When my family visits new places, we love to take food tours led by locals. Some of them are walking tours where you get a lot of local “color” while others include driving aroud the area and seeing places you would not have seen on foot.
When we were looking for excursions for a recent Disney cruise, I couldn’t find any run by Disney that I really liked in Tortola. So I set out to find a food tour on my own. Luckily, I found one on Viator!
Taste of the British Virgin Islands in 3-Hour Food Tour (Review)
The tour we chose was run by HIKE BVI, a company that does a lot of nature tours. I think because of that, we got some bonus information about the flora of of island.
Although some of the things listed on the tour description were accurate, not everything was. For example, it said that we got “one rum, cocktail, tasters at all 6 locations.” We didn’t get any rum or cocktails. And we only visited 5 locations. It also mentions passing by a botanical garden, which we did not visit.
However, none of that took away from the tour…. and we actually got to see OTHER interesting locations and views. I would just plan on being flexible about what you are seeing or message them if you specifically want to see the botanical garden.
We didn’t pay when we first booked, but once we paid, we were able to talk to them directly online and they quickly answered all of our questions, including about the meeting location. It was just a few minutes walk from the pier and very easy to find.
The Tortola Food
Having done a Jamaican food tour before, we had a little bit of an idea of what types of food to expect on our Tortola Food Tour. However, every island in the Caribbean has their own way of making foods, and every restaurant has variations. The places we stopped on this trip gave us:
- Patties (choice of filling)
- Kingfish in mayonnaise and Fungi (the official food of Tortola??)
- Curry Roti
- Jerk brisket
- Gelato (choice of 2 flavors)
Each restaurant was a small local establishment and they were prepared for us to arrive with seating areas, drinks, etc. None of them disappointed! In fact, when everyone was asked at the end what they liked the best, we all said different things. Each food was special in its own way and just came down to personal preferences. The portion sizes were ample and sometimes bigger than expected.
Personally, I really loved the beef patties. I don’t understand why we don’t have these readily available in the U.S. The brisket was so good it made us all decide we need to try to start smoking brisket for 12 hours ourselves. I wasn’t a huge fan of the fish and fungi (apologies to the island), but it was interesting to try them. I think I would have loved the roti more if I had not already been getting full. It was the only dish I just couldn’t finish because it was so big!
The Tortola Island Tour
Although it was a food tour, we got to see so much of the island and learn about it. There were 6 of us total (although I think they could have easily done 8… maybe even 10) plus a driver and a guide. We were in a nice air conditioned van the whole time.
As we drove around the island, they talked to us a lot about the impact of Hurricane Irma in 2017 and how the island was still recovering. They showed us historic buildings, new buildings that had replaced old ones, and their most important landmarks.
When we stopped at different locations, they showed us the fruits growing on the trees and pointed out the different types of nature on the island (lots of chickens!).
The (literal) high point of the tour was a place that I can’t remember the name of but I *think* is called “Sky World” and used to be an old restaurant. It is the high point of the island with a 360-degree view of all of the islands around Tortola. We got a geography AND a history lesson there about some of the other islands.
Overall Review By the Family
We were 4 adults (22, 22, 48, and 50). Not super adventurous eaters, but willing to try new things. Everyone loved this tour and said it was one of the best things that we did on the cruise. The combination of learning about the island and trying the food made by the locals really immersed us in the island in a way that you don’t normally get in a 3 hour cruise excursion. It was worth the price and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Tortola.
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