Finally Seeing Tortola

Considering we have stopped at Road Town, Tortola on many cruises over the years, we had never taken an island tour. We had gone to Virgin Gorda a couple of times, and wandered around the port area, but hadn't seen much else. We decided to change that on this trip, and I booked a panoramic drive with a short beach stop. We climbed into our open jitney buses and headed out.

The view of Road Town's cruise pier with us
and Oceania Allura

It was quite the drive, up to 1,400 feet on narrow, twisting roads that weren't always in the best condition, and back down again on the other side of the island. The views, however, were quite gorgeous.

The views from our first stop

Our beach break of about 45 minutes came at Cane Garden Bay. A beach lounger rental was included in the cost of our tour, and the umbrella cost an extra $5 for the two of us. There were already quite a few people there from the local hotels and resorts, and we're sure there were also tour groups from Oceania Allura, who was sharing the pier with us.

Arriving at Cane Garden Bay. You can see why
it is a popular beach spot.

On the beach.

The island in the distance is Jost van Dyke

A last view as we drove away after
our break

Rather than taking the same route back to Road Town, we were driven along the coast for the most part, coming into Road Town from the opposite site from where we left. It was also a very scenic drive.

Coming back down to sea level, you can see how
steep the roads are. It reminded us of the
twisting road on Tenerife a couple of years ago.

It was a nice drive back, as the coast road is in much better condition than the mountain road, and the views of the island and others in both the British and US Virgin Islands were beautiful. It is only a very short distance between Tortola and St. John, which we could see during our drive.

St. John across the water

We had to stop at the Shell Man. Apparently these
folks lost everything in the last hurricanes to hit Tortola,
Irma and Maria, within a couple of weeks of
each other in 2017.

The entrance to the beach area of an exclusive resort.
Sure looks inviting!

The view as we sailed away toward Ft. Lauderdale.

It was a beautiful day and an opportunity to finally see something of the island. We only have one excursion planned for the next leg of the cruise, in Martinique on the last day, so the rest of the blog posts will focus on what we did on board the ship.

I have been working on my travel sketchbook while on the cruise as well as a few other sketches. Here are a couple based on my photos from Tortola: