Jim and Odile Scheiner have been photographing and diving the BVI since long before any Bush's were in the white house. Their diving expertise and professionaly crafted photgraphs will guide you to some of the best diving in this area. Don't travel to the BVI without this book if you're planning any diving! It's that good.

If you're planning a bareboat charter in the British Virgin Islands and would like to head off to dive sites on your own then this is the book you need. The book contains dive site locations, mooring locations, skill requirements, weather considerations, site layouts, suggested underwater routes, and dive descriptions. We arrived in the Virgin Islands with a bag of dive books and this is the one that we used over and over again!

If you want a realy good book for diving at the BVI then take this one. I got all of my informations out of this book and all dives where fine. The only thing i missed was a map with stations for tank refill.

Excellent It bailed us out when we ran out of light before getting into the anchorage at Philipsburg and got us into several beaches that were completely deserted.

A bit dated is spots (it is 7 years old) For example, Saba has installed a number of excellent mooring on the south and west sides on the island, making it much easier to get either by the traditional landing or LLadder Landing on the West side. There is a road down to that now (no more 1000 steps to climb). However it was out when we were there (4-1-00)

We've sailed and chartered in the USVI and BVI numerous times and ALWAYS take this guide with us. From little known anchorages (Mermaids Chair on St. Thomas) to the most frequented (Great Harbor on Yost Van Dyke)this guide is without equal.

Although I have been sailing for 40 years, this was the most useful and informative sailing guide I have ever read. It adverted me from several unknown and possibly costly collisions...and I'm not referring to other boats. His harbor guides and navigational charts were indispensible! BUY BUY BUY!!!!

We took this book with us on our recent trip to Virgin Gorda in the BVI, and we were amazed at how accurate the information was. We went to many places on Virgin Gorda recommended in Acheson's book and were thrilled that her reviews were so on-target. Would highly recommend this book to anyone planning a trip to the British Virgin Islands, and especially to Virgin Gorda.

Pamela Acheson gives many, many helpful comments on each island in the BVI. She describes all of the beaches, many restaurants and bars, and offers many helpful hints. We relied heavily on her book for our recent visit to Tortola and were not disappointed. She is right on with all of her comments, such as Jost Van Dyke is a really great day trip, how to greet and deal with the locals, Tortola's amazing roads, her suggested adventure to Smuggler's Cove (with complete directions and what to expect), and her evaluation of many restaurants including Brandywine Bay, Sugar Mill, Roti Palace, an unnamed local fish fry, and especially a lovely Italian cafe named Capriccio di Mare (all very good). Her suggestions such as to take at least one nautical adventure, take in the view from Sky World, watch out for a particular mule, etc., were all helpful and accurate. Ferry schedules, banking, the best water taxis, etc. were all very useful. As is written on the book jacket, we found it to be an indispensable, friendly, fun-to-use guide for anyone visiting the BVI.

This book is full of useful information on where to go, what to do, etc. in a very readable well organized format. It's like having a resident friend tell you all about your options.

I have been meaning to review this book for some time as it is one of the most thumbed books on our book shelf. My wife and I run a charter yacht in the Virgin Islands and many of our guests are keen divers. We bought The Complete Diving Guide for our own use initially but it has since become part of the yacht's library as our guests find it so useful and enjoyable to read. (as our copy is getting rather worn I'm pleased to say that many of them buy their own copy after having seen ours). It is rare to find a book that is so comprehensive and which presents a vast amount of information in such a readable manner. In particular we find the island and dive site maps useful along with the descriptions of the dives and the underwater route maps. I can direct our guests at the tyupe of dive that I think they would enjoy and they can read about it beforehand. They can also choose the dive store they would like to use. I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone planning to do some diving in the Virgin Islands (it even covers the Spanish Virgin Islands).

I'd definitely give this guide full marks. It's without doubt the most comprehensive of the guides I looked at for the area I was travelling to (the Virgin Islands). It had everything we could have wanted to know and it definitely meant we did some better diving than we'd have done without it. We particularly liked that it gave us information about the British and US Virgin Islands and as they are less than 5 miles apart it's simple to dive both areas. They have some really different types of diving and we'd have missed out on a lot without the guide. We bought the book before we went but we took it along with us and used it all the time. One of the things we enjoyed reading was the descriptions of the dives and the sections about the marine life. We've been diving for over 10 years and I've learnt more from this book than I have in my previous years of diving.

The British Virgin Islands have a very different atmosphere from their close neighbors, the U.S. Virgin Islands. This guide was helpful in giving valuable information that helped me plan my vacation to the area. The excellent hotel and restaurant reviews, as well as information on each of the individual islands on things to see and do made it a very indispensable source for finalizing my trip plans.

I liked this book because I like suspence and action. And it's a very good mystery. But it's kind of fake though. Sally, Andy, and Peter are left on the beach while their dad went on a business trip. But he told a hotel manager to keep an eye on them. When they were adjusting to the campsite, a boat runs over a dolphin and that dolphin has a baby. But the mom swims away. So they feed it bottles of ginger beer. Then two people that had a crash on the beach lost a missing fender. The kids say they know nothing, but they have the missing fender. Then the two people come on the beach with a gun and take Andy and Peter. Sally has to get them back. I'm not going to tell you anymore unless you read the book yourself.

In this action-packed, blitz-a-rama, book taken place on Crab Island, of the Caribbean, you'll feel as if you're actually on the Caribbean, watching every little bit of this happen! It's so exotic that it moves you!
While Sally, Peter, and Andy Grant stay on Crab Island alone, due to their father going off to a medical conference, many mysterious, emotional, and stressful things occur while their father is away.
This includes caring for a dolphin that has deep gashes due to a motorboat, Jan and Jon arguing with the Grants about the fact that they got there first, and finally, they witness a jaw-dropping boat tragedy, due to inexperienced sailing. What they eventually uncover about Gloria and Benito, who had the boat crash, becomes a horrific nightmare, no one ever wishes to live, [most wouldn't have lived through]!
I loved this book! I enjoyed it for many reasons. Dolphins are absolutely my favorite animal. I also liked the fact that it was on the Caribbean, so it made me imagine that I was actually there. Also every chapter ended with a problem, which really allured me to read on furthermore!

Our group used this guide in doing dives from our yacht in the BVI. I found it to be comprehensive enough to help us to find the dive sites fairly well without asking too many questions of the locals. There were only one or two sites which we wanted to dive which we didn't find.

I liked the ratings of the dives from beginner to expert but I think adding a 'star' rating would help people to determine what particular dive to choose when there are many choices. Also helpful would be to include a map of the dive site (some other dive books do this) which would help in planning the dive. These are the only reasons I didn't give this book a 5 star rating.

This book was also valuable in explaining potential problems with dives such as currents or choppy seas. It also provided the maximum and minimum depths and these were pretty much on target. The book was definitely a valuable asset on our trip.

This book picks out the twenty-one best diving sites in the British Virgin Islands and gives a page or two of descriptive text about each. Each dive site has one or more pictures to show the reader what to expect. Each dive site also has some general descriptions such as the typical depth, the current condidtions, how to access the site, and what expertise is required. There is a map on which all of the sites are located. There is a rating system the book uses to inform the diver whether a place is suitable for a beginner or an expert. The book also serves as a general guide to the BVI, including history, food, culture, lodging, and tourist information. The book includes some helpful tips on diving in the BVI and warns about the dangers underwater.

I recently visied Christiansted on the island of St. Croix. I wanted to use the book to find restaurants, nightlife locations, and places of interest. I found that all of these sections in the book provided only minimal options. It was more useful to ask local people and other tourists where the best locations were since the book only offered a select number of choices. As for the nightlife locations, the book only mentioned three places in Christiansted. I later found out that the best places to go were the ones not mentioned in the book. For the places of interest, some of the areas listed had very limited information on times and admission costs. Overall, the book is a place to start but your best bet would be to find places to go on your own or by asking when you get there.

This book, like all the Fodor's guides I've used, does a good job of telling you what hotels, beaches, resturants etc are there, what is the cost, and what to expect. It provides details of little out of the way places that you will enjoy and probably never find on your own. Like most guide books, it tends to gloss over the undesireable areas, anything negative and you have to learn to read between the lines to pick out places that you might want to avoid.

The 2001 Fodor's US and British Virgin Island Guide was very detailed and helpful. My husband and I recently went to St. John and Virgin Gorda. The Fodor's maps were helpful in getting around. Fodors gave detailed information about hotels, car rental companies, ferries, travel, and restaurants on the islands, as well as a bunch of other useful information. Fodors provided a list of things to do/see on the islands, which we would have missed had we not had the guide. It also listed great snorkling areas. It was up-to-date and easy to read.

This fact-filled guide is an excellent choice as a stand-alone reference book or a companion to other guide books on the Virgin Islands. In addition to providing all the need-to-know facts about hotels, dining out, transportation, shopping, etc., this book offers fascinating historical and geographical insights that other guide books lack.

It's a soft cover, quality bound book that's easy to pack and will hold up well through dozens of vacations to the Caribbean. It's easy reading, and has an easy-to-find "Fact File" for quick reference while you're on the go.

I love this little book!

I'd have to agree with another reviewer who said it is essentially a very pretty 3 ring binder. I was disappointed when I opened the book. It is a slick journal cover but for the price tag it is a poor value. I suspect even those that like the idea and have made a trip to the BVI soon found they couldn't begin to hold their "highlight" photos in the pages.

While it will not replace a traditional guidebook, this Ship's Log can both point you in the right direction and help you remember next time where you went. If you use this book during your trip, you will not find yourself reminiscing about that awesome snorkeling spot "somewhere between virgin gorda and George Dog" or the best rum punch ever "at some beach shanty in tortola". If you want to recommend something you saw or did, just open your ship's log, consult your notes and tell them exactly where to go. That rum punch was at the Bomba Shack, and the bartender's name was Celeste. The three couples on our boat did a lot of laughing as we filled out our ship's log during cocktail hours. Now that we are back on the mainland, every six months or so we all get together and make daquiris, pull out our Ship's Logs and laugh some more. Really a way to hold on to and remember your trip. For me, made the pleasure of the vacation last!

I recently went sailing in the BVI. Each evening, watching the sunset on deck during "coctail hour" my ship mates and I would discuss the events of that day, and plan the next. The daily recording in Ship's Log such important details such as the good snorkeling spots, or notes about a particular anchorage was fun, and now valuable as I am planning another trip for the spring. This is not a typical guide book in that it also acts as journal, photo album, and cookbook. The authors point us in the right direction, and we take it from there. I found it to be creative, fun, and informative. Susie's Rum Punch is great!