Hi Bernk,

Nice to hear from another Vancouverite! We have a boat down in the islands and are back and forth to Vancouver several times a year. The connections to the BVI from YVR are challenging to say the least. Delta through Atlanta and United/AC through Chicago (red eyes) seem to be the best, and there are many more options from Vancouver to SJU than STT. If you do that you can then connect to beef island as easily as STT. We will often use InterCaribbean on a separate ticket for the cheapest end-to-end routing, although that can be risky if they have any issues. We have been lucky with them, but others have had challenges. You usually can't find their flights on portals like flights.google.ca so book on their site directly.

We take the ferry about 1/3 of the time, depending on what flight connection we have, but honestly, we prefer the little bit extra cost to save the hassle of the ferry, especially since you will have likely just come off a red-eye and 2-3 flights already!

As for the islands, we are currently in Fajardo, PR after spending the last month in the BVI, USVI and Spanish Virgins (all in November). We still love the BVI and with everything so close, you can see a lot in a week. It is also early in the season, so as mentioned by others, you can still find some peace (except for US Thanksgiving). However, you will have a hard time not finding neighbours in your bay, and some are hard to anchor in because of the quantity of mooring balls (which are generally $30/night).

As mentioned by others, St John has some very quiet bays, especially on the south coast which are beautiful and can be deserted. North coast bays will have more people, but are also beautiful. Probably not going to fill a week, but chartering out of the USVI can work, and then hop over to the BVI. FYI, we use the US CBP App to check-in without having to visit a customs / immigration office in the US. It is available for Canadians and Americans, but I am not sure if you can use it for a charter. Check with your charter company. It saves a ton of time vs. visiting Cruz Bay if coming over from the BVI. You can also use it to check-in to the Spanish Virgins from the USVI. Of course going into the BVI, you still will need to check-in regardless.

Which brings me to the SVI. We just spent the last couple of weeks there, and really loved them. However, the conditions were not ideal with swell and wind direction with the storms in the Atlantic, so more of a crap shoot than the BVI or St John. We anchored in Culebrita, Culebra and on the south coast of Vieques, and all were amazing. Distances between are much longer though (longest sail was 22 nautical miles), so if on a one week schedule, I am not sure you would see as much. Also anchorages are not as empty as I expected. Culebrita was packed (but we were there for Thanksgiving), and Culebra was also busy in the main anchorages. Vieques was much more quiet.

Always happy to answer more specific questions on flight routings we have used!