Tripatini contributor Fyllis Hockman writes:

"Road Town´s "downtown" offers your typical cruise ship fare so the less said the better. Not a dig at Tortola per se — it´s just true of every Caribbean island in this day and age. But right in town, the J.R. O'Neal Botanic Gardens (below) is a hidden oasis that justifies a trip to town, a nearly-three-acre labyrinth of interlocking paths engulfed in greenery — admittedly a tad redundant since the entire island already blankets you in greenery. Small, large, low, high and enormous, with leaves the size of surfboards that make you stop and stare. Plants are light, dark, thin, thick, mottled, marbled — a mini-rainforest in the middle of a good-size town."

Read more in her post Chilling on Tortola and Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands.

Victor Block