But what if you're not a sailor? Not a problem. Public ferries glide to the four main islands in 30- to 90-minute trips, and you can hire day sail operators to reach the archipelago's smaller bits.
MOONSTRUCK TORTOLA
Most visits start on Tortola, the largest island. Its forested slopes hold most of the population and commerce, and it's the hub for ferries. Tortola's demeanour is a bit stern -- except for one day each month when the island lets loose. Revellers arrive from all over for Tortola's full-moon parties. At Aragorn's Studio, bands break out washboards and ribbed gourds to lay down a beat for stilt walkers and fire jugglers. The party at Bomba's Surfside Shack skews more adult, with reggae bands and mushroom tea.
VAMPY VIRGIN GORDA
A quick hop from Tortola, Virgin Gorda is the BVIs' second most populous land mass, a beauty adored by movie stars and millionaires. The island's national parks fuel the love affair, led by the Baths, a collection of giant granite boulders jumbled by the sea. The rocks -- volcanic lava million of years old -- form a series of grottoes that fill with water and shafts of kaleidoscopic sunlight.
Visitors can snorkel around the otherworldly rocks or trek up, over and through them to reach secluded, sugary beaches.
Gorda Peak and Copper Mine national parks are two others worth the hike. The former is an easy climb amid orchids and hummingbirds to the island's high point. The latter offers ruins atop a forlorn bluff.
THE LITTLE GUYS
Sometimes you need a little solitude, and only an island with 200 people or less will do. That's when you board the ferry for Jost Van Dyke or Anegada.
In the late 1960s, free-spirited boaters found Jost's shores, and a local calypso musician named Foxy Callwood built a bar to greet them. Foxy's reputation spread, and soon folks like Jimmy Buffett and Keith Richards were dropping by for a drink. Foxy is still around, and despite his fame, Jost remains an unspoiled oasis of green hills fringed by blinding white sand. There's a small clutch of restaurants, beach bars and guesthouses, but little else. As one local put it, "When Main St. is still a beach, you know life is good."
Anegada is even more far-flung, and its flat desert landscape is mind-blowingly different from the other BVIs. Here flamingos ripple the salt ponds. Rock iguanas hide under blooming cacti. And dinners consist of mondo lobsters plucked from surrounding waters and grilled on the beach in a converted oil drum.
OUT ISLANDS
The BVIs also comprise several "out islands," a Creole expression for remote or undeveloped cays. Notable ones include Norman Island, allegedly the model for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. It's uninhabited but hosts two rollicking beach bars that lure passing boaters. Divers set a course for Salt Island, where the 1867 wreck of the Rhone offers a chance to explore just offshore.
IF YOU GO
The BVIs' main airport is on Tortola. There are no direct flights from the U.S. or Canada; visitors typically connect via St. Thomas or Puerto Rico. Often it's easiest just to fly to St. Thomas and take a ferry to Tortola ($45-$55 US round-trip). See BVI Tourist Board (bvitourism.com). The islands use American dollars.
PLACES TO STAY
Hummingbird House (284-494-0039; hummingbirdbvi.com; $135-$160) is the BVIs' only B&B, located in Tortola's capital, Road Town. On Virgin Gorda, Guavaberry Spring Bay Homes (284-495-5227; guavaberryspringbay.com; from $230) are circular cottages that sit a stone's throw from the Baths.
