Captain Nautica does a day trip to the BVI/Baths. They have power boats, which are good for this trip. Otherwise, it would take forever to get there on a sailboat. It is approximately $120 per person + $20 custom fee per person. This includes an open bar and fruit on the way over. They stop at the Indians for some snorkeling also. They stop for lunch and you have to pay for that yourself.

One word of caution......if you are not a strong swimmer, this is not a good choice. They drop anchor and make you swim to shore at the Baths. It is about the length of one football field. Of course, when we went the current was really bad and they couldn't get any closer to the shore. Maybe if the water is more calm, they don't make you swim as far.

Thanks Roka! We have 2 children (10 and 13 )so maybe it is better to stick to a day trip closer to St. Thomas.

I haven't seen any mention about swimming to shore from anyone else who has written about the Baths. This is the one place above anything else I want to see during my vacation in May. Do all excursion trips make you swim to shore? This wouldn't work for me. Thanks for your responses.

Kat,
We went on a charter(I believe the boat was "Breakway")(maybe Pamela could help???)The Captains name was Calvin.They docked at Spanish Town and we got on Safari bus' for the trip to the Baths and they brought us back to the boat later that day.We also stopped to snorkel a couple of places and for lunch on the Willie T.Maybe this was more like what you were thinking?

Kat,
We took the Stormy Petrel and swam to shore, but Galen and Tia had these swim mats that some of the less hardy held onto and kicked to help. It wasn't that strenuous. Got to do the Baths, anyway you can. The kids will love it--that's all we kept talking about during our trip, we plan to take the kids to it. Totally worth it. I just posted by wedding trip, Jan 8-14.
Connie

We booked on the Limnos Charters out of Red Hook on St. Thomas. It was a nice trip, it included a lunch-make your own sandwich, salad etc...we not only went to the Baths, they stopped at other nice snorkel sites. We left around 8 am and got back around 5 pm or so..They had all you can drink rum punch on the way back in, if that interests you.

Thank you everyone. You gave me a lot of good information.

We took New Horizons Charter to the Baths. Was a great trip! We did have to swim ashore but they have those noodles and boogie boards to hold on to.

We'd taken the ferry over to Virgin Gorda from St. Thomas. Once on Virgin Gorda we got into a taxi (which was part of a caravan, as many others were also going to The Baths). They gave us several hours there and returned for us later to have us back to the ferry in time for it's departure.

I loved going like this as it afforded us a lot of time to really explore The Baths and go over to Devil's Bay... a MUST SEE - it is so beautiful, it's almost surreal!

I have heard many good things about New Horizon's and Captain Nautica, but we didn't want to spend small amounts of time doing several things, we wanted to spend all of our time at The Baths... so this was best for us!

We will be going to St. John for a week this March and we will be doing it all over again!

One note, if you do go by ferry, check out the schedule... I think it only runs twice a week.

Have fun!

Whatever you do, try to take the day trip to the baths...the beach to the right side of the rocks is small, but the water is beautiful, full of friendly fish with great snorkeling, plus the burgers at the dive shop there are sooooo hole-in-the-wall yummy...its postcard pretty...the beach on the left side of the rocks (at the base of the stairs) is larger and sandier, but you have to hike thru the nature tail to get there...(a little challenging, but not too bad)...even if you don't venture to the water itself (assuming you approached from the hilltop, not from the water) there's a lovely restaurant with a butt-kickin' view. The menu looks good (I've never eaten there) but the rum punch kicks like the view. From either vantage point, the Baths is a beautuful, don't miss BVI stop.