Soft white sand on Jost Van Dyke's south-west coast, with a reef across the front and no dock: you come by boat and swim or wade in, or by taxi over the hill from the Great Harbour ferry. The Soggy Dollar Bar, where the Painkiller was first mixed in the 1970s, and a handful of other beach bars sit along the back of the beach.
Thunderstorms in the forecast · Sargassum offshore
8 am–11 am
None
Gentle · 1.6 ft
Thunder
Fri, Oct 23
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Thunderstorms in the forecast · Sargassum offshore
8 am–11 am
~80
Gentle · 1.9 ft
Thunder
The call is the same one our beach report makes, refreshed every half hour: the swell reaching the bay (Open-Meteo's marine forecast off the island), the cruise passengers our crowd model puts on the sand, NOAA's sargassum satellite and the rain forecast. It is a model, not a report from the beach — it cannot see the charter boats, and the water in front of you has the last word. The bars under each call are the hours from 8 am to 5 pm. Today's beach report
The ferries and the taxi to the beach, what the BVI charges at the border, the live cameras, the ships, today's beach and weather reads and the island around it — each one opens the full page.
White Bay from OpenStreetMap: the main beach on the left with the reef across its front, the rocky point and the path over it, the east beach, and the road over the ridge to the ferry dock and customs in Great Harbour. The bars are where OpenStreetMap's mappers put them. Tap a pin for its section.
Getting there
How to get to White Bay
White Bay has no dock and no ferry of its own. You come one of two ways: by boat — a day charter, a water taxi or your own yacht — anchoring or mooring in the bay and swimming or wading in; or by ferry to the dock in Great Harbour, the next bay east, and a taxi over the ridge. From Tortola, New Horizon Ferry crosses from West End to Great Harbour every day; from St. John and St. Thomas, Inter Island Boat Services runs direct on set days of the week. On other days, cross to West End and change.
Coming from the U.S. Virgin Islands you are crossing a border: everyone shows a passport and clears BVI customs and immigration at the Great Harbour dock before going to the beach — a charter boat's captain stops there first. The taxis wait by the dock; the fare is the official BVI fare in the table, per person by the size of your party. It is about 2 km by road from the dock to the Soggy Dollar (OpenStreetMap's roads), steep both ways, so most people ride.
Jost Van Dyke from the air, from the south: White Bay on the left, Great Harbour and its moored boats on the right, the ridge between them (2012) Photo: giggel, CC BY 3.0
One way, per person by the size of the party: fares set by the BVI Road Traffic (Passenger Fares) Regulations (rates revised December 2022). Drive times are Google's for an ordinary day. Fare calculator for any two stops
Fill in the BVI's online ED card before you reach the immigration officer — it can be done up to 72 hours ahead — and keep $30 a person for the BVI's levy and departure tax if you come on the ferry from St. John or St. Thomas.
The direct ferries back to St. John and St. Thomas leave Great Harbour in the afternoon on the days they run: allow for the taxi back over the hill and the queue at customs.
There are only a few taxis on Jost Van Dyke. Take your driver's number on the way over and book the ride back.
Swimming in from a boat? Passport, phone and cash go in a dry bag — and watch for dinghies coming in to the sand.
Sailing a bareboat? Check your charter company's rules before you pick up a mooring at White Bay: Practical Sailor reported in May 2025 that charter-boat insurers no longer cover boats there, and advised taking a ball in Great Harbour and coming round by dinghy.
White Bay from the U.S. Virgin Islands: entry fees, papers and hours
White Bay itself is free — a public beach with no gate. What a visitor from St. Thomas or St. John pays is the British Virgin Islands' charges at the border, at the customs and immigration office on the Great Harbour ferry dock. From Tortola or anywhere else in the BVI none of it applies: the crossing is domestic.
Charges, arriving from the USVI
White Bay beach
Free
BVI environmental and tourism levy, on arrival
$10
BVI departure tax, leaving by ferry
$20
The same, for BVI residents
$15
Inter Island ferry passengers: customs and immigration, on top of the fare
$30
The levy and the departure tax are the UK government's figures; Inter Island Boat Services, which runs the direct ferry from Red Hook and Cruz Bay, tells passengers to bring $30 a person for customs and immigration — the two together. Day charters from the USVI also pay BVI charges for the boat, through the captain: ask what the price includes.
Hours
Customs & immigration, Great Harbour
8:30 am – 4:30 pm daily
Soggy Dollar Bar
9 am – 7 pm daily
Hendo's Hideout
Breakfast, lunch & dinner daily
Ivan's Stress Free Bar
8:30 am – 9 pm
The customs hours are the BVI Tourist Board's for the Great Harbour port of entry; clearing outside them has to be arranged in advance and costs extra. The bars' hours are their own, as listed in October 2026: the Soggy Dollar's from its website; Ivan's serves breakfast 8:30–11, lunch 11–3, bar bites and happy hour 3–5 and dinner 5–9. Several Jost Van Dyke bars close for part of the August–October off-season — see our closures list.
Papers and the rules
✓A passport, for everyone — arriving from the USVI — U.S. citizens and children included
✓The BVI's online ED card — at bviedcard.gov.vg, up to 72 hours ahead and before you see the immigration officer
✓Clear in before you land — every boat entering the BVI clears in on arrival — Great Harbour, next door, is a port of entry
✓U.S. customs on the way back — when the ferry lands in St. John or St. Thomas; by private boat, in Cruz Bay or Charlotte Amalie
✕Landing at White Bay before you clear in — by ferry, charter, water taxi or your own boat
The bars line the back of the main beach, from the Soggy Dollar at the west end eastward; past the rocky point, Ivan's has the east beach. Prices and hours are the businesses' own, as listed in October 2026.
George and Marie Myrick built the Sandcastle hotel on an empty stretch of White Bay in 1970; its bar became the Soggy Dollar under the second owner, Daphne Henderson, named for the state of the money of guests who swam in from their boats. Its website lists it open 9 am to 7 pm every day, from a full espresso bar and breakfast through lunch — lobster and local fish, burgers, tacos — to evening appetizers, with a barbecue on Sundays. The drink is the Painkiller. Friends at home can buy you one online, and the bar writes your name on its Drink Board — finding it is up to you.
Next door to the Soggy Dollar, the bar and restaurant the O'Neal-Henderson family opened in March 2016. Breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, sushi on Thursdays and brunch on Sundays; its Painkiller, made with Pusser's rum, is $9 on the rocks or $10 frozen on the October 2026 menu. It is also the restaurant for The Hideout, the resort behind it.
Rows of loungers and umbrellas stand on the sand in front of the bars on the main beach. None of the bars publishes a price for them online — ask before you settle in. The palms and sea grapes along the back of the beach give shade for nothing.
OpenStreetMap maps a band of reef across the front of the main beach, roughly 70 to 100 m off the sand; the boats lie at anchor or on moorings in the bay, and their guests swim or wade the last stretch over sand to the beach. Carry your passport, phone and money in a dry bag, keep clear of dinghies coming in and out, and do not stand on the coral.
Walk
The path over the point
A low rocky point splits White Bay in two. A footpath crosses it behind the rocks and runs along the back of the east beach — OpenStreetMap maps it — so the walk from the Soggy Dollar to Ivan's is about 300 m.
On the east beach, past the point. Ivan Chinnery, born on Jost Van Dyke in 1943, opened the White Bay Campground here in 1991 with an honour-system bar; his daughters Darlene and Sharlene have run it since 2011, now as a bar, restaurant, villas and beach bungalows that call this the quieter side of White Bay. Breakfast 8:30–11, lunch 11–3, bar bites and happy hour 3–5, dinner 5–9; in October 2026 its calendar has a beach barbecue and bonfire on Wednesdays, a barbecue grill-out on Fridays and karaoke on Mondays.
White Bay has beds as well as bars: the Soggy Dollar's Sandcastle hotel (seven rooms, rebuilt after Hurricane Irma and reopened in 2023), The Hideout resort behind Hendo's (two nights at least), Ivan's villas and beach bungalows, the Perfect Pineapple Inn a two-minute walk up the hill, and Pink House Villas above the east beach. Staying means the beach before the boats come in and after they leave.
The Soggy Dollar streams its own live camera from the bar at the west end of the beach, and Pink House Villas has one on its hillside above the east beach, looking west along the sand to the main beach and its moorings — the view in this photo. White Bay fills from the water, so the boats in frame tell you how busy the beach is before you set off.
There is no taxi stand at White Bay. The open-air taxis wait for the ferries by the dock in Great Harbour, and there are only a few of them on the island: take your driver's number on the way over and book the ride back. The fare back is the same official fare as the way out, in the table above.
Dark rum, cream of coconut, pineapple and orange juice, with nutmeg grated on top. The Soggy Dollar says it was first mixed here in the early 1970s; who mixed it first is told two ways (see the history below). Every bar on the beach pours one, each its own way.
A ring on a string, a hook on a post: swing the ring so it lands on the hook. The Soggy Dollar says nobody knows how or when the game started, and that the prize has always been a drink of rum. Ask at the bar.
Inside the reef the main beach shelves over soft sand, and on a calm day the water in front of the bars is shallow and clear. It is an anchorage as well as a beach: stay close in, and watch for dinghies and boats coming and going.
The reef across the front of the main beach is the snorkel: coral heads and fish between the sand and the boats. Go on a calm morning, before the boats arrive, keep inside the line of anchored boats and look up often for dinghies.
Great Harbour, the village, is over the ridge: about 2 km by road from the Soggy Dollar to the ferry dock, steep both ways, or a short taxi ride. Foxy's and the village's waterfront bars are there, by the dock where the ferries leave.
The few cruise ships that come anchor off Jost Van Dyke and send their guests ashore by tender. SeaDream Yacht Club calls Jost Van Dyke the signature island for its Champagne & Caviar Splash — crew in the surf with champagne and caviar, then a barbecue on the beach — and its yachts drop anchor in White Bay to do it.
Eating at White Bay means the beach bars along the back of the sand: lunch and a drink, then back in the water. Bring cash as well as a card — there is no ATM on Jost Van Dyke, The Hideout notes, and the nearest is at Soper's Hole on Tortola, by the ferry to the island.
Several of the island's bars close for a few weeks between August and October; our closures list says who, and when they reopen.
Footprints in the soft sand at the water's edge, looking east along the main beach past rows of loungers (December 2019) Photo: David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0
The main beach
Soggy Dollar BarBreakfast, lunch and evening appetizers, the Painkiller; 9 am–7 pm daily, its website says.
Hendo's HideoutBreakfast, lunch and dinner daily; sushi Thursdays, Sunday brunch.
Gertrude's Beach BarThe bar Gertrude Callwood owned, next to the Soggy Dollar; she died in 2024. It publishes no hours, and we could not confirm them.
The east beach, up the hill and over it
Ivan's Stress Free Bar8:30 am–9 pm, happy hour 3–5; beach barbecue and bonfire on Wednesdays.
Perfect Pineapple InnIts office and shop sell breakfast and lunch, a two-minute walk up from the beach.
Great HarbourThe village's waterfront bars and restaurants, Foxy's among them, by the ferry dock over the ridge.
Weather & sea
White Bay weather and the best time to go
Warm all year, with a steady easterly trade wind and short tropical showers rather than all-day rain; the forecast below has this week's numbers. December to April is the dry season and the busy sailing season, when the bay is fullest. June to November is hurricane season, and between August and October several of the island's bars close for a few weeks.
White Bay faces south, with the island's ridge at its back and a reef across the front of the main beach, so on most days the water inside is calm. Sailors still treat it as a day stop: the advice of charter guides and the sailing press is to spend the night on a mooring in Great Harbour. On a day when a swell does reach the bay, the landing through the shallows gets rough — the call at the top of this page reads the swell every half hour.
The next 7 days on Jost Van Dyke
Day
Sky
High / low
Rain
Wind
Seas offshore
Today
Drizzle
85° / 82°F
47%
ESE 13 mph
2 ft
Tomorrow
Drizzle
84° / 81°F
71%
ESE 10 mph
2.4 ft
Wed, Oct 21
Drizzle
85° / 83°F
51%
SSE 14 mph
2.4 ft
Thu, Oct 22
Thunderstorms
85° / 77°F
29%
SE 15 mph, gusts 22
2.6 ft
Fri, Oct 23
Thunderstorms
85° / 79°F
39%
ESE 18 mph
3.1 ft
Sat, Oct 24
Drizzle
85° / 84°F
27%
ESE 19 mph
3.8 ft
Sun, Oct 25
Overcast
85° / 84°F
21%
ESE 15 mph
3.4 ft
Open-Meteo forecast for Jost Van Dyke, refreshed every half hour. The seas are offshore; how much of it reaches the sand is the call above. BVI weather & sailing week · North swell season
Sea temperature by month
80°Jan
80°Feb
80°Mar
81°Apr
83°May
85°Jun
85°Jul
85°Aug
86°Sep
86°Oct
84°Nov
82°Dec
Daily-mean sea-surface temperature off Jost Van Dyke, averaged 2021–2024 (Open-Meteo marine reanalysis): warmest in Sep (86.3°F), coolest in Feb (79.6°F).
Cruise crowds
Cruise ships and the crowd at White Bay
Jost Van Dyke has no cruise pier, and the ships that call are small — sailing ships, yachts and small luxury ships that anchor off Great Harbour or White Bay and bring their guests ashore by tender; SeaDream's yachts anchor in White Bay itself. Our crowd model also sends a small share of St. Thomas's cruise passengers here on day charters, so the busiest days below are mostly big ship days in St. Thomas. Neither is White Bay's real crowd: that comes on charter boats, day sails and the ferry, which no cruise schedule lists.
24 of the next 31 days have a ship in St. Thomas or off Jost Van Dyke. The busiest at White Bay, by our model:
Tue, Oct 20 — 4 ships, 16,751 guests in port. Busy: ~300 expected here, 9 am–4 pm
Wed, Oct 21 — 4 ships, 20,208 guests in port. Busy: ~300 expected here, 10 am–6 pm
Thu, Nov 5 — 4 ships, 12,128 guests in port. Some crowd: ~250 expected here, 9 am–2 pm
Wed, Nov 11 — 3 ships, 14,555 guests in port. Some crowd: ~250 expected here, 10 am–4 pm
Thu, Nov 12 — 4 ships, 17,041 guests in port. Busy: ~350 expected here, 9 am–4 pm
Tue, Nov 17 — 4 ships, 15,246 guests in port. Busy: ~300 expected here, 9 am–4 pm
Our crowd model, not a head count: it puts about 55% of the guests of a ship anchored off Jost Van Dyke on White Bay, plus a small share of the passengers in St. Thomas on day charters, starting about 75 minutes after a ship arrives and gone 90 minutes before it sails; past 500 on the sand we call it packed. It counts only calls with a published departure time, and it cannot see the charter boats. The same model makes the call at the top of the page.
Yes, two, one at each end. The Soggy Dollar's own camera streams live on YouTube from the bar at the west end, looking out over the beach and the boats in the bay. Pink House Villas' camera looks west from the hillside above the east beach, along the sand to the main beach and its moorings. Between them you can count the boats before you go — at White Bay a full anchorage means a full beach.
George and Marie Myrick build the Sandcastle hotel from scratch on an empty stretch of White Bay, the Soggy Dollar says. There is no dock and no marina; guests come by boat.
Early 1970s
The Painkiller
The Myricks mix a house drink of orange juice, pineapple juice, coconut cream and rum, with nutmeg on top, and Marie names it after a local 'painkiller' bush — George Myrick's memoir, quoted on the Soggy Dollar's site. Pusser's tells it differently: it credits Daphne Henderson, who later owned the bar, and labels its own Painkiller 'as inspired by Daphne at the Soggy Dollar Bar'.
By the early 1980s
The Soggy Dollar
Daphne Henderson, the hotel's second owner, has renamed its bar the Soggy Dollar, after the wet money of guests who swam in. Pusser's says its founder, Charles Tobias, who began selling Pusser's rum in 1979, tried for two years to get her recipe, then worked out his own.
1991
Ivan's campground
Ivan Chinnery opens the White Bay Campground on the east beach, with an honour-system bar. Kenny Chesney later films part of his 'No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems' video there, Ivan's says.
2011
Ivan retires
Ivan Chinnery hands the business to his daughters, Darlene and Sharlene; in 2014 the old bar is rebuilt as Ivan's Stress Free Bar.
March 2016
Hendo's Hideout
The O'Neal-Henderson family open Hendo's Hideout next to the Soggy Dollar.
September 2017
Hurricane Irma
Irma destroys Ivan's entirely and the Sandcastle hotel around the Soggy Dollar, whose bar stays standing.
December 2017
The Soggy Dollar reopens
Six employees, working for about four months on generator power, rebuild the bar, and it reopens just before the new year.
2023
The Sandcastle rebuilt
The Sandcastle hotel reopens, fully rebuilt.
August 18, 2024
Gertrude Callwood
Gertrude Callwood, owner of Gertrude's Beach Bar and Grill, dies at 78. 'Miss Gertrude started the first bar at White Bay on a table,' the Deputy Premier says.
From St. John or St. Thomas you are crossing into the British Virgin Islands: everyone shows a passport at Great Harbour, U.S. citizens included, and again at U.S. customs on the way home.
Fill in the ED card first
The BVI's online embarkation card is required of every traveller; do it on your phone up to 72 hours before you go, not in the queue.
Dry bag for the swim in
There is no dock at White Bay. Whatever you bring from the boat — passport, phone, cash — goes in a dry bag.
Cash and cards
The money is the U.S. dollar. There is no ATM on Jost Van Dyke, so bring cash for taxis and the border charges.
Book the taxi back
Jost Van Dyke has only a few taxis. Take your driver's number on the way over and fix a time, especially on a ferry day.
Count the boats
White Bay's crowd comes by water. The two live cameras show how many boats are in the bay before you set off.
By boat, or by ferry and taxi. White Bay has no dock: day charters, water taxis and yachts anchor or moor in the bay and you swim or wade in. Or take the ferry to Great Harbour — every day from West End on Tortola, on set days direct from Cruz Bay on St. John and Red Hook on St. Thomas — and a taxi over the ridge to the beach.
How much is a taxi from Great Harbour to White Bay?
Taxis on Jost Van Dyke charge fixed BVI fares, per person by the size of the party. From the Great Harbour ferry dock to White Bay it is $20 for one rider, $5 each for three or more. It is about 2 km by road from the dock to the Soggy Dollar, over a steep ridge, so most people ride rather than walk.
Do you need a passport to go to White Bay from St. John or St. Thomas?
Yes. White Bay is in the British Virgin Islands, so everyone arriving from the U.S. Virgin Islands — U.S. citizens and children included — needs a passport, fills in the BVI's online ED card, and clears customs and immigration at the Great Harbour dock before going to the beach. You clear U.S. customs again when you come back.
How much does it cost to visit White Bay from the USVI?
The beach is free. The BVI charges visitors arriving by sea a $10 environmental and tourism levy, and $20 departure tax when they leave by ferry; Inter Island Boat Services, which runs the direct ferry from Red Hook and Cruz Bay, tells passengers to bring $30 a person for customs and immigration on top of the fare. Day charters pay further BVI charges for the boat, usually through the captain.
Where was the Painkiller invented?
At White Bay, in the bar of the Sandcastle hotel that became the Soggy Dollar, in the 1970s. Who mixed it first is told two ways: the Soggy Dollar's site quotes George Myrick, who built the hotel with his wife Marie in 1970, saying the two of them came up with it and Marie named it; Pusser's credits Daphne Henderson, the bar's second owner, whose recipe its founder spent two years trying to get.
Why is it called the Soggy Dollar?
Because there is no dock at White Bay. Guests anchored their boats and swam in to the bar, so their money arrived wet. Daphne Henderson, the second owner of the Sandcastle hotel, gave its bar the name.
What time does the Soggy Dollar open?
Its website lists the Soggy Dollar Bar open 9 am to 7 pm every day, serving breakfast, lunch and evening appetizers. Like several Jost Van Dyke bars it closes for a few weeks in the late-summer off-season; our seasonal-closures list has the dates.
Is there a webcam at White Bay?
Yes, two. The Soggy Dollar streams a live camera from the bar at the west end of the beach, and Pink House Villas has one on the hillside above the east beach looking west. Both are on our Jost Van Dyke webcams page.
Is White Bay good for snorkeling?
There is a reef across the front of the main beach, roughly 70 to 100 m off the sand, with fish over the coral heads. It is also a busy anchorage, so snorkel on a calm morning, stay inside the line of boats and watch for dinghies.
Can you stay overnight on a boat at White Bay?
Sailors usually treat White Bay as a day stop and spend the night on a mooring in Great Harbour, the next bay east. Practical Sailor reported in May 2025 that charter-boat insurers no longer cover boats at White Bay, so check your charter company's rules before you go.
Is there an ATM on Jost Van Dyke?
No. The Hideout, a resort on White Bay, notes that the nearest ATM is at Soper's Hole on Tortola, by the ferry to Jost Van Dyke. Most bars take cards, but bring U.S. dollars in cash for taxis and the BVI's charges.
Photo & map credits
White Bay's main beach looking east: dinghies pulled up on the sand, sunbathers on loungers under the palms and yachts at anchor in the bay (February 2015) — User:Mattes, CC BY 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
White Bay from the hill at its east end: the east beach in front, the rocky point, and the main beach beyond with boats anchored off it — User:Mattes, CC BY 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
White Bay from the hill at its west end, looking east along the beach to the boats in the bay (December 2019) — David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
The east beach from the hill above it, looking west past the rocky point to the main beach and the hill at the west end (December 2019) — David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
The main beach looking west to the hill at the end of the bay, with loungers and a beach bar under the palms (December 2019) — David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Footprints in the soft sand at the water's edge, looking east along the main beach past rows of loungers (December 2019) — David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
The Soggy Dollar Bar behind the sand under the palms, with white beach chairs in front (February 2015) — User:Mattes, CC BY 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
The Soggy Dollar's Rum & Shak Shak, a kiosk on the sand with rum barrels behind the counter (December 2019) — David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Rows of loungers in the shade of the sea grapes on the main beach, beside Gertrude's (February 2015) — User:Mattes, CC BY 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
A SeaDream Yacht Club flag planted in the shallows at White Bay, with the SeaDream II at anchor offshore (February 2015) — User:Mattes, CC BY 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Jost Van Dyke from the air, from the south: White Bay on the left, Great Harbour and its moored boats on the right, the ridge between them (2012) — giggel, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Dusk over White Bay from the pool at Pink House Villas, above the east beach: boats at anchor and lights along the main beach under the hill at the west end (2019) — Pink House Villas Jost Van Dyke, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
The east end of White Bay from the deck of Pink House Villas, looking west along the beach to the moored boats (2019) — Pinkhousejvd, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Sandy Spit and Green Cay off Little Jost Van Dyke from the air: a tiny islet of white sand and scrub ringed by reef, Little Jost Van Dyke behind — giggel, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Photo: User:Mattes, CC BY 2.0 de
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