The Baths and Devil's Bay National Parks

As far as shore excursions go, my trek through the Baths to Devil's Bay at Virgin Gorda was the highlight of my recent cruise in the Eastern Caribbean. Rather than taking the excursion organized by MSC Cruises, this adventure was organized exclusively for our Cruise Holidays group by one of my colleagues onboard, Tim Walsh, who called D&D Boat Charters. One of the advantages of organizing your own shore excursion rather than purchasing it through the cruise line is that you are among friends when you go and you can tell the shore excursion operator what you want to do.

On this trip, our original plan was to arrive at The Baths by boat rather than by bus. However, the strong current prohibited us from docking at the The Baths so we tied up at the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor instead and took a bus to the The Baths and Devil's Bay National Parks.

It was a beautiful but circuitous and tricky walk through The Baths to Devil's Bay and to be honest I didn't have the best shoes for this expedition. I was wearing tennis shoes which worked fine until the water started getting deeper. I wish I had packed my aquatic shoes which are waterproof and effective when walking on slippery and wet rocks. I'm glad we allowed enough time to do this walk as we encountered many hesitant people along the trail who were slowing progress. We couldn't walk around them as the trail was narrow and surrounded by high boulders in many places.

One of my colleagues remarked that he wouldn't recommend this walk for seniors because there were too many uneven surfaces. Not long after he said this, a senior couple passed me on the trail. I couldn't resist stopping them and asking them what they thought about my colleague's remark. The gentleman laughed, told me he was 81 years old and said something to this effect, "What's the big deal? If an old guy should happen to pass out and die here, just bury him!"

At any rate, at the end of the walk we reached Devil's Bay which was a gem of a cove. The water was welcoming and warm even though the current was strong. Just be careful as you don't want the water to slam you into the rocks. And bring your own snorkel gear as there is no equipment to rent.