Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands

I purchased this book prior to a sailing trip through the British Virgin Islands. My family has bareboat chartered in other locations before, but was our first trip to the BVI. This guide was outstanding - gave thorough information about anchoring, mooring and also activities and amenities to enjoy on the various islands. I would highly recommend purchasing this book prior to boating in the Virgin Islands. There is so much to do - we plan to go back next year - we couldn't get to all of the great places this year on a 9 day trip.

The spiral binder is a simple solution to using the book aboard. While it is true that you'll get a lot of ads it's a fair trade off since you'll only pay about half of what other cruising guides cost and it will show you the services you're likely to use. I find the technical aspects of this guide (anchoring, mooring, customs, etc.) to be clear and accurate. I've used some well respected guides for other areas that were not so.

I recently did a sailing course in the BVI and this book came as part of the package. It was an invaluable asset to sailing in the Virgin Islands and I highly recommend it before going there. Details on restaurants, places to anchor for the day and overnight anchorages. This is a great reference book!

If you only had one publication to take on a trip to the Virgin Islands this would be it. The updates are good which means their research is working and I am really pleased to see the return to a spiral binding. This works so well when you want it to stay opened to a particular page.

I wouldn't sail the Virgin Islands without the latest copy of this guide. It is one of the better cruising guides to the busiest charter area in the world. I did like it better with the spiral binding in the earlier editions. Much easier to turn to a section and leave it open.