The bedrooms at Falcon's Nest are the size of cathedrals. Idyllic: Peter Island is a true slice of Caribbean paradise. I've stayed on Necker in the same room the Princess of Wales slept in when she was a guest.

He bought it for £180,000 in the seventies, about what it now costs to rent for a week. Richard Branson's Necker is the most famous. They have names straight from the Pirates of The Caribbean films, including Dead Chest and Mosquito Island. More than 60 islands make up the British Virgin islands group, some rising hardly higher than the reef around them. With favourable trade winds and calm anchorages, they are certainly a safe haven for helmsmen.įrom the air, it looks as though a painter flicked his brush at the ocean. Today every manner of craft - from Russian billionaire super-yachts to our modest cutter - swish through the foamy waters, which locals claim makes them the sailing capital of the world. “There is a global recession going on, after all,” he said.Floating world: The British Virgin Islands are ideally seen for the first time from a boatĬolumbus famously spotted one of the most beautiful on the horizon, and because he thought she lay like some high-bosomed virgin, named it Virgin Gorda.Ĭertainly, the Virgin Islands continue to revel in their reputation for seducing sailors centuries after Columbus. While Vancouver landowners have watched their city became one of the most expensive in North America, Point Roberts land prices have dropped about 30 to 40% since 2008, said Mr.

Of course, anyone in need of reality check need only look glance at the real estate pages. “If you think about what’s happening in the rest of the United States, we feel very fortunate.” “We’re a little bubble here relying on the Canadian market has kept our business going,” said Ms. But the last few years have been comfortable for the isolated Pacific Coast enclave: Vancouver’s surging growth has forged ever-larger pockets of potential visitors, lured ever more by the plummeting value of the U.S. Subject to the fluctuation of the exchange rate, or the sudden demands of border security, business ownership in Point Roberts has never been easy. But if they can’t get a passport, the border works real good,” Point Roberts newcomer Kathryn Booth told the blog. “Restraining orders and things don’t hold up.

Marshals Service’s Witness Security Program. A recent article on alleged that Point Roberts was the unofficial home to 50 people in the U.S. Point Roberts is “automatically a gated community,” writes the promotional website. Point Roberts children play in Canadian sports leagues.įor residents of Point Roberts, veterinarians, healthcare and even high school are all located in mainland Washington, accessible only by two border crossings through Canadian territory. Even many of the community’s permanent residents are Canadians with green cards or joint citizenship. “We’re definitely a community that’s very dependent on attracting Canadians to come here,” said Ms. “They’re so busy that if they pulled everybody in they’d have lineups like you wouldn’t believe,” said Daryl Marquette with TSB Shipping Plus, a Point Roberts parcel receiver with 42,000 Canadian customers in its database. Package holders are usually waved through by border security without paying duty or GST paperwork. Canadian online shoppers have their packages delivered to one of several Point Roberts businesses, and then pick them up in person in order to dodge steep Canadian shipping surcharges.

The community is even home to a thriving parcel receiving industry. “We need to put a disclaimer on our menu telling you the health department advises against it, but you definitely can get a medium rare hamburger in Point Roberts,” said Joan Roberts, manager of Brewster’s Fine Foods. health codes that it is virtually non-existent in Vancouver. Point Roberts restaurants also serve up medium-rare burgers, a delicacy so scorned by B.C. Small grocery retailers sell low-priced dairy products. A liquor store sells cut-rate spirits and obscure U.S. licence plates filling up with fuel at 10¢ to 30¢ less per litre than in Canada. The community’s five gas stations abound with B.C. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.

Little slice of sea