Peter Island

Peter Island (view from Sage Mountain, Tortola)

File:StJohnPeterIsland 17.jpg

Little Harbor, Peter Island looking West at Southeast coast of St. John, USVI

Peter Island is a private island located in the British Virgin Islands, about 5.2 miles south west (195 degrees true) from Road Harbour (Road Town), Tortola, is part of the BVI archipelago that run along the Sir Francis Drake Channel.

Peter Island is the largest private island in the BVI and the fifth largest of 60 islands, quays, and exposed reefs that comprise the BVI. Dead Chest Island, an uninhabited island, is close to Peter Island.

The beaches face the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and Sir Francis Drake Channel. The island is predominately undeveloped with hiking and biking trails on which to discover the tropical flora and fauna indigenous to Peter Island. The only hotel, the 52-room Peter Island Resort, ranked in Conde Nast Traveler’s “Gold List,” and the Travel and Leisure “T+L 500” for 2007, is accessible by boat or helicopter.

The island was named after Pieter Adriensen (nicknamed "the Commander") who was the brother Abraham Adriensen, Patron of Tortola under the Dutch West India Company in the early 17th century. Pieter Adriensen and Joost van Dyk built a fort and slave pens at Great Harbour on Peter Island to facilitate privateering and the nascent trade in slaves from Angola.

External sites

• Peter Island Resort.
• A good resource is the Paradise Islands guide to Peter Island