Tortola

Road Town's scenic setting and sheltered yacht-filled harbour provide a helpful orientation to the laid-back BVI lifestyle evolved over the last 400 years by English, Dutch, French, and Spanish adventurers, followed by plantation owners and 20th century settlers.

This friendly and diversified community tempts travellers with every sort of regional and international cuisine found in a choice of cheerful pastel painted restaurants, former forts, and sugar mills. Palate-pleasing menus feature West Indian specialties of fresh lobster, conch, turtle, spicy goat, and curries of every description. An authentic English pub serves Pusser's Rum, traditional drink of the British Navy for 300 years, as well as a popular fruit flavoured local concoction known as the "Painkiller."

Savvy shoppers can usually find bargains in perfume, jewellery, wine, and Wedge wood china in the homey-style stores dotting Road Town's Main Street and Soper's Hole, West End. However, the shops are best known for their unique local products. Look for one-of-a-kind antiques, silk-screened fabrics, intricate ship models, and watercolours by Tortolan artists.

Tortola also offers and ideal jumping off point to the other main island of Virgin Gorda with its famous Baths, magical Anegada, and rustic Jost Van Dyke.