virgin Gorda airport is less than a 5 minute drive from Little Dix Bay. The boat ride from Beef Island (where the airport on Tortola is located) to LDB is more like 30 minutes - so, allowing for the time it takes to clear Immigration & Customs on Tortola and getting to the boat your total transfer time to the resort will be at least an hour, maybe longer. Immigration/Customs at Virgin Gorda Airport will only take a few minutes - from the time you deplane at VG airport until you are in your room at LDB will be about 15 to 20 minutes, and that includes the time it takes for check-in and drinking a welcome cocktail.

Food at LDB is excellent but there are lots of good "off resorts" restaurants on VG. Chez Bamboo, Top of the Baths, Mine Shaft, Rock Cafe, to name a few. Like I advised above, go to BVI/Virgin Gorda forum on TripAdvisor and use the "Restaurants" link for a complete list and read the reviews. Do the same to check out restaurants on Tortola BUT you should know it's very difficult to go to Tortola for dinner as getting back to VG requires finding a private water taxi operator who is willing to make the crossing after dark.

If you are just planning to go to Tortola for the "day" I would't plan the trip around where to eat lunch. Instead, hire a taxi driver/guide for the day and have him show you around the island - it's better and more efficient than trying to driving yourself on a one day tour. Tell the driver what type of food you feel like having that day for lunch and have him recommend a place. You'll be pleasantly surprised. We do this often when traveling not only in the Caribbean but all over the world and have had some excellent meals - we've never been disappointed.


Whether or not you opt for LDB's Full Meal Plan or their Modified Meal plan is purely a personal decision. If you opt for a Modified Plan choose the Breakfast and Dinner Plan so you can have lunch at some of the local places. Your comment about choosing the Meal Plan for only part of your stay makes good sense as that will let you experience dinner meals at some of the restaurants around the island which is always a treat.

The VG National Park is only about a 5 minute drive from LDB Resort so cab cost will be nominal but you'll need to give driver a time for him/her to come back and get you when you finish your hike (or get his cell phone number so you can contact him) as no cabs will be just waiting around for fares. There are some great views from the top of Gorda Peak and it is not a very difficult hike. FYI - There are also some very nice hiking trails that you can access from LDB property.

Suggest you consider renting a car for part or all of your stay. It will give you the flexibility to fully explore the island and to come/go as you please. FYI - driving on the left is a snap - most people get the hang of it in about 5 minutes. Take your time driving and you'll be just fine. Take it from a seasoned traveller - hardly anyone ever regrets renting a car in the Caribbean but when using hindsight a lot of people regret not renting one.

Lastly, there are NO BAD ROOMS OR BAD ROOM LOCATIONS at Little Dix Bay - there are only different rooms in different locations and, as they say in France "Vive La Difference". Choose the one that fits best with your budget and you won't have any regrets. Remember, no matter which room you are staying in, you'll have full use of all the resort's amenities.

Roams,

Thats good to know about the airports. However since the flight would land at 6pm on Tortola I thought it would be cool to have the resort pick us up. We would be on the water around 7pm and should get some cool views on the water on our way to LDB. Plus flying into Tortola saves about $200. The airfare is tricky because in order to get a good deal you have to stop twice. If you fly directly to San Juan from Houston and then to BVI it doubles the price. Oh well! The total travel time (including layover) over there is only 9 hours so its not horrible.

But now that I have settled on a resort and island it opens up a whole new can of worms of planning activities, whether to do the meal plan, etc lol. I am still hesitant about doing 4 days of the modified meal plan. The problem is that they make you do the same meal combo for all three days. You can't do bfast & dinner one day and then do lunch & dinner the next. As you said when we are out on excursions and doing things we will most likely eat lunch out. But the problem is most of the excursions leave at like 8:30 or 9:am so I would have to wake up pretty early for bfast haha. But I guess I will just have bfast room service and pay the extra fee.

We plan to do alot of snorkeling. Looks like DiveBVI picks up at the resort so I am looking at them. We are debating whether to start our dive certification here and try some diving in the BVI. Its just whether it is worth all the trouble and time that will be spent learning a new hobby.

RollTide - If you keep asking questions I'm going to have to start charging you for all the travel advice - just kidding, of course!

You are not clear whether you are flying from Houston to St. Thomas or San Juan then on to Tortola but either way, you'll be on one of the commuter flights into Tortola since that airport only takes small planes. Just take the flight routing that works best time/budget-wise for you. Again (as a very experienced traveler) , I caution you to make the routing which gives you the least amount of connections even if it costs a bit more. The more connecting flights you have the greater your chances are that you'll experience some type of delay or even cancellation. And on the WAY TO the Caribbean allow at least 60 minutes (90 minutes is better) between flight connections. On the way BACK allow at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours between your flight from Tortola to either St. Thomas or San Juan as you'll have to clear Immigrations/ Customs/TSA all of which can be very time consuming.

If your flight to Tortola lands at 6PM you'll be making the crossing to VG just before or just after sunset (depending on how long it takes you to clear Immigration & Customs and whether or not the flight is "on-time (commuter flights in the Caribbean don't always go on schedule). In July, sunset is between 6:50 and 7PM and it gets dark very quickly so I'm betting the last half of your crossing will be "in the dark".

For some great walk-in snorkeling on VG be sure to visit the Baths, Spring Bay (aka the Crawl), Savannah Bay, Mahoe Bay and Mountain Truck Bay. For boat access snorkeling sites you might want to consider booking trips to the Caves on Norman Island, the Indians, the Dog Cays or even to the reefs around Prickley Pear and Necker Islands. Dive BVI is a terrific company. You'll be in good hands if you dive with them or go on one of their snorkeling trips.

As for meals, if you don't do the Meal Plan you'll find that the "ala carte" meal prices at LDB are on the high side. If you "opt out" you'll do much better just taking some or all of your breakfasts at LDB (not a lot of off-site places serve breakfast other than resorts which tend to be pricy) and then have lunch & dinners wherever you want - either on or off resort. BUT, do this if you have a rental car otherwise you'll spend a lot on cab fares effectively wiping out any cost savings you get by not taking the meal plan. For what it is worth, in all my travels we've almost always found it more economical to opt out of meal plans besides, doing so allows you to sample a lot of the local cuisine and nothing stops you from eating at the resort whenever you wish.

Good luck.

I think it's a good idea to rent a car for at least part of your stay -- may three or four days -- to do some exploring around the island. Traffic is minimal. We had a good experience with Mahogany Rentals many years ago. Roams has given you the best beach spots, and on the day you go to the Baths, make sure you get there early when it opens to beat the daytripper crowds. Spring Bay is my favorite, and there's decent snorkeling as you work your way south toward the Baths. Mahoe has a nice reef offshore.

Ok so after enough research to make my head explode we have decided on VG. We will stay at Little Dix Bay for 7 nights in mid July. The only real thing I am trying to decide now is flights. Unfortunately Houston does not offer much directly to Puerto Rico and even if we took Delta we would arrive in Tortola later than the American Airlines flights. American Airlines only offers us flights that have two stops. So the question becomes do we leave two hours earlier, fly to Dallas and then on to Puerto Rico. Or do we get 2 more hours of sleep the day after our wedding, fly to Miami and then on to Puerto Rico. The main thing here is whether flying to Dallas or Miami is better in July. Both flights eventually take the same plane from PR to Tortola. I REALLY wish Houston offered more direct flights to PR through different carriers. They want $1300+ to fly direct from Houston to PR then on to Tortola.

Take it from a very seasoned travel (more than 2.5 million miles since 1985) - I have the following basic rules of travel (listed in order of importance):

1) Whenever possible fly non-stop to your final destination.

2) If you have to make a connecting flight or flights, always opt for the least number of connections for any give flight. The more flights you take, the more chances for something to go wrong.

3) Opt for the earliest possible flight. That way if things go awry you'll have more time to deal with any problems.

4) On connecting flights allow at least 60 minutes between flights for domestic transfers (90 minutes is better) and at least 90 minutes between transfers (2 hours is better) for international transfers.

So, if I were you, and assuming you have at least 60 minutes between flights in PR, I'd take the non-stop Delta flight to PR rather than the American connecting flight via MIA.