Soggy Dollar Bar

Where is the Soggy Dollar Bar?

On White Bay, the next bay west of Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke, where the ferries land. The island has no airport, so every way to the bar starts on a boat, either one to the Great Harbour jetty or one that anchors off White Bay itself. From the jetty the island's one road climbs the hill and drops down to White Bay, 7 minutes by car by our measurement, and a real climb on foot. The bar's own site gives its address as White Bay, lists the Sandcastle Hotel beside it under the same name, and carries a phone number for the bar, 1-284-495-9888.

The White Bay beach guide covers the sand, the swim and the other bars along it, the bar's own camera is on our Virgin Islands webcams page, and the rest of the island's bars, from Great Harbour to Little Harbour, are on Jost Van Dyke restaurants and bars.

By ferry from West End, Tortola

Take New Horizon Ferry from West End. It is the one boat that runs every day, and the easy crossing, since it stays inside the BVI and there is no customs at either end.

From New Horizon Ferry's own page, checked October 16, 2026. The BVI Tourist Board lists a low-season timetable most autumns, with the regular one usually back in early November, so the times can change; check New Horizon's page for the week you go.

The 10 am boat is the one to take: it puts you on White Bay by late morning and leaves the afternoon open until the 5 pm boat home. Allow for the drive to the West End terminal at Soper's Hole, about half an hour from Road Town and an hour from the airport on Beef Island.

From St. John and St. Thomas, through customs

One scheduled boat makes the crossing from the US islands, three days a week, and it sets a short day:

From Inter Island Boat Services' own page, checked October 16, 2026; check-in is 45 minutes before the boat. The bar's own page says the return is about 3 pm and to confirm it; the operator says 3:30 pm, and that is the time we print. The day, the drive to the boat and the cost for a family are laid out in Jost Van Dyke from St. Thomas and from St. John.

This is a border crossing both ways. Every visitor needs a passport book or, for Americans, a US passport card, children included, under the Government of the Virgin Islands' rule since March 1, 2025, and you clear in at the Great Harbour office on the jetty, which keeps 8:30 am to 4:30 pm daily on the BVI Tourist Board's list. On the other four days the route is the Red Hook ferry to West End and New Horizon on from there, with the $10 levy on arrival and $20 departure tax by sea that the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office lists; check that the two timetables meet before you commit to it.

Swimming ashore at White Bay

The name is the arrival. The bar has no dock of its own, by every account we read, so a boat that comes to White Bay anchors off the beach and its passengers swim or wade in, and the dollars they pay with come out of wet pockets. The bar's own getting-here page plays on it: US dollars are accepted everywhere on the island, it says, and wet ones at one establishment.

The tradeoff: from a charter the last stretch is in the water, so phones, passports and cash go in a dry bag, and a guest who does not swim should ask the captain how close the boat can come. Arriving by ferry at Great Harbour, you come over the hill by road instead and keep your feet dry.

The Painkiller, as the bar tells it

The drink and the bar share a beginning. The Soggy Dollar Bar's history page says the Painkiller was created in the 1970s at the Sandcastle Hotel on White Bay, where George and Marie Myrick perfected the blend, and that Daphne Henderson, the second owner, later renamed the hotel's bar the Soggy Dollar. It quotes George Myrick's book for the name: Marie called the drink after a noni tree. The bar prints its recipe as 2 ounces of dark rum, 1 of pineapple juice, 2 of orange juice and 1 of cream of coconut over ice in a 12 ounce glass, rolled between two glasses, with fresh nutmeg on top. Pusser's, the rum company, tells the story from Henderson's bar instead, and our recipe page sets the two versions side by side.

Soggy Dollar Bar hours, and the boats that set them

The bar publishes no hours. Its site lists none as of October 2026, nor a season, though it says the kitchen serves breakfast, lunch and evening appetizers, so call 1-284-495-9888 before a crossing made for the bar alone, especially in the autumn months when the timetables are at their thinnest.

In practice the boats keep the hours. By our read of the timetables, White Bay is fullest from late morning until about 3 pm, when the day boats start back for customs and the last ferries: 3:30 pm to St. John and St. Thomas, 4:30 pm when the Great Harbour office closes, 5 pm to West End. To have the bar after the day boats go, stay on Jost Van Dyke, at the Sandcastle Hotel or in one of the houses on the hill above White Bay.