Our first time to Tortola - Not our last

We sailed on the Serenade of the Seas (4-18-16) and one of our stops was Tortola. We had never been there. After reading about tour companies on CC we decided to book a 3-3 1/2 hour tour with Bonaire Vista Tours. A great choice. We booked directly with them online and they were easy to find once we disembarked the ship. When you get off the ship you will see a few different tour companies set up along the street. Barbel & Brian are the owners. Barbel was almost ready to deliver their second child. She was so helpful. We picked up our tickets and had a few minutes before the tour began so we walked towards town to an open air craft/food market. Wish we had more time there because I found some beautiful hand made jewelry.

We met back at the meeting point and Barbel introduced us to our tour guide Ricus. We cannot say enough about how wonderful he was. We saw the most beautiful sights, caves, flamingos. He was a wealth of knowledge. You can read about the tour on the http://www.BonaireVistaTours.com to get a full description. Sadly we were only docked a half day in Tortola. I don't know why. We would have loved to have a full day.

Ricus showed us so much of the island and educated us about the exporting of salt. The salt hills are just amazing, as we sailed away, looking back at the island it looked like piles of snow!

Ricus was an excellent driver, very patient when stopping for photos. He even gave us a gift (which I will not divulge) at the end of the tour. He took us to see the flamingos, which I had been looking forward to and explained why they were pink. Just as we got there my camera battery quit. He was so generous & said here use my camera. Amazing. After the cruise he emailed me the pictures I took using his camera.

We highly recommend Bonaire Vista Tours and hope to go back to Tortola and be able to take a longer tour. The tour was an excellent value.

Congrats Barbel on the new baby boy.

Tortola shows up on so few cruiseship itineraries. We've only been there once and it was fantastic ... arranged a speedboat trip over to Virgin Gorda. I'd love to go back and take one of the tours noted here by the OP. I keep trying to find this port in an itinerary that I can fit into my schedule.

Tortola is a fantastic port stop!

We've done a variety of things there and enjoyed them all! :D