We booked a yacht cruise in March starting from Tortola. We are Cdns. and are having difficulty trying to find the best way to get there. It seems like we have to go to San Juan first and we are wondering if there is any way we can fly from Calgary to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami and then fly direct from there to St. Thomas. We don't want to go to San Juan if we can help it. Apparently you can get on a ferry at St. THomas and it will take you to Tortola. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated. At this time, it looks like we will have to take 4 flights to get there!

IMO,
Easiest is to connect through San Juan and then a quick flight to Tortola. Not sure if because you're Canadian that it's more of a hassle, but it's pretty straight forward. I, nor my friends, have really encountered any problems.

Yes there is a ferry from St. Thomas, but it's more of a hassle than a direct flight because of Customs and Schedules.

Back in January some friends on our boat went via St. Thomas and they said it was a pain.

Your best bet for info on transportation to restaurants etc is traveltalkonline.com . Contributors are frequent travelers and residents of the Islands. I do know that airlines such as American have cut flights and it is getting $$$ to get there..and not easy. However, Calgary in March..!!

We had to fly to San Juan and connect from there.

You may get more responses posting this on the Caribbean board instead of the US one, btw.

The folks over at traveltalkonline are a great resource, as somebody already mentioned. However, they're fairly evenly split between recommending flying into St. Thomas and ferrying over, versus flying into San Juan and then continuing on American Eagle to Tortola.

Ferry schedules can be somewhat restrictive, especially on the return flight home. You may have to take an earlier ferry only to wait hours at STT because the next ferry wouldn't get you to STT in time for your flight.

I personally prefer to fly to Beef Island/Tortola for BVI vacations, but if you get great prices on flights to STT and can work with the ferry schedules AND it's your personal preference, I'd say go for it!

I agree that TTOL is a great source of Carribean info!
Delta also has a flight ATL to STT, just FYI.

Flew direct to St. Thomas, took a cab to the ferry, and rode it to Tortola...no big deal at all and about 45 mins I think. Just need to watch the schedules and be early for the ferry and your return flight....the folks at the airport in St Thomas close the flights an hour ahead of time....

We had a problem with the ferry when we were there; we went over to St. John for the day and specifically bought tickets for a 3:00 return to Tortola because we wanted to make it back to watch the sunset from a restaurant we had booked.

When we got to the ferry a little before 3:00 they said they didn't feel like running it, and that we should just come back later. "Go relax, go shopping..." etc. I was glad we didn't have a flight or something to catch. My husband kept insisting that our tickets said 3:00 - took him a while to get into the laid back Carib. attitude!

micah3, american airlines currently shows 2 non-stop flights from mia to stt for $409
#775 dep mia 11:55am ar stt 3:25pm
#795 dep mia 7:25pm ar stt 10:55pm
*note flt#795 arrives way to late for ferry to tortola that night. you would have to sleep on st.t and ferry in the morning.
ret flts:
# 672 dep stt 3:25pm ar mia 6:25pm
# 846 dep stt 7:45am ar mia 10:40am

I have done a number of sailing vacations in the BVIs. Over the years have done both the SJU-EIS flight and the STT ferry to/from Tortola. (In addition, I have been a frequent contributor on the TTOL site, mentioned elsewhere.) While I have had good and bad experiences with each route, over time I have come to favor the ferry. Flying to STT is usually less $$$, and I simply enjoy the ferry ride as a way to get onto "ilon time".

EIS is ALWAYS a problem of some kind - never the same. We even had the seats changed on connecting flights for members of our party who were already in the air! Regarding the ferry, do not bother to make reservations. Just take the easy taxi ride to the dock and take whichever company (there are 2) is going next to your destination. You do need to keep control of your luggage to the ferry desk - do not give to the "friendly guys" who offer to help at the taxi, that determines which ferry company you will use! When checked in, go upstairs for a cool one, sandwich and watch the seaplanes come and go.

here's the ferry schedule:
http://www.usvi.net/usvi/ferry.htm#CAT