My family is so excited about returning to the VI for a charter in January. Headed out, as usual, from CYOA at Charlotte Amalie (fantastic charter company!) and roaming around our favorite destinations for 8 days. As I'm sure so many of you will agree, there's simply no better way to decompress from the rigors of life back home (wonderful as they may be) than luxuriating on the numerous and stunning anchorages of the Virgin Islands. But one of the things we also enjoy once each trip is taking an overnight slip at Spanish Town to stretch our legs, top off with water, dump the trash, shower on shore, meet new people and take in sites--not to mention hitting the incredible Rock Cafe. This year, we are thinking about trying out the Scrub Island resort and, in fact, my original thought for this post was seeking insight about that resort. But what I'd really love to hear from you all about is this: what is your favorite, mid-trip overnight marina, and why?
Doug from Indiana

My long time go-to favorite was Spanish Town - I am certainly convinced to try now at Leverick next sail that way - I have used Saba Rock a few times and enjoyed that as well.
If I have guests aboard who have never been to the Baths - VGYH is so easy for an early morning visit, for many years they had the nicest showers and the markets were always a good place to re provision, live music right there often and I made a lot of good friends over the decades visiting often.
Clearing in there from down Island was perfect and setting off to St Barths after clearing out there via Round Rock was the easiest way for me.

Leverick Bay is very welcoming. Great restaurant and Nick will set you up with a rental car to explore the island. Just watch out for the speed bumps.

You'll get a lot of well deserved love for Leverick Bay here, and it is great. Friendly, fun, great service, free water etc.

Specifically to Scrub we stayed a night there for the first time this past July and really enjoyed it. Very nice showers and bathrooms, pretty well stocked store, free shuttle to Trellis and the recreational facilities were great.

I'm a sucker for a swim up pool bar and scrub has two of them. My kid loves playing in the pool so that makes supervising him from the bar a piece of cake. It's not for everyone, and I wouldn't want to spend a week there, but for a mid charter stop we really enjoyed it and will definitely return.

I don't think we've ever spent the night at Spanish Town. Just haven't seen the benefit given that there's so many other docks you can stay at that have more to offer, such as a pool and a quieter setting. Staying in Spanish town is similar to staying in Soper's Hole, yet the one thing Soper's hole has is there's little else on the west end of Tortola for being on a dock.

We prefer Leverick Bay if we're docking on Virgin Gorda - you can always drive to Spanish town and we do often stop as we go from one end of the island to the other. Bitter End is another decent stop where you can be on the dock.

Peter and Scrub are also good stops. Nanny Cay seems to be another very nice facility. Another we plan on checking out at some point is in Fat Hogs Bay area - I forget the name, but I believe they have a pool too (something we look for now since our son loves it).

Scrub wins overall for best pool though. Especially for little ones. The shallow end where you can walk in and water slide were big hits. Leverick would win overall though - can't beat the hosts, they have a pool, BBQ and Jumbies Friday, best TTOL deal in the islands and its a great place to rent a car and hit everything else on Virgin Gorda.

We love Leverick Bay -- we usually rent a car for the day and head to the beach from there -- hit the Baths, Savannah and Spring Bays - stop at Hog Heaven for the view on the return and enjoy the pool at Leverick. Nick and Monica, Troy, Tito, Leroy -- Leverick is like family. Water and ice included in your slip fee, which is the same as a mooring ball fee. Electricity is extra, obviously....

We are not big Scrub fans -- but it's just us on board - no kids that want pools, etc. and as long as we're getting our water topped up, I'm fine with taking a nice hot shower on the boat! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Nanny Cay is a great alternative to Soper's Hole. You also get access to their swimming pool, a decent beach bar, a pretty good restaurant, and a pretty vibrant and friendly community. They have EXCELLENT showers. Also everyone there has a cool dog.

Leverick/Nick & Monica are the best... We used to like Scrub but it has gone downhill steadily. There used to be a TTOL discount but the last 2 times we stopped they made us negotiate for it and then the second time said no all together. There is a resort fee, towell fee, water fee etc etc. The maintenance of the facility has declined as well. It used to be spectacular, I would rate it nice now but not at all a good value compared to so many other places already mentioned.

+1 for Leverick!!

Hi Doug,
Bet you are super excited to be going back … My 2 cents below:

All who know me on here know that Leverick is my home away from home as we start and finish each trip there - Reef Song is on a private ball at Leverick.

As many have already said the staff become like your family and can not do enough for you . Great stop for any of your needs really. They have a small basic grocery with a great deli and baked goods, a laundry if you need to throw anything in for a freshing and a wonderful pool to relax in .

The jumbies restaurant has great food as does the fine dining upstair restaurant for wonderful food and wine choices. They also have the talented Michael Beans pirate show ARRRR ( not sure what his schedule is for upcoming season but hoping he will still be at Leverick). Mock jumbies stilt dancers and delicious BBQ are on Friday nights during peak season. There are also wonderful little shops including a Pussers store , BVI dive shop.

They have a spa…have told Ward each trip I was going to get a massage but have not made it there yet…have heard they are pretty good tho.

They have a very comfy little beach and some neat water sports options. Josh, the guy who runs the water sports place is a doll. We often spend several nights on the dock each trip and have taken the Saba ferry over to explore that little island too. We love hanging out in the north sound and have anchored at least once each trip over in front of Biras. Dink in to the BEYC to hike their amazing trails to stretch.
I could and have spent a week just in the North sound….but so much to see and so little time eh?


It is also a great place from which to rent a vehicle and explore Virgin Gorda land based . We always do the Baths or Spring Bay via this option now.
….I could go on forever but these are a few reasons I LOVE Leverick

We also spend a fair bit of time at Spanishtown as we splash and haul out at VGYH each year and have relationships with the dock yard staff . As you know since you have spent time there also, they have some great shopping, neat restaurants and convenient for walking over to the ferry terminal for clearing customs etc. We love the deli at Bucks at the Marina and make at least one stop there each trip for some local food ( love the goat stew) eat it at the little tables outside the store with the chickens.

Stayed at Scrub Island for the first time in March . We stayed there for the free shuttle over to Trellis bay full moon party. It was a nice place but not my style. I really enjoyed my stay and all the amenities but found it pretty pricy. Would rather spend my money on good wine , dark and stormies and painkillers . Not sorry I stayed but will likely be my last visit.

Just gave myself a severe case of DIF….

HAPPY planning

Sounds like we are headed to Leverick! Thanks for all of your input. What a terrific forum!

I've stayed at Bitter End, Leverick and Spanish Town. all different, all were good. The pool at Levericks and the laundry facility was nice. Bitter End was fun with karaoke. Spanish Town was nice to try out some of the local restaurants and the dock hands were excellent. Enjoy your trip.

Leverick is #1 for us and VGYH is #2. We hit VGYH when we have folks who want to visit the Baths and our itinerary is not get going to take us to North Sound. There is also C&I and Lime/Flow and Digicel stores in Spanishtown.

Scrub was not a big hit for us. Too resorty and the guests were standoffish. We did like the staff, the only friendly people we met.

Cheers, RickG

Has anyone mentioned Peter island? Great property. Lots of surge in the marina. Fantastic Saturday night buffet.

horrible, hot and expensive marina, we much prefer Peter's anchorages

Not hot at the dock with AC on. I don't like the surge, but you can use the windsurfer pool etc. great buffet too.

Hmm, we've docked at Peter maybe 6 times, and the water was dead calm every time (which is one of the things we like about it). Interesting that you've had a different experience.

Dan <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />

I have been to Peter in December and May, significant surge both times.

Interesting, I don't know how they'd get any surge in there.. it's very well protected.

We were there in July.. it was very calm.

We experienced what I called shimmying while docked at Peter Island in June 2015. Adding a couple more lines didn't decrease the shimmy much, and dockmaster Jack indicated that is just was, what it was...

While the shimmying was noticeable (to me anyway) it had little impact and our group of 9 which enjoyed the island so much we elected to spend 2 nights on dock.

I believe new shower facilities are operational as well as a new welcome center, though that would need to be confirmed.

Beautiful well maintained island with loads of stuff to do for a group of people interested in doing all sorts of things.

Little to no wind in Sprat.

Hiking, scenic sunset overlooks, beautiful beaches, very good food, welcoming, spas (with another pool and hot tub), game rooms, multiple bars, etc.

If interested in that sort of setup, it's worth a look in my opinion.

For what it's worth, the visit to Peter has been my wife's favorite stop of all BVI trips...

Peter Island is one of our favorite marinas. The new shower facilities are operational and really nice. It is is probably the only place where we have used the showers instead of the ones on the boat. However, you will find vastly different opinions on it from folks on this board. Some love it. Some hate it. We happen to love it and spend 1 or 2 nights at the marina on every trip. We have experienced some surge but a few extra lines always seem to help. Jackson is also one of the best dock masters we have come across.

We will definitely go back to Peter next trip, but between Peter and Scrub, we liked Scrub better. The pool was a hit with our 1.5 year old! He loved the shallow end as he could walk in up to his chest and the water slide! Drinking in the pool at the bar was nice too!

So does Scrub get extra "points" for being a Marriott property?