| Jost Van Dyke |
At roughly 8 square kilometers, Jost Van Dyke is the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, the northern portion of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Jost Van Dyke lies about 5 miles to the northwest of Tortola and 5 miles to the north of Saint John. Little Jost Van Dyke lies off its eastern end.
Like many of the neighbouring islands, it is volcanic in origin and mountainous. The highest point on the island is Roach Hill at 321 meters (1054 ft).
Notable landmarks on Jost Van Dyke include the wonderful white sandy beach at White Bay.
Here you will find restaurants and gift shops, a small hotel and a bar.
The beach at White Bay is good for swimming, snorkeling.
Just off shore from Diamond Cay are the islands of Little Jost Van Dyke, Green Cay and Sandy Spit and just around the headland is Sandy Cay.
The island's name comes from that of a 17th century Dutch privateer, Joost van Dyk, who used its harbours as a hideout.
Although the island is small, Jost Van Dyke boasts several notable natives, including William Thornton, architect of the U.S. Capitol Building, and John C. Lettsome (of Little Jost Van Dyke), founder of the British Medical Society. |
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| Demographics & Tourism |
A few hundred people live on Jost Van Dyke, the island receives numerous visitors. The island is accessible by private boats and ferry service from Tortola and Saint Thomas (via Saint John).
The most frequent mooring destination is Great Harbour. The beach strip around the harbour is lined with small bars and restaurants. Since the late 1960s, Foxy's Bar in Great Harbour has been a popular stop for Caribbean boaters. Foxy's and the other bars in Great Harbor now host a modest crowd year-round and are filled with thousands of partiers on New Year's Eve (locally known as "Old Year's Night").
Located in nearby White Bay is the Soggy Dollar Bar, another famous beach bar on the island. The Soggy Dollar is reputedly the birthplace of the popular drink known as the Painkiller.
The Soggy Dollar bar is appropriately named because of the difficulty of navigating one's boat over the coral reef to reach the beach where the bar is located. It is a common practice for boaters to anchor beyond the reef, swim to the beach, and pay for their drinks with wet money.
The country music video for Kenny Chesney's 2002 recording, No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems (song), was filmed on and around Jost Van Dyke. Included in the video were several scenes at Ivan's Stress-Free Bar, more often than not unstaffed, it is common practice for patrons to walk behind the bar, mix their own drinks, and leave a discretionary sum of money in the jar as payment. |
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| Map of Jost Van Dyke |
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