Need to know
Rooms
82, including 42 cottages, 35 suites and five villas.
Check–Out
12 noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
More details
Rates don't include breakfast.
Also
Virgin Gorda might be tricky to travel to for guests with mobility issues, but once you’re there you can be driven around in a golf cart.
Hotel closed
The resort closes annually from around the end of August through the first two weeks of October.
At the hotel
Beach, spa and fitness centre, yoga platform, organic farm, free-to-borrow non-motorised watersports equipment, six tennis courts and two pickleball courts, laundry service, free WiFi. In rooms: Butler service, Bluetooth speaker, free WiFi, personal bar, tea- and coffee-making kit, free digital newspaper, turndown service and Diptyque bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Almost all rooms are set – at most – a step or two from the beach, except for the expansive four-bedroom villas, which are on the surrounding slope and are a slightly longer stroll from the beach – so, not too much of a hardship. Columbus and Laurance houses have the best vantage point, but if you want to feel the sand underfoot as soon as you step out the door, then the spacious Two-Bedroom Suites, or even the cosy Beachfront Cottage will serve. And the stilted treehouse suites with their interconnected hexagonal living room and bedroom and vast wraparound deck feel more secluded, tucked into the trees.
Poolside
The Bay has a buffer of coral reef, so its waters are kept swimmably calm. But, there are also two pools onsite: the freeform tiered pavilion pool, which squiggles its way past nodding palms and volcanic boulders. Servers are on hand to ferry rum punches from the Pavilion Lounge to your lounger, suncream is in dispensers, and there’s a shallow section for kids. And there’s an infinity pool at the spa, nestled into a flowery niche, which seems to flow into the sea.
Spa
Sense spa’s Afro-Caribbean treatments lean heavily on local lore and ancestral know-how. You might be wrapped in jumbie tree and tamarind leaves, balmed with lemongrass; scrubbed with plumeria flower and coconut oils and seasalt; packed into bentonite clay with turmeric; or slicked with papaya mousse. Let therapists work out your knots with bamboo canes and volcanic stone. Plus there are Evidens de Beauté facials and Maison Caulières skin smoothing, massages mimicking the motion of the ocean, men’s grooming and mani-pedis. The spa’s setting, high on a bluff, overlooking the Sir Francis Drake channel adds to the sense of serenity. A little further south, you can take soothing dips in natural baths pooled in granite rocks, and couples should try the ‘spa astronomy’ experience, where they’ll be gently pummelled under a glittering firmament. The gym might not be quite as relaxing, but it’s well-equipped, with treadmills, stairmasters, Life cycles, Cybex weight machines and free weights. Personal trainers can customise your workout, and there’s a range of classes available: all kinds of yoga, meditation and mantra chanting – both on a water-facing deck – strength training or cardio. Some can be held over a video call in your room on request.
Packing tips
There’s memorabilia from Rockefeller’s time across the Sixties and Seventies displayed proudly throughout the resort, and with design inspiration taken from Slim Arons prints and Jackie O’s holiday style, you should throw some vintage looks in with your regular holiday wear to follow suit.
Also
On request, staff can set up a candlelit table on a secluded spot along the shore.
Pet‐friendly
Pets can stay for a fee, but you’ll have to check the BVI government guidelines first. See more pet-friendly hotels in British Virgin Islands.
Children
Very welcome, with a free and impressively imaginative kids’ club, plenty of baby kit, and expansive rooms for families.
Best for
Juniors, tweens and teens.
Recommended rooms
The Rosewood Two-Bedroom Suites are some of the most popular at the resort, and very comfortably sleep up to six. Larger families might want to book one of the larger villas set on the slopes.
Activities
The free Rosewood Explorer’s club (open 10am to 5pm, for kids aged three to 16) is an adorable space with its own little Caribbean-island-style hut, tropical murals and bean bags shaped like sea creatures, not to mention bundles of toys. But, it’s not just aesthetics –activities celebrate and educate about local culture, with landscape painting, folk arts and crafts, West Indian-music making, storytelling and jewellery making, kite-flying, tie-dying and journal keeping to encourage self-reflection. Mini adventures include nature walks, farm visits, treasure hunts, sandcastle building, beach Olympics and more. Half- and full-day programmes are available. And little ones can join you in saluting the sun with gentle yoga classes, or tire themselves out at the gym’s fun-fit session.
Swimming pool
The pavilion pool has a shallow area for kids to safely play in.
Meals
For finicky eaters, liaise with the hotel beforehand to share your dietary requirements – otherwise, there’s lots to tempt little ones, with small plates, burgers and flatbreads at the simpler end of the dining spectrum.
Babysitting
Babysitters and nannies are available on request.
No need to pack
The hotel has baby monitors, highchairs, baby cots and linens, baby baths and towels, gentle bath products, diaper pails, bottle warmers, play tents, children’s shirts and strollers.
Sustainability efforts
When Laurance Rockerfeller (grandson of oil baron John D Rockerfeller) bought up hundreds of acres of Virgin Gorda’s coast in 1959, his vision was to create an unconventional resort, styled like a fishing village that would do as little damage to the environment as possible, use natural resources and benefit the local economy. And he stayed true to his principles, building in local stone and wood, hiring locally, and not even allowing lawns to be ‘fine mowed’ and eschewing air-conditioning for the trade winds. So it went until 2017 when Hurricane Irma blitzed all but the four main pavilions. However, with a renewed sense of awe and respect for nature, the Rosewood Group have spent millions rebuilding to Rockerfeller’s commandments, while making things a little more luxurious. The stay is plastic free, carefully measures its energy usage, sources the bulk of its ingredients from the onsite organic farm and works alongside the BVI Tourist Board and Association of Reef Keepers (ARK) to arrange eco-friendly activities such as tree-replanting, sea-turtle tracking and learning about the coral-reef restoration.
