Long Bay on Virgin Gorda

Long Bay, Virgin Gorda at a glance

Updated Oct 23, 2026.

Routes to Long Bay, Virgin Gorda

About 21 minutes by car from Spanish Town. How to reach the British Virgin Islands: British Virgin Islands map, British Virgin Islands weather, month by month, Ferries between the British Virgin Islands, Getting to the British Virgin Islands, Things to do in Tortola and the British Virgin Islands.

Finding the way down to Long Bay

Long Bay is the farthest of the Nail Bay coves. Drive up past Mahoe Bay and on along Nail Bay Road toward the island's northwest tip; from the Spanish Town ferry dock it is 21 minutes, and from the Gun Creek dock on North Sound about ten. The road is where the drive ends. Nail Bay Road passes about 250 m from the sand by our measurement, no lot is mapped, and no public path is mapped down through the hillside, which is villas.

That leaves the same two honest ways in as Mahoe Bay, a few coves south. Stay in one of the houses on the slope above, where the way down comes with the rental. Or drive in, park considerately off the road and ask at a villa for the way, rather than crossing a garden uninvited. A taxi can drop you, but none waits here, so agree the pickup time first.

Is Long Bay on Virgin Gorda public?

The sand and the water are. On March 9, 2023, the territory's Minister for Natural Resources and Labour told the House of Assembly that all BVI beaches are public, and that even where a beach adjoins private property, access must still be provided for public use. The gardens, drives and terraces between the road and the sand are private ground all the same, and we found no published right of way across them.

The tradeoff: being allowed on the beach is not the same as being looked after on it. There is no bar, no restroom, no chair or umbrella to rent and no lifeguard. Bring water, a hat, something to make shade with, and your own mask and fins. The nearest lunch is at Leverick Bay on North Sound, a short drive east.

Snorkeling the reef off Long Bay

This is a snorkeler's beach. Reef runs along both sides of the bay with clean sand in the middle, so a swim out from the corner of the beach reaches coral on either hand; the boats that anchor here come for exactly that. On most days the water is calm: the bay opens west-southwest, with its back to the trade wind and Mountain Point standing between it and the north. We rate it 4 of 5, held back only by the way down.

Round the point, Mountain Point itself has a sea arch that snorkelers swim through and day-use moorings, but it is a boat trip, not a swim from the sand, and it is no place to be in a north swell. In winter a big north or northwest swell can wrap into Long Bay too, by our read of the map; on those days the entry gets rough and the swim is off.

Morning shade and a western sunset

The hill behind the beach rises to the east, so the sand sits in its shadow early and comes into full sun from about mid-morning, by our read of the map. After that there is nothing on the sand to sit under. The afternoon is the bay's best hour: it faces the Dogs and Tortola beyond them, and the sun goes down across the water, which is why the few boats that fit in here stay the night.

Long Bay suits a couple or a small party staying on the Nail Bay hillside who want a reef at the bottom of the slope and nobody else on the sand. For a beach with an easy way in, Savannah Bay is south past Mahoe Bay, and Leverick Bay's sand has a bar and a pool behind it.