Peter Island
Peter Island is a private island located in the British Virgin Islands, about 5.2 miles south-west (195 degrees true) from Road Harbour (Road Town), Tortola, is part of the BVI archipelago that runs along the Sir Francis Drake Channel.
Peter Island is the largest private island in the BVI and the fifth largest of 60 islands, quays, and exposed reefs that comprise the BVI. Dead Chest Island, an uninhabited island, is close to Peter Island.
The beaches face the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and Sir Francis Drake Channel. The island is predominately undeveloped with hiking and biking trails on which to discover the tropical flora and fauna indigenous to Peter Island. The only hotel, the 52-room Peter Island Resort, ranked in Conde Nast Traveler’s “Gold List,” and the Travel and Leisure “T+L 500” for 2007, is accessible by boat or helicopter.
The island was named after Pieter Adriensen (nicknamed “the Commander”) who was the brother Abraham Adriensen, Patron of Tortola under the Dutch West India Company in the early 17th century. Pieter Adriensen and Joost van Dyk built a fort and slave pens at Great Harbour on Peter Island to facilitate privateering and the nascent trade in slaves from Angola.
Transport
There are 113 kilometres (70 mi) of roads. The main airport (Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, also known as Beef Island Airport) is located on Beef Island, which lies off the eastern tip of Tortola. Virgin Gorda and Anegada have their own smaller airports. The main harbour is in Road Town. There are also ferries that operate within the British Virgin Islands and to the neighbouring United States Virgin Islands. As in the UK, cars in the British Virgin Islands drive on the left side of the road.
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Geography
The British Virgin Islands comprise around sixty tropical Caribbean islands, ranging in size from the largest, Tortola 20 km (approx. 12 mi) long and 5 km (approx. 3 mi) wide, to tiny uninhabited islets. They are located in the Virgin Islands archipelago, a few miles east of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The North Atlantic Ocean lies to the north of the islands, and the Caribbean Sea lies to the south. Most of the islands are volcanic in origin and have a hilly, rugged terrain. Anegada is geologically distinct from the rest of the group and is a flat island composed of limestone and coral.
When to Go
The peak tourist season is December to May, but this has more to do with the weather in North America and Europe than it does with the reliably balmy Virgin Islands weather. It’s therefore best to visit outside this period, when you can expect room rates to be about two-thirds of those charged during the busier months. An additional draw is that the calmer weather between April and August tends to keep the waters clearer for diving.
Road Town
Road Town, located on Tortola island, is the capital of the British Virgin Islands. It is situated on the horseshoe-shaped Road Harbour in the centre of the island’s south coast. The town’s population is about 9,400 (as of 2004).[1]
The name is derived from the nautical term “the roads”, a place less sheltered than a harbour but which ships can easily get to. A 67-acre (27 ha) area called Wickhams Cay was reclaimed from the sea and is the centre of tourism. The oldest building in Road Town, the old HM Prison on Main Street, dates from the 1840s.
The town is one of the principal centres for bareboating (self-hire yacht chartering) in the Caribbean. Road Town is the headquarters of Tortola Marine Management, located in the Road Reef Marina, and The Moorings, which are two of the main charter boat companies operating out of Road Town/Road Harbor.
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The British Virgin Islands
The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is a British overseas territory, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S. Virgin Islands. Technically the name of the Territory is simply the “Virgin Islands”, but in practice since 1917 they have been almost universally referred to as the “British Virgin Islands” to distinguish the islands from the American Territory.[1] To add to the regional confusion, the Puerto Rican islands of Culebra, Vieques and surrounding islands began referring to themselves as the “Spanish Virgin Islands” as part of a tourism drive in the early 2000s.
The British Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke, along with over fifty other smaller islands and cays. Approximately fifteen of the islands are inhabited. The largest island, Tortola, is approximately 20 km (approx. 12 mi) long and 5 km (approx. 3 mi) wide. The islands have a total population of about 22,000, of whom approximately 18,000 live on Tortola. Road Town, the capital, is situated on Tortola.
