By far, this was my FAVORITE day of my entire vacation in the Virgin Islands. Better than the Baths, better than shopping in St. Thomas, better then all the rum punches you can drink!

We were staying on the island of Torotla. From the Road Town ferry dock, we took Smith’s Ferry ($50 roundtrip, about 1 hour) at 8:00am to Anegada. When we arrived, we walked over to the Anegada Reef Hotel…actually, I should preface with…we expected to find a taxi at the ferry dock, but, we didn’t find one, so, we started walking…following other tourists, and hoping for the best. We found our way to the Anegada Reef Hotel, which was about 5 minutes away. There, we found everything we needed ~ even though we weren’t stay at the hotel!!

The Anegada Reef Hotel also has a shuttle that goes to the beaches; even if you’re not staying at the hotel you can use the shuttle. For $15 (& tip), the shuttle took us from Anegada Reef Hotel to Loblolly Bay. We arranged a time for the shuttle driver to pick us up at Loblolly and take us to Cow Wreck. Then we arranged a time for the shuttle driver to pick us up at Cow Wreck and back to Anegada Reef Hotel. Also, we had asked the driver about the flamingos we’d read all about. Between Loblolly and Cow Wreck the driver took us to “the ponds” to see the flamingos! The driver said, “I’ve never seen so many flamingos. And they are so close.” (They were still pretty far away.) (FYI – There are other shuttle route options. For example, it was $8 to go from the Hotel to Loblolly and back).

They have a “We Be Divin’” dive shop where we rented snorkel gear ($25 for mask, breathing tube, and flippers). I’m not a “pro” snorkeler or anything, so be careful to get the right kind of gear…for example, my breathing tube kept filling with water (it had this weird apparatus attached to it). When we got back and I told the guy about it, he just laughed and said “you don’t know how to use it” – so, just make sure you ask the right questions to get the right gear…also…we never knew this, but, you should wear socks within the flippers to avoid blisters!

When we were at the dive shop, the worker suggested we go to “Big Bamboo” for the best snorkeling, which is a section of the Loblolly Bay. This is where we asked the shuttle driver to drop us off.

Once we arrived, there is a blue paved walkway which takes you towards the beach and “The Big Bamboo” restaurant. We planned to eat at the Big Bamboo, and read some where online that we could place our order 1st, tell them when we want to eat, then come back to the restaurant and it would be ready – WORKED PERFECTLY! (For a review of the restaurant and photos, please go to the Big Bamboo Restaurant.)

Then we headed to the beach. It was very lovely, lots of wide open spaces. There were benches under “grass” umbrellas, and on the post of the umbrellas were hooks to hang towels/cover-ups/etc. We felt perfectly safe leaving all of our good right there at the bench while we went in the water. The snorkeling was amazing! We didn’t even have to go very deep to see reefs, parrot fish, sting ray, schools of blue fish, schools of white fish and numerous other species. (Again, I’m not a “pro” snorkeler, so I don’t know what most of these fish are called…sorry!)

In the afternoon, we went over to Cow Wreck. And, as if Loblolly wasn’t GORGEOUS enough, in general, I thought Cow Wreck was even more beautiful; however, the snorkeling was much better at Loblolly. We didn’t see much at Cow Wreck. In my opinion, unless you REALLY want to go to Cow Wreck (for whatever reason), I WOULD SPEND THE WHOLE DAY AT LOBLOLLY.

FYI - There was a dive shop at Loblolly, but it was not yet open when we arrived, so I’m glad we picked up our gear at Anegada Reef Hotel. There is also a small gift shop.

I visited Anegada in 2000 and I had the best time in Flash of Beauty, and Big Bamboo. The best food ever was in those places had a ball will be back soon for some of that lovely sea water.

I visited Anegada for 17 days, approximately 4 years ago, and was captivated by the undescribable beauty of the entire Island, especially Loblolly Bay...it was a little piece of Heaven, laying on the hot sand, surrounded by grapes trees, using my finger to pick through the millions of different sea shells lying all over the place, in millions of different colrs and shapes...it was overwhelming...I also found it interesting on the Island of Anegada, of how exciting it was to walk along the beach and for miles and find many interesting things...it was like treasure hunting...incredibly fun!!