Jean takes the Bus Tour / Excursion for Doris Visits. – Tortola has an award-winning Pier Park, and a second pontoon.
The famous Island Bus Tour or excursion remains the same, with many fun stops. You will pass the dolphin pen but won’t stop with enough time to swim with them, that is a separate tour (end of page). Mountain top lookouts have bars as well as photo opportunities, and good restrooms. There is a very old rum distillery stop and some time on the beach. Bomba’s shack the most interesting, but we just drove past slowly. Good job really, it looks like the place you never come out of sober.
Tortola Cruise Terminal
A lot has changed since the Arawak first inhabited about 100BC and it has been a centre of shipping throughout, and right through the era of the slave trade. The museum is worth finding. We show it in on our walking introduction to Tortola. It is quite moving and is mentioned in the Solo Cruiser book American Portrait. The new cruise terminal has recently expanded and it looks like there are further plans. The one well-appointed major concrete jetty sits two ships and it looks like a second is planned. Often terminals have free wifi, but here some of the cafes have seen this as an opportunity to drive trade and it comes with a purchase or you can purchase wifi. With tourist volume increasing the facilities will follow. These islands are set for an expansion in tourism that they have not seen since the bubble started. There is a newspaper they issue on arrival, it has some good basic information.
Your driver will tell you a lot about the island as you go round. The British Virgin Islands are to the east of Puerto Rico. Tortola is a very popular stop, so you might want to work it out before you go. About 15 of the 50 or so British Virgin Islands are inhabited. Tortola will accept local currency, US dollars but not pounds sterling. However, it is a banking centre for many companies of the rich and famous who keep money abroad. Banking as an industry does not offer tourist opportunities, so as it is a small island built on banking there are not that many things to see or do. Beach sun and sea and a circular bus tour. We show you all the options. First, the island tour. Also, see our film about the Tortola Botanical gardens.
