Tortola is the hub of the British Virgin Islands. People come for its top-notch beaches, banks, customs and the best range of hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. The capital, Road Town, really is more picturesque than its dull name suggests.

Main St is a pretty stretch of bright wooden and brick buildings to mosey along, as is the peaceful JR O'Neal Botanic Gardens. The curios in the small BVI Folk Museum are fun to check out too, but what really make Tortola special are its sensational bays and beaches.

This half-mountainous, half-flat 'Fat Virgin' with a scrawny neck lies a few miles northeast of Tortola. Home to just 2500 people, Virgin Gorda is proud home to The Baths - a surreal collection of gigantic granite boulders and one of the Caribbean's most amazing sights.

They're strewn across blindingly white palm-lined beaches at the southwestern end of the island. Tide and wave action turns caves into baths and back again, eroding a snorkeller's playground of crevices and pools. It's on the south side of Devil's Bay and is well worth scuba diving in calm waters.

Anegada is a place for people who enjoy the feeling of nothing but sea and reef for miles around. Unique to the Virgin Islands, it is a flat coral and limestone island with its highest point only 8m (28ft) above sea level, and miles of isolated white beaches lining the northern and western shores.

Anegada has an airstrip, a smattering of hotels and campgrounds, and only 200 people on the island. Horseshoe Reef, the third largest reef in the world, extends 18km (11mi) to the southeast of Anegada and hosts hundreds of shipwrecks for divers to investigate

This sleepy settlement by day turns into Party Central by night, attracting hoards of night crawlers from nearby Tortola. Life in Jost Van Dyke is basically one long island-style happy hour, with pig roasts and beach bars attracting more yachters than a sale on sun block.

Jost Van Dyke has a scant population of only a few hundred people and lies 6km (4mi) northwest of Tortola and 6km (4mi) north of the US Virgin Island of St John. Ferries run from Tortola's West End to Great Harbor, but it's much more fun to rent a motor boat and putt over independently

Before electricity brought refrigeration to the islands, salt was critical to preserving as well as seasoning food. And where do you get salt when there's no grocery store? Salt Island, a tiny wishbone-shaped island 5km (3mi) southeast of Tortola.

Every year, around April when the salt ponds evaporated, the salt could be 'harvested' by the not too farmerly method of hacking off chunks and bagging them up. These days most people prefer to get their salt off the shelf the boring way.

Bare boating, or self-crew yacht chartering, is the most popular way to cruise from island to island, and if you have access to a vessel you'll find deserted coves and beaches even at the height of the tourist season. One of the best places to drop anchor is at Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, which has a fine beach and two reefs to explore. A large anchorage at uninhabited Norman Island, the furthest island south of Tortola, has been called the 'Bight' since pirate days because it has good holding and is well sheltered. Neighboring Peter Island is where Blackbeard is said to have left 15 men with a bottle of rum and one saber to fight out their differences. Moorings at both islands are shared with spotted lobster and lettuce sea slugs and are only a few minutes' ride by dinghy from excellent dive sites. Norman Island also has caves that can be explored by snorkelers.

There's more great diving at Salt Island, northeast of Peter Island, which is famed as the site of the wreck of the RMS Rhone . Sunk in 1867, the sailing steamship split into two pieces, which means double the diving pleasure. Neighboring Cooper Island has strong currents that attract abundant marine life. Nearby Ginger Island has rough waters because it's exposed to the southeast trade winds, but 50ft (15m) below the surface are huge mushroom-shaped star corals and multicolored sponges.

Horseshoe Reef off the southern shore of Anegada measures 11 miles (18km) long and is the third largest reef in the world. It has claimed hundreds of ships over the years, making it a great spot for wreck diving. Other watering holes on every diver's list include the Baths on Virgin Gorda, a pile of gigantic boulders that form amazing underwater caves; and West Dog, a tiny national park islet a few miles off the western portion of Virgin Gorda. Smugglers Cove, on the far western tip of Tortola, is a remote cove that offers super snorkeling .

There are numerous short but stiff walks in the islands' national parks and if you want the views but not the leg-action, a number of stables will saddle up a nag for some horseback riding .

Bareboating , or self-crew yacht chartering, is the most popular way to cruise from island to island, and if you have access to a vessel you'll find deserted coves and beaches even at the height of the tourist season. One of the best places to drop anchor is at Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, which has a fine beach and two reefs to explore. A large anchorage at uninhabited Norman Island, the furthest island south of Tortola, has been called the 'Bight' since pirate days because it has good holding and is well sheltered. Neighboring Peter Island is where Blackbeard is said to have left 15 men with a bottle of rum and one saber to fight out their differences. Moorings at both islands are shared with spotted lobster and lettuce sea slugs and are only a few minutes' ride by dinghy from excellent dive sites. Norman Island also has caves that can be explored by snorkelers.

There's greater diving at Salt Island, northeast of Peter Island, which is famed as the site of the wreck of the RMS Rhone. Sunk in 1867, the sailing steamship split into two pieces, which means double the diving pleasure. Neighboring Cooper Island has strong currents that attract abundant marine life. Nearby Ginger Island has rough water because it's exposed to the southeast trade winds, but 50ft (15m) below the surface are huge mushroom-shaped star corals and multicolored sponges.

Horseshoe Reef off the southern shore of Anegada measures 11 miles (18km) long and is the third largest reef in the world. It has claimed hundreds of ships over the years, making it a great spot for wreck diving. Other watering holes on every diver's list include the Baths on Virgin Gorda, a pile of gigantic boulders that form amazing underwater caves; and West Dog, a tiny national park islet a few miles off the western portion of Virgin Gorda. Smugglers Cove, on the far western tip of Tortola, is a remote cove that offers super snorkeling.

There are numerous short but stiff walks in the islands' national parks and if you want the views but not the leg-action, a number of stables will saddle up a nag for some horseback riding.