Zimmerman - US & British Virgin Islands

Prediction for your Virgin Islands arrival: its sunny, 83F (28C). Soon youre on a boat gliding across the teal-blue sea. You sip a Painkiller and think of the suckers at home shoveling snow.

The Virgin Islands have the tropical thing down: consistently balmy weather, ridiculously white sandy shores, diving and snorkeling and calypso-wafting beach bars. But then they kick it up a notch. They float the Caribbeans most profuse and tightly packed group of islands, with more than 90 little landmasses bobbing in a 45-mile triangular patch of sea. Add steady trade winds, calm currents and hundreds of protected, salt-rimmed bays, and its easy to see how the Virgins became a sailing fantasyland.

Exploring the archipelago is easy aboard the public ferries. Or hoist your own sail from the regions largest fleet of charter boats.

Hmm, which island to choose for secluded beaches and conch fritters? Easy: any one, though each differs slightly in personality. The US Virgins hold the lions share of population and development. St Thomas has more resorts and water sports than you can shake a beach towel at. St John takes a different tack: it cloaks two-thirds of its area in parkland above ground and underwater. The largest Virgin, St Croix, pleases divers and drinkers with extraordinary scuba sites and rum factories.

If youre a US citizen and have a passport, you can hop onward to the British Virgins. These are officially territories of Her Majestys land, but aside from scattered offerings of fish and chips, theres little thats overtly British. Theyre more like their US brethren, only quirkier and less developed.

Take Jost Van Dyke, population 200, where a man named Foxy is the islands main man. Chief island Tortola is known for its full-moon parties, fungi bands and fire jugglers. Virgin Gorda is beloved by movie stars and yachties; youll understand the ardor once youve seen her national parks. And Anegada? Its so baked-in-the-sun mellow we cant be bothered to get out of our hammock to find better words for it.

Believe it or not, a day will come during your Virgin stay when you decide enough with the beach lounging. Then its time to slap on the mask and flippers and snorkel with turtles and spotted eagle rays. Or dive to explore a 19th-century shipwreck. Or hike to petroglyphs and sugar mill ruins. Or kayak through a bioluminescent bay. Or fork into garlic chicken and fried johnnycakes at a West Indian snack shack. Or surf, bonefish, day-sail or eco-camp

White Bay Beach, Jost Van Dyke
HOLGER LEUE / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Hiking in Virgin Islands National Park

This national park, with its gnarled trees and spiky cacti spilling over the edges, covers some three-quarters of St John ( ). Aside from awesome snorkeling, feral donkeys and eco-camps, the parks greatest gift to visitors is its hiking. Dozens of trails wind through the wild terrain, taking trekkers to cliff-top overlooks, petroglyphs and sugar-mill ruins. Several lead to beaches prime for swimming with turtles and spotted eagle rays. The paths are short and easy for the most part, so that any reasonably fit hiker can walk them and reap the rewards.

STEVE SIMONSEN / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Diving the RMS Rhone

The RMS Rhone ( )is one of the most famous shipwreck dives in the Caribbean. The twin-masted vessel sank off Salt Islands coast during a hurricane in 1867. Now a national park, the steamers remains are extensive and have become an exotic habitat for marine life. Octopuses, eels and squid swim by a setting that couldnt be more classic so classic, in fact, that Hollywood has used it as the backdrop for numerous films, such as The Deep . Snorkelers can access the wreck, too, since the ships stern is in shallower water.

GREG JOHNSTON / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Exploring the Out Islands

The BVIs remote Out Islands ( ) are a wonderful mix of uninhabited wildlife sanctuaries, luxurious hideaways for the rich and famous, and provisioning stops for sailors. With more than 30 little landmasses to choose from, theres something for every taste. Cooper Island hosts affordable cottages. Norman Island holds buried treasure and a rowdy floating bar. Countless other isles Ginger, the Dogs, Fallen Jerusalem offer nothing but beaches and blue sea. If youre sans yacht yourself, climb aboard a day-sailing tour to reach them.

Norman Island
HOLGER LEUE / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Beaches

You dont have to be hit on the head with a coconut to know beaches are a major highlight of the Virgins. Secluded beaches, family beaches, snorkeling beaches and beaches unfurling miles of sand for sunset walks edge the islands. Loblolly Bay, Flash of Beauty, Smugglers Cove can you see the hammocks swinging from coconut trees? Famed White Bay on Jost Van Dyke gets its name from its crazy-white sand. Tortola has so many beaches it had to start repeating names (Long Bay on the east and west).

White Bay Beach (), Jost Van Dyke
HOLGER LEUE / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Historic Christiansted

This 18th-century town ( ) is a showcase of historic preservation. The cannon-covered fortress, flanked by West Indies neoclassical buildings in gold, pink and brown, evokes the days when Christiansted was the Danish colonies capital and the St Croix plantocracy society was awash in gold. The district abuts Kings Wharf, the commercial landing where, for more than 250 years, ships landed with slaves and set off with sugar or molasses. Today its fronted by a boardwalk of bars and dive-boat operators, with art galleries and courtyard bistros tucked into the towns laneways.

JOHN NEUBAUER / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

The Baths

The BVIs most popular tourist attraction, the Baths ( ) on Virgin Gorda are a sublime jumbled collection of sky-high granite boulders by the sea. The rocks volcanic lava from up to 70 million years ago, according to some estimates form a series of grottoes that fill with water and shafts of kaleidoscopic sunlight. You can snorkel around the otherworldly megaliths, or take the trail through them in which youll slosh through tidal pools, squeeze into impossibly narrow passages, and then drop out onto a sugar-sand beach.