Sailing conditions
The BVI's signature feature is Sir Francis Drake Channel — a long, sheltered stretch of water bracketed by Tortola and Virgin Gorda. The trades funnel through it, but the swell is knocked down, hops between anchorages are short (often under an hour), and most days end at a mooring ball you booked from your phone that morning. It is, genuinely, the easiest cruising ground in the Caribbean.
The Grenadines is more open water. Passages between St Vincent, Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, Tobago Cays and Union Island are typically two to four hours of proper trade-wind sailing in 12-22 knots of breeze. You'll reach. You'll be on the rail with a coffee. You'll arrive somewhere that looks like a postcard, and there will be six boats there instead of sixty.
For bareboat charters that difference matters. We recommend the BVI for newer skippers and the Grenadines for sailors with catamaran or larger-monohull experience and an RYA Day Skipper, ICC, ASA 104 or equivalent. If you're unsure, take a skippered charter for a week — you'll learn the ground from someone who sails it every week.
Island variety
The BVI has more than sixty islands, but they share a look — green volcanic peaks, white sand, beach bars on most of the popular bays. The Grenadines is nine islands across roughly forty miles, and each one feels different:
- St Vincent — rainforest, waterfalls, the Pirates of the Caribbean filming locations.
- Bequia — a working harbour town and the friendliest first stop in the chain.
- Mustique — private-island glamour, sundowners at Basil's, quietly done.
- Canouan — five-star resorts on a tiny island, used as a luxury bolt-on.
- Tobago Cays — anchor inside a horseshoe reef and snorkel with turtles in the marine park.
- Union Island — the southern hub, Happy Island rum bar on a sandbar, kite-surfers everywhere.
That spread of personalities — rainforest hike one day, private-island lunch the next, turtle snorkel the day after — is hard to match in the BVI, where every stop is essentially another well-managed beach bar.
Nightlife and the social scene
The BVI wins this category, if "wins" is the right word. Soggy Dollar, Foxy's on Jost Van Dyke, Willy T's floating bar — these are bucket-list nights out for a particular kind of charter group, and they're rightly famous.
The Grenadines doesn't try to compete. Evenings are beach BBQs in Tobago Cays, sundowners at Basil's Bar in Mustique, conch fritters and dominoes with the locals in Bequia, rum punch on Happy Island. It's social, but it's local — closer to "dinner with people who live here" than "bar crawl with other charter guests".
Exclusivity and crowding
In high season (December to April) the BVI's headline anchorages — The Baths, Cane Garden Bay, White Bay — fill up by early afternoon. You'll often raft three deep on a mooring or motor to a second choice. The fleet is enormous; in 2024 there were roughly 800 charter yachts based in Tortola alone.
The Grenadines fleet is a fraction of that — a few dozen crewed yachts and a small bareboat base in Blue Lagoon. Even in peak weeks, Britannia Bay (Mustique) might have eight yachts on the moorings, and the inner Tobago Cays anchorage rarely feels crowded. If exclusivity is what you're paying for, this is the more honest version of it.
Luxury yacht charter in the Caribbean — which fits a private week?
When guests search "luxury yacht charter Caribbean" (Semrush puts that at around 720 searches a month in the US) they're usually weighing the BVI against the Grenadines, and occasionally St Barths. For a genuinely private week — a captain and chef who know your dietary preferences by Tuesday, beaches you have to yourselves, lunches on an empty cay — the Grenadines is the easier answer. The BVI's headline yachts are gorgeous but they share the same dozen bays as the bareboat fleet.
Browse our luxury crewed yacht charter page for the boats we book most often for this kind of week, or look at the crewed catamaran fleet.
Getting there
The BVI has the easier flights — direct ferries and short hops from St Thomas (USVI), San Juan and Antigua. From the UK and EU you'll change in the US.
The Grenadines has improved a lot in recent years. Argyle International (SVD) on St Vincent has direct flights from London Gatwick (Virgin Atlantic), Toronto, Miami and New York, plus easy regional connections from Barbados, Antigua and St Lucia. See our how to get here page for current routes.
When to go
Both grounds run the same season — late November to early July, with December to April as the headline months. The Grenadines sits further south, so it's marginally warmer, marginally drier, and sees noticeably less hurricane traffic than the northern Caribbean. We've put a full month-by- month breakdown on the blog: when is the best time to charter in the Grenadines?
Our honest take
We're brokers for the Grenadines, so take this with the appropriate pinch of salt — but we also charter in the BVI for plenty of clients each year, and we'll happily steer you there if it fits. The BVI is the right call for first-time bareboat groups, for parties that want a packed bar circuit, and for guests who care more about easy logistics than untouched anchorages.
For everyone else — couples on honeymoon, families looking for empty beaches, experienced sailors who want to actually sail, and luxury guests who want privacy that isn't manufactured — the Grenadines wins.
Next steps
- Read how a charter with us works.
- Browse our crewed and bareboat fleet.
- See sample one-week itineraries.
- Or just tell us your dates and group and we'll send a shortlist within 24 hours.