Best Bars of BVI

So I’ve recently been dreaming of the Caribbean and recalling many of my amazing memories.  One of my favorite parts –besides the clear blue waters, white sand beaches, world class yachts, beautiful resorts and amazing weather of course – was the bars I visited!  I didn’t make it to all of them so this post is a bit biased, however, I hope it gives you a glimpse into what island nightlife (and morninglife and noonlife and eveninglife)  is like.

There are five bars I’d like to highlight here.  If you find yourself in BVI, I highly recommend stopping in…

Number 5 on the list: Pusser’s Road Town Pub

Location: Road Town, Tortola, BVI

Pusser's Road Town Pub

This British pub sits on the waterfront overlooking Road Harbor.  The menu offers excellent food which is heavily Caribbean, but don’t worry, they also serve delicious burgers and pizzas.  There are multiple locations throughout the other islands.

How Pusser’s came about is an interesting story of royal descent.  The British Royal Navy would issue a daily rum ration on board their Their Majesties’ Ships.  It was a tradition that lasted for more than 300 years from 1655 until July 31, 1970 when the navy discontinued daily issue of Pusser’s rum.

In 1979 Charles Tobias formed Pusser’s Rum West Indies in the British Virgin Islands in efforts to resurrect the Pusser’s Rum tradition.  After much persuasion, the Admiralty Board of the Royal Navy gave him the blend for the rum and shortly afterwards, Pusser’s Rum was being shipped commercially for the first time.

Number 4 on the list: Deadman’s Beach Bar & Grill

Location: Deadman’s Bay, Peter Island, BVI

Deadman's Beach Bar & Grill

This location is perfect for a Monday midday stop.  Located in the gorgeous Deadman’s Bay at Peter Island Resort & Spa this restaurant/bar is a must.  Looking out across the sugar-like sand to the clear water visitors can enjoy a fusion of Caribbean and Continental flavors for lunch and dinner.

If you remember, this was the location of the drifting dinghy…

Number 3 on the list: Foxy’s

Location: Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke, BVI

Foxy - The Brewmaster - Himself

Save this spot for a rowdy night – or day!  At Foxy’s the bar opens at 9:30am before the kitchen at 11:30am!  A large venue that can accommodate up to 1500 people offering cocktails, cuisine and a selection of music for everyone.  Every Friday and Saturday night they fire up the BBQ and serve a bountiful buffet.  Foxy himself is considered Jost Van Dyke’s brew-master who proudly brews his finest batch of Foxy’s own Microbrew beers.

Number 2 on the list:  The Willy T 

Location: The Bight at Norman Island, BVI

The Willy T

The Willy T has an interesting story, the history is quite unexpected actually.

Willy T. is short for William Thornton who was born on the island of Jost Van Dyke, BVI on May 20, 1759.  Thornton was professionally educated as a physician in Scotland but rarely practiced.  He was a self taught architect, painter and inventor.  His biggest claim to fame – other than the floating restaurant/bar that is The Willy T – was the design of the United States capitol building, which was praised by President Washington for its “grandeur, simplicity and convenience.”  He is recognized as the first “Architect of the Capital.”

About the floating restaurant/bar…  It began life as a Baltic trading vessel years ago and the restaurant was only launched in 1989 when the wooden original was moored in the Bight.  It wasn’t until 6 years ago that it was replaced with the 100 ft. steel schooner that we all know today.

Number 1 on the list: Soggy Dollar Bar 

Location: White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, BVI

Soggy looking out...

Soggy looking in...

Hands down, my favorite.  Soggy Dollar Bar, named for the fact that there was originally no road access to this bar and visitors had to swim from their anchored boat in White Bay to reach this beach bar.  Since then a road has been carved out from Great Harbour to White Bay.  From the water however, a swim (or a dinghy ride) is still the only way in, there are no docks on the beach.  You’ll notice the clothes line where the bartenders have to hang the “soggy dollars” out to dry.

Soggy Dollar Bar is also the birthplace of the Original Painkiller cocktail, a favorite of islanders and visitors alike.  Originated and perfected here in the 1970’s this concoction of premium dark Rum, Cream of Coconut, Pineapple and Orange Juice and topped with Grenadian Nutmeg makes the swim worth the effort!!

Wanna get away right now and go to Soggy Dollar Bar??  CLICK HERE to visit their webcam!!

There are many more Caribbean bars on my to-do list so check back often for the sequel.

Pain Killer anyone?

Em

Sandy Beer, Sandy Booty, Sandy Spit…. It’s a Beautiful Life!

Life is rough when your biggest problem of the day is getting the sand off your beer can before you pop it!

We had scooped up a mooring at the popular, yet tiny, hot spot in the BVIs called Sandy Spit.   It was the middle of the day and it was perfectly hot.  We snorkeled onto the beach with the mesh bag full of beers in tow.  This was a favorite spot for me and clearly for the pack of kite surfers there.  We circumnavigated the island by foot in about 7 minutes!  A perfect little beach to spend an hour or two in the waves, paddle boarding, sunning or sittin with a sandy booty holding a sandy beer!

This is definitely one of the most memorable places I’ve been.  Talk about tiny island paradise!

Sandy Spit is an uninhabited islet of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, sitting midway between Sandy Cay and Green Cay.  It measures less than a half an acre in size, and consists entirely of a ring of sandy beach surrounding light foliage.  It has the appearance of a classic paradise “desert island” and has been photographed for use in print medium in a number of advertising campaigns.    – Wikipedia

Norman Island…Gettin Wild at Willy T’s!

We had picked up the Beneteau 50.5 ft sail boat from The Moorings on Sunday and by early afternoon we were on our way over to Norman Island, the home of Willy T’s.

On the way there we stopped at “The Indians” to snorkel a bit at the reef.  Not much else to do there but grab a mooring and snorkel, great spot!

Once at Norman, we got our mooring, got settled, had some drinks and started thinking about the night at Willy T’s.  I took a dinghy ride with Captain G around the harbor, called the “Bight”,and we stopped at some shops on shore.  Walking back to the dingy, I was looking backwards at the moon and walked straight off the side of the dock!  I skinned my knee and felt like an idiot, it was pretty hysterical though.  We laughed all the way back to the boat!

The sun had set and we could hear the ruckus at the floating bar just waiting for us.  We all put on our Sunday (bar) best and dingy’d over.  One of our crew, we’ll call him Gold Member (GM, to protect his identity), was donning tight, gold, mini briefs, a beach hat, sunglasses, an arm light and a whistle.  Before we even reached the bar people were already hollering for him.  GM was definitely the star of the show that night.  He kept close to his wife, “DD”, at all times to make sure that certain assumptions were promptly squashed.  He also managed to make a few bucks tucked into his gold skivies!

GM wasn’t the only one having fun!  The ladies of our crew had a bit of their own fun as well.  “DD” jumped off the back of the Willy T, “Sailor Suz” and “SEO” ended up behind the bar making shots, doing shots, and getting tatooed (you’ll have to google that one), and the rest of us just kept dancing!

Little did we know that at some point in the night another crew member, we’ll call him “Chuck McFlannery” (I’ll explain the naming in later posts), had disappeared on the dinghy to change his outfit to something more interesting too.  Once on the boat, we found out later, he didn’t tie the dinghy off tight enough and it drifted away on him.  Coming back up from the cabin he noticed it wasn’t there and stripped down to chase the escaping floater.  He dried off and came back to the party in full redneck garb.  Classic!!

All in all a great night.  I didn’t quite remember the dinghy ride back to the boat until I saw photographic evidence of said activity.  Once back at the boat everyone ended up jumping in the water … in the buff.

What a great start to our vacation!

Em