My family and I ( Boys 14, 14 and 12 and my wife) did the forest and beach hike while in Tortola on 4/6. The guide was really good, however he didn't have much to work with. We boarded the open air bus near the pier for the trip up the mountain. The roads are CRAZY, narrow and lots of hairpin turns, where they blew their horns to make sure they didn't hit another car going around the corner. The views were amazing on the way up and on the way down, and there were stops along the way for pictures and to take in the view. Really beautiful.
The hike portion of the trip was really bad though. We pulled into a parking lot near the top of the mountain. After our group gathered, we proceeded on our hike. Picture a hike basically up hill on a narrow path not more than 2 feet wide, with ruts, roots, rocks etc. It is a wonder no one twisted an ankle. I came close a few times. Seriously, it was like an abandoned trail. The hike lasted about 45 minutes on the way up to an observation "deck" with a broken step you had to climb over to get up to the observation area. I am surprised the deck was still standing, and there appeared to be debris from a previous deck off to the side. After our view from the top of the mountain, we continued to hike, through a marginally nicer trail eventually winding up at a gravel access road, with lots of muddy spots, that lead back to the restaurant/store/bar that appeared to be a former house, near where we parked for our complimentary rum punch or soft drink. The building was dilapidated, there was no running water in the rest rooms, and the bar facility cleanliness was questionable.
We boarded the bus once again for the downhill drive to the beach. The beach was a typical tourist beach, and we were able to select a beach chair that had a ribbon on it. There is restaurant/bar and some trinket sellers at the beach. They also rent umbrellas that are already set up, but if you try to open them, they will come over and try to charge you for them, if you decline, they take the umbrella away. After about 1 hour on the beach we boarded the bus to head back to the pier.
As I mentioned, the guide/driver was great, knowledgeable and had a good personality, he just was really limited with what he had to do to make the hike portion appealing and fun.
