British Virgin Islands

Bitter End Yacht Club

Price per night from$1,315.72

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD1,315.72), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Bitter End Yacht Club Photos

Style

Mari-time capsule

Setting

North Sound nirvana

Explore

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A storied seaside stalwart reborn in the wake of Hurricane Irma, Bitter End Yacht Club is shipshape from port to starboard, with storm salvage repurposed and nostalgia woven into its vintage-nautical rooms. The coastline’s sheltered waters serve up seafood feasts and offshore adventures. And there’s nothing to be bitter about at this barefoot bolthole, where the only hint of sourness you’ll find lies in the citrusy kick of a sundown dark and stormy. 

Smith Extra

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$100 credit to spend on food and drink in the resort

Facilities

Photos Bitter End Yacht Club facilities

Need to know

Rooms

10, including four suites.

Check–Out

11am. Check-in, 3pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability. If you arrive early, you can store your luggage and make use of the resort’s restaurants and watersports.

More details

Rates are room only, but an à la carte breakfast is served at The Clubhouse restaurant, with mains from around $12–$20. A minimum five-night booking applies to all stays at Bitter End Yacht Club.

Also

Unfortunately, Bitter End Yacht Club has no accessible rooms, and the terrain here is largely unsuitable if you have limited mobility.

Hotel closed

The resort closes every year for hurricane season at the end of July and reopens on 23 October.

At the hotel

Free non-motorized watersports and use of the resort’s Boston Whaler boats; free WiFi throughout. In rooms: Nespresso coffee machine, minibar, free bottled water, bathrobes, slippers and Phytomer bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Yacht fanciers should consider pushing the boat out with a Marina Loft. These two-story timbered temptations, with private docks and upper decks that float above the water, make ogling the seafaring set on their approaching superyachts a breeze. Alternatively, if you’re bringing a boatload of friends and family with you, the Marina House’s four rooms can be booked exclusively for your crew.

Spa

You can book massage treatments in your room with advance notice; the hotel can also arrange to ferry you over to the spa at neighbouring Oil Nut Bay, if your self-care sights are set on the full works.

Packing tips

Reef shoes for day trips to The Baths, walking boots for hikes along the island’s emerald-green slopes, and bare feet for the Bitter End beach bar.

Also

Inattentive packers, take note: Reeftique has all your yachtie garb requirements covered; the Market is at hand for snacks and drinks, from freshly prepped key lime pie to all the vital ingredients needed to knock up your own dark and stormies.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs are not allowed at Bitter End Yacht Club. See more pet-friendly hotels in British Virgin Islands.

Children

There’s no kids club or crèche, but free watersports (not to mention a daily hermit crab race) keep even the most jaded teen engaged. Babysitting can be booked at an hourly rate of $75 and the Marina House’s four rooms are well-suited to larger clans.

Best for

Older kids and teens who love water-based activities and messing around on boats.

Recommended rooms

The Marina House is good for families; larger groups enjoy exclusive use of the building when booking all four rooms together.

Activities

Free pastimes for Bitter End guests include kayaking, windsurfing, kiteboarding, stand-up paddleboarding, snorkeling excursions and use of the resort’s Boston Whaler sailing fleet.

Meals

Pizzas and snacky foods at the Buoy Room and Reef Sampler bar will go down well with little Smiths.

Babysitting

Available when booked in advance, at an hourly rate of $75.

Sustainability efforts

Bitter End’s rebirth in the wake of 2017’s devastating Hurricane Irma is quietly inspirational. Salvaged materials have been repurposed throughout — the boardwalk that weaves through the village uses reclaimed timber from original bedrooms; rescued ropes, mooring balls and lanterns point to the island’s maritime past; the resort’s sunken supply boat has even sailed into a second life as a quirky beach bar. Everything else, from handrails to headboards, was built from natural materials on-site at Bitter End. Motion sensors, water-saving devices, reusable plastics and locally sourced sea-to-spoon produce are also all standard here. Additionally, the owners have set up the Bitter End Foundation, aimed at supporting coastal communities and protecting (and actively restoring) the reef and its abundant sealife. The resort also lends beach space and watersports equipment to a local club that educates young people in such worthy pursuits as beach clean-ups, gardening and recycling.

Food and Drink

Photos Bitter End Yacht Club food and drink

Top Table

The single table inside boat-turned-bar Reef Sampler’s hull is a coveted spot that allows you to play captain over a sailor’s punch cocktail or three.

Dress Code

Classic polos, hats and nautical-striped tote bags from the resort’s Reeftique will have you looking like you’ve just sashayed down a superyacht’s gangplank.

Hotel restaurant

All dark timbers, salvaged mooring balls, and decorative driftwood and corals, The Clubhouse is an old-school sailor’s haunt worthy of the saltiest of seadogs. Suffice to say, you’re about to get a whole lot more intimate with the critters you made friends with on the reef this morning. On the menu: Caribbean classics including salt fish cakes, seared ahi tuna and Anegeda spiny lobster in Cajun rum butter, teamed with a sea-legs-challenging wine list and North Sound vistas to dine for. A classic après-sail hangout, the Buoy Room serves up more casual fare – stone-fired pizzas, fish tacos and fresh salads — at lunch and dinner. 

Hotel bar

Find your sea legs at Reef Sampler, a beach bar that has given a second wind to the resort’s original supply boat, salvaged post-hurricane from the North Sound. Expect Caribbean snacks, stone-fired pizzas and a list of pirate-pleasing (largely) rum-laced tipples. 

Last orders

Breakfast is served between 7.30am and 10.30am in the Clubhouse; you can order dinner until 9pm in the Clubhouse or Buoy Room.

Room service

None, but the Market covers most major food groups: baked goods, fresh fruit and veg, seafood, wine and of course rum.

Location

Photos Bitter End Yacht Club location
Address
Bitter End Yacht Club
North Sound
Spanish Town
VG1150
Virgin Islands, British

Accessible only by sea, Bitter End Yacht Club hugs a mile-long stretch of pristine sand overlooking the North Sound on Virgin Gorda’s eastern peninsula.

Planes

Fly into Virgin Gorda Airport, from where a two-passenger cab to Gun Creek ferry port can be arranged for $75 one-way; from there, complimentary ferries speed you onward to Bitter End. Or, for $750, private ferry transfers from Tortola’s Beef Island Airport direct to the resort’s dock come with the added promise of million-dollar views en route.

Other

Touch down A-list style on the neighboring Oil Nut Bay resort’s helipad, then don super-sized shades for the short-but-dazzling ferry transfer to Bitter End.

Worth getting out of bed for

The deep, sheltered waters that draw sailors to Bitter End’s curving coastline from October through July have a similarly magnetic effect on watersports enthusiasts. The reef’s wildlife-rich waters — home to sea turtles, spiny lobsters and kaleidoscopic legions of tropical fish — are manna to divers of all levels, from snorkeling amateurs to experienced shipwreck seekers. Bitter End Yacht Club’s glut of free activities includes kayaking, kiteboarding, windsurfing, stand-up paddleboarding, reef snorkeling and floating yoga. Meanwhile, regular ‘build-your-own' beer can regattas are as charming as the daily hermit crab race back on dry land at the Reef Sampler beach bar.  

Beyond the resort, join diving excursions to colorful coral reefs and the submerged wreck of the RMS Rhone; hook kingfish, wahoo and tuna on a sea-fishing adventure, and hike the verdant hills of Gorda Peak National Park. Salty seadogs can even set sail for Eustatia, Prickly Pear Island or The Baths aboard one of the resort’s sweet fleet of Boston Whalers. 

Local restaurants

Bitter End’s polished plates and ever-changing daily catch mean there’s little need to go fishing for options elsewhere. That said, if you fancy a (slight) change of scenery, you can ferry round the bay to Nova at the Oil Nut Bay resort for over-water dinner and cocktails. Or go full omakase — an exclusive, once-a-day, 12-course, 12-diner experience — at the Biras resort’s decadent Ikigai restaurant. 

Local bars

Imagine, if you will, frozen rum cocktails served in cups branded with a cute doggo mascot and hand-delivered straight to your boat or dock. Rum Runner turns this fever dream into a reality, with a mothership moored out in the harbor and a zippy tender that handles the deliveries. You might even get to meet cup-pup Drake for real. 

Reviews

Photos Bitter End Yacht Club reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this yachtie paradise in the British Virgin Islands and unpacked their barrels of rum and emptied the sand from their espadrilles, a full account of their barefoot beach adventure will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda… 

Bitter End Yacht Club’s half-century of history is written into its very bones. The Hokin family name lives on through third-gen owner Lauren and debris salvaged in the wake of Hurricane Irma has been reintegrated into Bitter End 2.0, with mooring ropes, nautical lamps, driftwood and original timbers all nodding firmly towards the resort’s storied maritime past. Less bitter end; more resurgent phoenix. 

Sailors, snorkellers, scuba divers and SUP-ers drift to Bitter End from far and wide, drawn by the resort's sheltered waters, laidback dining and breezy dwellings, among them traditional thatched beach cottages and sleek over-water duplexes, from where the people-watching is almost as enjoyable as the sunsets. 

Write your own chapter in Bitter End’s story, casting yourself as captain of the Reef Sampler boat bar, the catamaran castaway blown in on winds of change, or the intrepid explorer of Virgin Gorda’s gloriously green valleys and peaks — either way, you’re sure to find a happy ending. 

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Price per night from $1,126.40

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