• Serendipity Bookshop, Main Street. The largest and most fully-stocked bookstore on the island. Upstairs is an espresso bar and internet cafe with free wi-fi and paintings by local artists.

• Bamboushay, Main Street. Sells handmade pottery in a little wooden house and has a pottery in Nanny Cay where you can visit and even try your hand at making some china yourself.

• Philatelic Bureau attached to the Post Office on Main Street. Unique BVI stamps.

• Bobby's, Riteway and One Mart, all good supermarkets for food and the obligatory souvenir bottle of rum and Cuban cigar.

• Pusser's General Store, facing the water west of downtown, the "store" is behind/through Pusser's english pub. It offers logo merchandise, and signature rum noted not so much for its quality as its recipe as the "grog" for the British Royal Navy for some 400 years.

• Note that in both the Cruise Ship Vendors' Market and the Craft Market the goods are imported from Miami, St. Martin and Panama and very little, if anything, is locally-made.

Budget

• Roti Palace, Main Street in Road Town, offers roti (Indian flat bread) wrapped around various curries from vegetable to goat.

• Capriccio's, on the Waterfront in Road Town. A proper Italian cafe with pizzas and daily pasta specials. Arguably the best food on the island.

• The Road Town Bakery, Main Street offers sandwiches and really fantastic pastries. There are only a couple of tables outside here so its primarily take-away.

• Serendipity Bookshop Cafe, in an old West Indian house on Main Street. Offers espresso, paninis, wraps and has internet access.

• Indigo Moods, near the Roundabout. Offers vegan fare - tofu in different ways served plated or in a roti.

Mid-range

In Road Town and its environs, Nexus, Village Cay Marina, the Pub, and Le Cabanon have good but unremarkable food at mid-range prices. Le Cabanon and Village Cay Marina are more popular as loud and fun bars.

Splurge

If $200 for two for a meal with wine is what you are looking for, then try these places.

• Dove
• 18 Abbot Lane

• Le Cabanon, casually known as "The Cab." An excellent bar with a great crowd in the heart of Road Town, the Cab has great, friendly bartenders, and a clientele composed mostly of ex-pat workers and tourists. Revelry here is par for the course from Thursday to Saturday night.

• The Royal BVI Yacht Club, just west of town. Too bad Javier Fletcher and Phil Medeiros don't jam out that sweet sweet music at sushi night anymore. This is mostly frequented by English ex-pats and hosts races and the local rugby club.