Once the hideaway of buccaneers and brigands, the Virgin lslands now attract a more salubrious yachting crew drawn by steady trade winds well-protected anchorages and a year-round balmy climate. Tourist development has been limited by enlightened environmental policy, and the islands have thoroughly different characters: while the Us Virgin lslands have pursued the tourist dollar, the British Virgin lslands are keen to stay limey and out of the limelight.

The peak tourist season is December to May, but there’s dreamy weather year-round

Hiking between beaches and great snorkeling sites in the Virgin lslands National Park Mountains biking around Water lsland Exploring the days when ‘King Cane’ ruled and sugar was the major at the Estate Whim Plantation Museum, St Croix Retreating to the mountains and beaches of Jost Van Dyke Getting historical historical with the largest concentration of colonial building in Charlotte Amalie Chartering a yacht to Anegada-the ‘Mysterious Virgin’ with a tranquil coral beachfront

Read Martha Gellhorn’s Travels with Myself and Another, observing the chandes between her two visit in 1942 and 1977 to the Virgin lslands

Listen to a popular Quelbe (a blend folk music) group, such as Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights

Watch The Big Blue set in Hurricane Hole on St John, British Virgin lslands, with lots of atmospheric diving and rich images

Eat a hearty bowl of callaloo, the legendary thick green soup

Drink a well-berwed bush tes, believed to cure all your ills

lf yo put ear mango root, yo will hear de (roudhly translated: patience is a virtue)

Wide unspoilt beaches; crystal-clear waters; reggae rhythms; swimming in rum; yachties enjoying an on-deck G-T; flamingos aplenty

The Virgins aren’t owned by Richard Branson-they’re both an unincorporated territory of the USA and Crown Colony of the United Kingdom

lf you approach the Virgin lslands by sea, it isn’t difficult to imagine to what might have gone through Christopher Columbus’s head in 1493 when he named this unspoilt collection of about 100 islands after the legendary St Ursula and her 11,000 virgins…