Marina Cay & Scrub Island: A BVI Guide by Boat
Most first-time BVI visitors plan their whole trip around the Baths and Jost Van Dyke and never hear the words “Marina Cay” or “Scrub Island” until a captain mentions them halfway through the day. That’s a shame, because this little cluster off Tortola’s east end — Marina Cay, Scrub Island, and Great Camanoe, all within a few minutes of each other by boat — is one of the easiest, most rewarding detours in the territory. It’s also one of the last stretches of water in the BVI that still feels uncrowded most days of the week.
Where This Actually Is
Marina Cay and Scrub Island sit just off Beef Island, a short hop from the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport and Trellis Bay, and directly on the route to Virgin Gorda’s North Sound. If you’ve already read our guide to Bitter End Yacht Club and North Sound, think of this area as the warm-up act — the water you cross to get there, except it’s worth stopping for on its own.
Great Camanoe is the larger, mostly undeveloped island in the group, with Scrub Island tucked against its southern tip and tiny Marina Cay sitting out in the channel between them. The whole cluster can be covered in an hour or built into a half-day stop, depending on how long you want to linger.
Marina Cay: The Small Island With a Big Story
Marina Cay is barely six acres, and it’s had one of the more colorful histories of any speck of land in the BVI. In the 1930s, American author Robb White and his wife Rosalie built a home here and lived on it largely alone; his memoir about the experience, later adapted into a film, put the island on the map decades before charter tourism existed. The island changed hands more than once over the following decades and, like most of the territory, took a serious hit from Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Today it’s back, with a bar and grill run under Mainsail Lodging and Development serving casual island food, cold drinks, and a view across the anchorage that’s hard to beat at sunset. There’s no big resort infrastructure here — that’s the point. You come for a swim, a snorkel off the small beach, a drink at the bar, and the sense of having found a spot most itineraries skip entirely.
- Calm, protected water good for swimming, kayaking, and paddleboarding
- A small beach and reef edge suitable for casual snorkeling
- Marina Cay Bar & Grill for a laid-back lunch or sunset drink
- A quiet mooring field that still has personality without the crowds of busier anchorages
Scrub Island: A Little More Polish
A few minutes across the channel, Scrub Island has more infrastructure — Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, anchors the island with rooms, a full-service marina, an infinity pool, and the Ixora Spa for anyone who wants a treatment between boat days. You don’t need to be a hotel guest to stop in for lunch or a drink; the restaurants overlooking the marina welcome day visitors, and the view across to Marina Cay, Great Camanoe, and Beef Island from the deck is one of the better lunch views in this part of the BVI.
Beyond the resort itself, Scrub Island has a quieter north beach worth the short walk or dinghy ride if you want sand without the marina bustle. Snorkeling and light water sports are easy to arrange right off the property, and the surrounding reef gives divers and snorkelers a legitimate reason to linger past lunch.
Practical Details
Location: Off Tortola’s east end, between Beef Island and Virgin Gorda’s North Sound.
Getting there: By private charter, roughly 15-25 minutes from most Tortola departure points; also reachable from Trellis Bay or the airport by short transfer.
Good for: A relaxed lunch stop, light snorkeling, an easy add-on to a North Sound or Virgin Gorda day.
What to bring: Reef-safe sunscreen, a swimsuit, cash or card for restaurant tabs (dinner isn’t included in charter pricing), and a light cover-up for the resort restaurants at Scrub Island.
Best paired with: The Baths, Bitter End Yacht Club, or a full North Sound day — see our one-week BVI itinerary guide for how to sequence it.
Great Camanoe: The Quiet Anchor of the Group
Great Camanoe rarely gets its own mention in trip planning guides, and that’s mostly because it doesn’t have the restaurants or resort infrastructure that draw people to its smaller neighbors. What it does have is size and scenery — steep, green hillsides, a couple of quiet bays, and some of the calmer water in the area for a swim stop if you’d rather skip the crowds at Marina Cay entirely on a busy week. Lee Bay, on its western side, is a popular overnight anchorage for the sailing crowd, which tells you something about how sheltered the water is here.
Most private charters treat Great Camanoe as scenery and a buffer between stops rather than a destination on its own, but if your group wants twenty minutes of genuinely quiet water — no bar, no music, just the boat and the reef — it’s worth asking your captain to swing past on the way to Marina Cay or Scrub Island.
The Hurricane Irma Recovery, and Why It Matters Here
It’s worth understanding a little of the recent history here, because it explains why this cluster feels different from other BVI hotspots. Hurricane Irma tore through the territory in September 2017 and hit low-lying, exposed properties like Marina Cay especially hard. Recovery across the BVI has been uneven — some islands and businesses rebuilt within a couple of years, others took much longer, and a handful of properties never reopened at all.
Marina Cay’s bar and restaurant came back under new stewardship, and Scrub Island Resort has continued to invest in its marina and guest facilities since reopening. The practical upshot for visitors: check current hours and availability before you go, since small island businesses in the BVI can still shift schedules seasonally, but don’t assume the damage from a storm nearly a decade ago still defines what you’ll find when you get there. What you’ll actually find is a working bar, a full-service resort, and water that looks like it always has.
How We’d Build a Day Around It
On a private full day charter, Marina Cay and Scrub Island work best as a mid-morning or lunch stop on the way to or from Virgin Gorda’s North Sound — swim and snorkel at Marina Cay, then cross to Scrub Island for lunch on the water before continuing on to the Baths or Bitter End. On a half day charter, the pair can anchor the entire trip on their own: a slower morning of swimming, a long lunch, and a sunset drink before heading back to Tortola.
It also makes a genuinely good option for guests flying in or out of the airport on Beef Island who want to squeeze a real BVI experience into a short window — the proximity means less travel time and more time actually on the water, which matters if you’re working with half a day before a flight.
If snorkeling is the priority for your group, we’d pair this stop with our guide to Monkey Point and Guana Island, which sits just north of Great Camanoe and rounds out a full day of reef time in this quieter corner of the territory.
What Makes This Corner Different
Compared to the Jost Van Dyke or Norman Island circuits, which get busy by late morning most weeks, Marina Cay and Scrub Island stay relatively calm. Part of that is geography — they’re slightly off the most obvious sailing lines between Tortola and Virgin Gorda — and part of it is that a lot of visitors simply don’t know to ask for the stop. That’s changing as more travelers look past the headline destinations, but for now it’s still one of the better places in the BVI to get a resort-quality lunch and a quiet swim without fighting for a mooring ball.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be a hotel guest to visit Scrub Island Resort?
No. Day visitors arriving by boat are welcome at the marina-side restaurants; reservations are a good idea during busy periods, and current hours and policies are worth confirming directly with the resort before you go.
Is there anywhere to stay on Marina Cay itself?
Not currently — the accommodations in this cluster are on Scrub Island. Marina Cay is a day-stop destination: swim, eat, and move on.
Can I combine Marina Cay and Scrub Island with a trip to the Baths?
Yes, and it’s one of our favorite full-day combinations. The geography lines up well since both are on the route toward Virgin Gorda’s North Sound.
Is the snorkeling here better than Norman Island or the Indians?
Different, not necessarily better — the reefs around Marina Cay and Scrub Island are calmer and shallower, which makes them a good fit for beginners, families, or anyone who wants an easy swim rather than a dramatic dive site.
How much time should I budget for this stop?
Two to three hours covers a swim and a proper lunch. A full half-day charter lets you slow down further without feeling rushed.
Curious what a day through this part of the BVI actually looks like from the water? Check our photo gallery for a preview, or get in touch and we’ll help you build an itinerary around Marina Cay, Scrub Island, and whatever else is on your BVI wish list.
