Brewers Bay beach on Tortola's north shore with a curved strip of sand, palm trees, and a reef visible under clear turquoise water
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Brewers Bay

"The hill down to Brewers Bay is a natural filter — steep and blind-cornered enough that half the island's visitors simply never try it."

A north-shore Tortola beach reached by a road so steep it filters out the crowds, with a reef full of fish and the crumbling stones of an old rum works at one end.

Pierre Words & photographs

Getting to Brewers Bay is most of the story. The descent from Ridge Road is one of the steepest, tightest stretches of pavement I drove in the entire territory, a hairpin switchback with no guardrail and a gradient that had my rental jeep’s brakes smelling faintly of effort by the bottom. I passed one goat, two chickens, and no other cars. That’s usually a good sign in the BVI, and it was here too — the bay at the bottom is a long, quiet stretch of sand with almost nobody on it, even on a Saturday in February when Cane Garden Bay twenty minutes away was packed.

Brewers Bay's quiet stretch of sand on Tortola's north shore with steep green hills rising behind and clear water lapping the beach

The reef here is one of the better snorkeling spots on Tortola, close enough to shore that you can wade out and be over coral within a couple of minutes, no boat required. I saw a spotted eagle ray glide past in about eight feet of water, unbothered by my presence, and a school of blue tang that scattered and reformed around a fan coral like they’d rehearsed it. At the western end of the beach, half-swallowed by sea grape and vines, sit the ruins of an old sugar and rum works — squat stone walls and the base of what must have been a boiling house, quietly falling apart with no sign explaining any of it. I liked that. Not everything in the BVI needs a plaque.

Overgrown stone ruins of an old sugar and rum works at the western end of Brewers Bay, half-covered in vines and sea grape

There’s a small campground behind the beach if you want to actually sleep out here, and a couple of simple beach bars that open on weekends and holidays, but mostly Brewers Bay is just quiet. I sat in the shade of a sea grape tree for two hours reading and didn’t have a single conversation with a stranger, which after a week of charter-boat chatter felt like its own kind of luxury.

When to go: Weekday mornings for total solitude; the road can be genuinely rough after heavy rain, so ask locally about conditions before attempting the descent in a low-clearance rental.