BVIs Travel Rules & Regulations
Blue skies and water to match it, calm seas and islands to explore.
The British Virgin Islands are a sailor’s paradise but with it’s current COVID-19 travel restrictions in place, it’s best keep your plans in port for now.
To vacation in the BVIs requires a series of steps that won’t have you raising the sails for several days while costing you about $1,000 in fees and and a hotel.
Travelers must fill out information with the BVI Gateway Travel Authorization – at a cost of a whopping $175 –which contains language like this:
Travellers must BEGIN their application no later than 48 hours before travel
Applications on the BVI Gateway portal must be COMPLETED at least 24 hours before travel date and time
All applicants in PENDING status, who have not completed their necessary requirements 24 hours prior to travelling, will be DENIED
Only NASOPHARYNGEAL RT-PCR tests are accepted for passengers 5 and over.
That’s not exactly what I would call a warm welcome.
You must also provide proof of a negative COVID test within five days of your trip and take another test upon arrival. Not only that but you must quarantine for four days while you await those results.
Personally, I don’t know why anyone would travel anywhere where you have to quarantine upon arrival. That involves being holed up a hotel – at your own expense – as if you’re riding out a hurricane.
Not even a place as beautiful as the BVIs is worth it in my opinion.
So it’s better wait. Wait until you and those in your party have been vaccinated. Wait until the restrictions until the restrictions have been curtailed or even removed.
It actually pains me to write this because the BVIs business owners need tourists. Their businesses took a bit hit – some quite literally – after two hurricanes and are now in a really desperate need of customers due to the pandemic.
So I encourage you to travel there, but just not now.
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