With apologies for the length, I thought it best to put as much information in this post as possible to help others the way you all have helped me. Here are the highlights, observations and recommendations from a week-long stay at Little Dix Bay from 6/26/08-7/3/08.

This was our second trip to the resort, having honeymooned there 15 years ago when it was a Rock Resort. This time, with our 10-year-old daughter in tow, we returned in hopes that “you can go back again” and that our previous memories weren’t overly embellished by the haze of time. I can state with no hesitation that the resort is much better now than it was 15 years ago. Better rooms, AC, better food, and a very welcoming attitude toward children. Any resort that discourages families in the summer months is asking for trouble.

THE ROOM:

We stayed in Room #2, a Premium Oceanfront, that is in the first building of rooms north (in terms of the island, but east in terms of the resort itself) of the Sugar Mill Restaurant. The room was spacious, was equipped with an extra bed for our daughter per our request, had ample closet space, and a very nice bathroom. At this level of room, you get a deluxe shower, but no bath tub, if that matters to you. The proximity to the restaurants and public areas was a big plus. We encountered no noise or commotion from these areas, and given the choice of a short walk to breakfast or dinner immediately after showering, or a long walk in the heat for the sake of privacy, I would opt for the former. Out our back slider, it was a 26 step walk to the sand, and a 40 step walk to hit water. Yes, my daughter counted! The view from the room was awe inspiring, even with our heads on the pillows. The only morning sounds were those of the Morning Doves.

MEAL PLAN:

We did not opt for the meal plan, though our “Summer Escape” package did include the breakfast buffet each day. Unless you intend to eat like you are on a cruise ship, or have no intention or interest in leaving the resort, the meal plan is not necessary. Yes, you do make out financially if you opt for it, (compared to paying per meal for 3 meals a day at the resort), but we didn’t want or need to eat all-you-can eat breakfasts, lunches and dinners every night. (The Pavilion had several such nights in addition to the famous Monday Grand Buffet). We are a bit more adventurous, both in terms of culinary taste and itinerary to worry about being back at the resort each day for lunch and dinner. If you do strike out on your own to see other parts of the island, or take a picnic with you for a beach drop or two, (both of which I highly recommend), or eat a light breakfast or lunch instead of trying to “get your money’s worth” at the buffets, you quickly lose out on the financial benefit of the meal plan, as no credits are given for missed or modest meals. As opposed to 15 years ago, there are enough off-premises restaurants worth visiting to warrant releasing the shackles of the meal plan. We had plenty of meals at LDB, and still came out ahead financially without the plan.

ARRIVAL:

We arrived on a Thursday, mid-afternoon, having been ferried over from Beef Island on LDB’s own ferry. We flew American to SJU, and American Eagle to EIS. The wait for the ferry was about 40 minutes, and we had access to a nice bar, and complimentary fruit punch to kill the time. Upon arrival at the Beef Islands airport, our bags were tagged and we didn’t have to touch them again until they arrived in our room about 5 minutes after we were shown to our room. Very efficient service.

MEALS/RESTAURANTS

Not wanting to venture out so soon after arriving, we ate dinner our first night at the Pavilion. They had an all-you-can eat Asian buffet that was perfectly fine. Nothing phenomenal, but plentiful and diverse. The food trended toward tropical Asian, as opposed to a Chinese buffet. We always travel with wine from our cellar, and found the corkage policies to be quite forgiving in Virgin Gorda. At LDB, we were charged $10 for our bottle, and stemware was good, but not great. Total cost for this dinner including all charges and corkage was $211. Had we been on the meal plan for our first day, we would have taken a financial beating.

On day 2 we hit the Pavilion breakfast buffet. Wonderful…lots of fresh fruit which is right up our alley for morning meals. In addition to the buffet, you can place an order for kitchen-prepared options such as pancakes, French toast, or steak at no additional cost. We did this on some days, but not all. The coconut French toast was huge and delicious. (All subsequent breakfasts were taken at the Pavilion and will not be noted further). After some morning beach time, (see “BEACHES & SNORKELING” below), we had lunch at the Beach Grill. Food was just OK, and pricey, but not out of line with the rest of the island, I guess. Lunch for 3 was $66 and the menu options were things such as a cheeseburger, a Chicken Caesar salad, turkey wrap and the likes. In the afternoon we took a cab to Yacht Harbor to do some grocery shopping at Buck’s. We knew that we would be doing some hiking and Boston Whaler riding to other beaches, and opted to load up on picnic supplies. This turned out great, as the LDB picnic lunch that they will supply upon request for such days is $25-$35 per person, per day. We spent about $30 total for picnic supplies for 3 lunches. There are empty refrigerators in every room, so you have no problem storing cold cuts, veggies, condiments, or what have you. Later that night, since it was a Friday, we shared a taxi with another couple out to Leverick Bay to enjoy the Beach BBQ and Mocko Jumbie dancers. Sharing the taxi helped, but it still cost us $40 roundtrip. However, dinner was only $25 per person and we were charged $10 corkage. Total for 3 people with drinks and tip: $122. The food is nothing special. Typical hot dog and hamburger fare, with a carving station at the end of the line with beef and pork. The pork was actually very good. The only negative was that the entertainment started on “island time”. We had heard that it ran from 8:00-10:00. And though there was a live band throughout dinner, which started at 7:00, the Mocko Jumbies did not appear until about 9:30. With a long taxi ride ahead of us, and a 10 year-old with us, this was a bit late, but we toughed it out. (Here’s a tip. Since the Mocko Jumbies perform after the buffet is over, and the performance area is open for all to see, you do not have to limit yourself to the buffet if you want the party experience. Instead, you can go upstairs to the more formal restaurant and have a nice meal instead of the BBQ, and then come on down for the entertainment afterwards.) Our daughter had a great time dancing with the stilted performers, and walking under their legs. Total cost for meals on Day 2: $188. Still way under the cost of the meal plan.

Day 3. Lunch was al fresco at the Top of the Baths as part of our “day in the boulders”. Food here was much better than anticipated. I figured on serviceable cheeseburgers and turkey wraps. But in reality, the quality was much better than that. Try the Jerk Chicken Sandwich if you like things spicy. And my girl loved being able to swim in the pool while we waited for our food. Total for 3 people: $62. For dinner we went to The Rock Café (again, keeping with the boulder theme). The food was very good, but never rose to the level of “great”. But we weren’t expecting this trip to be a culinary “wow” experience. You have to divorce yourself from the notion that the price you pay should ensure great food. In the islands, you are going to spend $35-$45 for entrees, and they are going to be good to very good. Just don’t expect great. I had the pasta and lobster dish that they claim as the specialty of the house. A better deal than the whole lobster that was going for $60 that night. We all enjoyed the experience and the service was excellent. I do not recall being charged for corkage. If we were, it was $10. Total for 3 people: $161. Total for the day: $223. Still under the meal plan cost.

Day 4. Lunch was a picnic at Savannah Bay with the supplies we bought at Buck’s. In the early evening we took the LDB Sunset Cruise out to the Bitter End and back. Appetizers and drinks are included in the price of the journey, so by the time were back on land, we didn’t feel much like a big dinner. So we headed for The Bath and Turtle in Yacht Harbor. This was the only place we returned to after 15 years that disappointed. I remember having a rollicking good time in 1993. Our visit this year was boring, with disinterested service and food that rose slightly above the level of OK. But the price was right. Total for 3 people: $62 including some beers. Total for the day, pro-rating our picnic supplies: $80. Way under the meal plan.

Day 5. Lunch was another picnic, this time at Valley Trunk Bay. We opted to go to the Manager’s Cocktail Party and the Grand Buffet, both of which are held every Monday. The Grand Buffet was very good, but not really any more special than the Asian buffet a few days earlier. However, crab legs and peel-and-eat shrimp make an appearance, and probably justify the up-tick in price. Did not get charged corkage. Total for 3 people: 259. Total for the day including the pro-rated picnic lunch: $270. A modest savings over the meal plan.

Day 6 marked a return to the Top of the Baths for lunch. Similar experience in terms of food quality and price. Dinner was the Rib BBQ at the Mine Shaft. The restaurant supplies a complementary shuttle, so transportation was free. The ribs were excellent, and the staff could not have been nicer. The view is everything you have heard about, and it would be worth a return trip even if the food was just OK. But it was better than that, and reasonably priced. No corkage charged. Total for 3 people: $92. Total for the day: $156. Big savings over meal plan.

Day 7. Stayed around the resort this day, and tried the Pavilion for the lunch buffet. As noted in the section on the Meal Plan, unless you want to eat like a cruise ship passenger, this is really overkill. After a breakfast buffet at 9:00, one hardly needs an all you can eat lunch buffet. Of course, one is not compelled to over-eat at either meal, and we didn’t. But when the bill arrived, we felt a bit cheated, as there is no a la carte option. You get charged as if you had bellied up to the feeding trough, even if you have just a lunch salad. Oh well. Overall, the food was excellent. As good as the dinners, I thought. There was a Kobe flank steak on the grill, along with some kabobs. The beef was great. In addition, burgers are cooked to order, and there are numerous cold fruit and vegetable salads. I just wish I had skipped breakfast. Total for 3: $101. Dinner on our last night was at the Sugar Mill to celebrate our anniversary. This was by far the best meal of the vacation. Very high level of service. Menu was brief but diverse. My daughter had a veal appetizer and a chicken entrée. My wife had a Caesar Salad and Sea Bass entrée. I started with a wild mushroom soup starter and a local snapper entrée. We split a trio of chocolate composed plate for desert. Corkage was $10 and stems were very good. Despite our fears about pricing, this turned out to be a better value than the buffets at the Pavilion. We didn’t leave hungry, and had high level cuisine. At the Pavilion, you are paying for volume. Total for 3 people: $240. Total for the day: $341. Just a hair more than the meal plan would have cost us.

As the last day proved, if you stay on property for a whole day and eat LDB food for all three meals, the meal plan is a slight savings. But as the other six days proved, if you hop around the island to try different things, the meal plan is not worth the expense.

BEACHES AND SNORKELING:

Little Dix Bay:

Let me start off by saying that our daughter is a real water bug. Put her in a mask and fins and she will follow the fish literally all day long. So if it sounds as if we did nothing but snorkel, you wouldn’t be far off the mark. On our first full day at LDB we snorkeled the entire bay at the resort, and saw a barracuda, two green sea turtles, and ample fish of every size and color. If you are looking for sea turtles, swim out into the bay and face the boat dock. Count 10-12 beach huts to your right (toward the Pavilion). Swim out even with the lone green buoy that marks the route to the boat dock and you should see one or two. They hang out here in the grass, away from the coral. If you see one, try to remain as still as possible, and don’t make a splashing commotion. If you are quiet, you can hover right over them and observe them eating and breaching for a very long time. We were able to track down the turtles every day in this area. Fascinating. The barracuda (which we only saw on one day), was just to the left of the Pavilion (if you are standing on the beach facing out.) There are some coral formations there that are separated by some sandy bottom water about 5-6 feet deep. He was hovering there and didn’t seem to mind us. As nice as the snorkeling is at LDB, be advised that this is almost all dead coral. There are plenty of fish, but to see some real color and variety, you have to go off property. But if you stay on property, the best snorkeling can be found at the reef straight out from the boat dock, continuing all the way to the end of the bay, in the direction away from the Pavilion. (You have to swim out along way from shore, but the water never gets too deep.) The reef is in very shallow water here, so all you can do is swim along the edge of the reef, as swimming over it is not advised, especially during low tide. Slightly deeper water and better coral formations can be found close to shore to the left of the Pavilion, (facing out), in the direction of the villas at the end of the beach. Fewer fish here, but decent coral.

The Baths/Devil’s Bay

We took two trips here, and I will combine both days into one report, though they couldn’t have been more different. Our first visit was on a Friday and we took a taxi to the Top of the Baths, knowing that we would be having lunch there, and figured this was a good place to arrange for the return taxi pick-up. Our second trip was by LDB Boston Whaler. For a variety of reasons, I recommend the latter. First, the taxi fare was around $30 roundtrip for the three of us, while the boat was free. Second, the boat allows you to bring a beach umbrella for shade. Third, if you storm the beach by sea, there is no fee. If you walk down the path from the parking lot, you pay $3 per person for the privilege. In any event, on our first visit we walked down the path to the Baths, and it was relatively quiet. (Emphasis on “relatively”. The days of being alone here are long gone.) We noted the purple and yellow flags at the guard station atop the path indicating a “marine life warning”, (i.e., jellyfish). We didn’t see any on the beach and proceeded to head out into the water to snorkel, but soon found many stinging nemesis in the water and we retreated. Other bathers were not so smart or fortunate, and we heard literally dozens of people crying out and complaining about jellyfish stings. It seems that July is jellyfish season, and the end of June brings them in, especially with stormy seas. So our first day of snorkeling at The Baths was a bust. I wasn’t about to let my daughter lose her passion for the ocean with an ill-timed sting. Instead we opted to do the hike to Devil’s Bay and enjoy land-based exploring. The trail to Devil’s Bay was fun and very doable, but flip-flops are not recommended. Best success was had in surf shoes. Once at Devil’s Bay we walked around some more, but found far too many jellyfish washed ashore to dare going back in the water. So after some sun time, we hiked up the Devil’s Bay trail to the parking lot. The Devil’s Bay path is much longer than the one to The Baths, but not strenuous or steep at all. Once at the top, we had an early lunch, and fortune smiled on us as we spied our taxi driver dropping off some more passengers. We asked him to bump up our pick-up time from 2:00 to 1:00 and he obliged. After the leisurely lunch at The Top of the Baths, and a swim in their pool, we headed back to the resort.

Our second trip, several days later, was much more successful from a snorkeling standpoint, but marred by the invasion of cruise ship passengers from St. Thomas. We intended to avoid the area on cruise ship day. (It was Tuesday), but we couldn’t go back home without giving the Baths one more try. This time we took the Boston Whaler in. It will drop you off in Devils’ Bay, as dinghies are not permitted to land at the Baths. No warning flags this time, and no jellies in sight. More importantly, none of the hundred or so cruise ship passengers in the water were screaming. So we felt it was safe to go in. The snorkeling was great. We started on the far left of the Bay (facing out to sea) and snorkeled the boulders on the south end, around the point toward the southern tip of the island near Stoney Bay. As the water started getting a bit rough, we headed back and crossed the bay, snorkeling around the boulders that separate Devil’s Bay from the Baths. We continued all the way around the point and snorkeled to the beach area at the Baths to rest for a bit. The beach area was so crowded that we didn’t linger long. The cruise ship crowd can really change the atmosphere of the beach. After a brief rest, we headed back into the water to snorkel around the point again, back to Devil’s Bay. There are several places where you can take a short cut instead of going all the way around the furthest boulders. It is possible to swim in 2-3 foot wide canyons between boulders to cut off some distance, and make the trip more fun. My daughter loved the feel of “squeezing” between boulders like Jacques Cousteau. Overall, the snorkeling is everything it is cut out to be. Big fish and unusual rock formations and holes where marine life abounds. You won’t see much stunning Caribbean coral, though there is plenty of living brain coral. The water around the boulders as round the points of the bays is very deep which gives you a different perspective from much of the other snorkeling that is done in 4-8 feet of water. It is great to look down 40 feet or more sometimes.

Savannah Bay

We took a Boston Whaler for a beach drop here, and as we had read, we had the place to ourselves. No jellyfish. I cannot recommend this highly enough. The beach is spectacular, and there are thatched roof umbrellas tucked in the sea grapes that are available for use. Don’t worry. You won’t have to fight anyone for them. The beach is very large and the water is almost entirely reef. Don’t come expecting to body surf. The water is calm and protected. The best snorkeling was to the left of the bay, as you are standing on the beach facing out. Lots of living coral formations of every size and variety. The water deepens as you go out, so soon you are swimming freely in 8-10 feet of water. Once you get to the end of that reef area, you can cross the bay, swimming though some sandy bottom water to reach another reef that occupies the middle of the bay. Still more reef can be explored if you walk north along the beach to the other end of the bay and head out there. (You have to walk along the beach because the reef gets so shallow in the middle of the bay that it cannot be crossed while swimming.) All in all, this was a great spot for snorkeling and for a picnic.

Mountain Trunk Bay

We snorkeled here as part of LDB’s almost daily “Guided Snorkel Tours”. Don’t be misled as we almost were. These activities at 2:30 most days are NOT guided tours of LDB’s own bay. Instead, you head out in Boston Whalers and are dropped off in open water (not on beaches) to snorkel on reefs that are not easily accessible from shore, if at all. They try to go to different areas each time out so that you never get the same experience twice. Mountain Trunk had awesome living coral. The best we saw on the trip. You feel like you are in the middle of the ocean, but are just a few hundred yards from shore. The natural current takes you in a southerly direction as you drift over the fish and coral. The boat that brought you out will head about a half mile to a mile down current to await your arrival. If you like to snorkel and want to get out of Little Dix Bay, by all means, do these tours. They are free and last from 2:30 to about 3:45 from dock to dock.

Long Bay

Again, we snorkeled here as part of a guided tour. This is a further out reef, just past Nail Bay. Similar in viewing to Mountain Trunk, though we never get tired of seeing living reefs. Good fish and coral here.

Valley Trunk Bay/Little Trunk Bay

Our favorite beaches on the island. We were dropped off by Boston Whaler with an umbrella and our picnic supplies. It is amazing how many people descend on Spring Bay and The Baths by sailboat when these beaches are right next door and have the same boulders and formations to offer. And Valley Trunk is a better and bigger beach than both of them. As you are dropped off by boat, from the water looking up at the beach, head to the left toward the boulders. Up the sandy hill you will find a shaded area with rocks to sit on. A perfect place to plunge in your Little Dix Bay blue umbrella for the day. Good coral, and good boulder snorkeling. You can get from Valley Trunk to Little Trunk either by snorkeling around the point or hiking a short path. To find the path from Valley Trunk, head south along the beach to the end. There you will find a palm tree that has been decapitated by the weather. This palm trunk will lead you to a rocky path not unlike the one that connects The Baths and Devil’s Bay. Only it is much, much shorter. Two minutes is all you will need, and the last descent to the beach will require a 10 foot repel down a path while holding an anchored rope that has been attached to the rocks. We took the path down, but snorkeled back. All in all, this was a very enjoyable day. Were I to do a villa vacation instead of a LDB vacation, this is the area that I would look to.

Mahoe Bay

Snorkeled here as part of an afternoon guided tour. They took us offshore of the Mango Bay resort, about 200-300 yards off shore. The snorkeling was fun, but not as lively or vibrant as wither Mountain Trunk or Long Bay.

THE RETURN

Checkout was smooth. Armed with your departure information, LDB will schedule you for a ferry back to Beef Island in time to catch your plane. You have to have your luggage packed and left in the room by noon which coincides with checkout. You can enjoy the resort after that and shower if you need to at the Boat House. Our ferry left at 2:00 for our 4:08 flight. Check-in at the airport was smooth and we had plenty of time before our flight. The airport is not air-conditioned, so bear that in mind as you dress for your trip home. LDB took care of our luggage all the way to the sidewalk in front of the departure area. They really do have this down to a science. The price for the ferry service is $95 roundtrip per adult and $50 for a child. It seemed a bit steep, but in retrospect, not having to lug my luggage in the heat and humidity and having them take it door to door each way was worth it.

I hope this helps some folks out there. In scanning this board there are questions posed daily about Virgin Gorda in general and Little Dix Bay in particular. Hopefully this will provide some insight. Happy and safe traveling!