The BVI's bareboat capital — the Baths on Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke's Painkiller, and the Drake Passage at sunset
Road Town is the compact capital of Tortola and the hub of the British Virgin Islands, the bareboat charter capital of the world. The BVI's draw isn't the town itself but what surrounds it: the Baths on Virgin Gorda (giant granite boulders creating sea-filled grottos), Anegada's pink sand beaches, Jost Van Dyke's Soggy Dollar Bar (birthplace of the Painkiller cocktail), and the Sir Francis Drake Channel — one of sailing's most beautiful passages. Sailors come for reliable trade winds, short inter-island passages, and an absence of formality.
The Virgin Islands were sighted by Columbus in 1493. The BVI passed under British control in 1672 after Dutch settlement; the sugar economy relied on enslaved African labour until emancipation in 1834. The modern economy is based on financial services (the BVI is one of the world's leading offshore financial centres) and yacht tourism — the charter industry began here when the Moorings charter company set up in 1969.