Antigua & Tortola

[pertfred]

What kind of siteseeing can I do on my own for the day in Tortola or Antigua? Any interesting suggestions?:o

[Kurbanfan]

What kind of siteseeing can I do on my own for the day in Tortola or Antigua? Any interesting suggestions?:o

 

You can catch a ferry in Tortola over to Virgin Gorda and visit the baths.

They have excursions for this but we did it on our own much cheaper.

When you get off the ship you can walk out to the main street and turn left a few blocks on the left is where you can catch the ferry.

 

 

Antigua have many beaches you can visit. Some do the Sandals resort which is kinda expensive. You can catch a taxi to a place called Sneaky Petes which is the same beach that sandals is on. There are a few restaurants and bars there. You can use there chairs for free as long as you order drinks.

 

Good Luck!

[Frequent Floater]

I highly reccommend Patouche Charters in Tortola for a great trip to the Baths in.

http://www.patouche.com

We loved our tour with them.

Antigua we did Miguel's Prickly Pear Island. Just google the name for the site. A nice relaxing day with Miguel and his family run island paradise. Nothing fancy just a great way to sit on the beach and enjoy the great fresh food and drinks.

[CruzVinnieCruz]

We did the Bathes at Virgin Gorda. Here is how to do it on your own:

 

Took 9am ferry there and 12:30pm ferry back. You can see the ferry dock from the ship by looking on the port side. 15-25 minute walk from the ship depending on how fast you walk. If someone from Speedy's doesn't greet you standing outside the ticket area, just to to the Speedy's ticket booth. We got round trip plus taxi for $30 per person. It was about a 30 minute ferry ride. After you get off in VG a Speedy's open-air tram-like taxi (about 10-minute ride) will take a bunch of people over to The Baths. The Baths are a national park so costs $3 per person to enter. There is a bar/restaurant plus two stores at the top. There is a trail, perhaps 1/4 mile long to the bottom. At the bottom is a nice beach area, Devil's Trail to the left - we only went to the first "room" but it looked interesting. You have to walk through both sand and water underneath huge boulders which create an interesting series of cavern-like areas. We went to the right side which also has the boulders but no official trail. Taxi picks you up at noon and takes you to the ferry dock. The ferry was about 20 minutes late in arriving and we didn't leave until about 1pm but no problem to get back to Tortola in time. After we got back to Roadtown, we walked around and shopped for maybe an hour before getting back on ship. One definitely could spend more time at the Baths, but being there for a few hours is better than not going at all! Thumbs up.

[Gingee]

There isn't much to do in Tortola. We did buy most of our souveniers from there though.

[Kurbanfan]

Also if you decide to do the baths yourself in Virgin Gorda, on the ride in the taxi's to the bath's you will notice a small restaurant called "Mad Dogs" on the right hand side right before you go up the hill to the entry of the baths.

They have the coldest beer and the best sandwiches. The blt's are to die for. Yum! I highly recommend it. Not to mention the nicest people. We noticed that it is where the locals stop. Afterwards we just walked back up the hill and caught the taxi for the ride back. I believe the taxi's run about every 30 minutes.

Much cheaper then the restaurant on top of the hill.

[Terre]

When we were in Tortola we just took an open-air bus on a tour...it rained off and on all day.

 

We were in Antigua last December and it was our last stop on a very port intensive itinerary. We booked a day at the Grand Pineapple Resort. They have a deal for cruise passengers for $50 a person (in December any way) you can spend the day there. This includes your chairs, towels, drinks and food. It's was a very relaxing day and we really enjoyed it. The resort is beautiful and we wandered around and found the Outhouse that we read about on the Antigua board. Best BBQ chicken and ribs! It's hidden up on top of a hill, though.

 

You have to get your own way there. We found Gordon and he dropped us and two other couples we'd met on our roll call there for the day, picked us up around 3:00 and took us to the Devil's Ridge and a tour before taking us back to the ship.

 

Here's the link to their website: http://www.grandpineapplebeachresort.com/index.phtml E-mail them to see if they still have this deal for cruise ship passengers...pictures are in my signature.

 

There is information about Gordon on the Antigua boards.