The Lobster Capital of the Caribbean Is Throwing a Three-Day Scavenger Hunt With Tastings Right on the Sand

The 14th annual Anegada Lobster Festival brings an island-wide tasting route back to the British Virgin Islands, with a new restaurant on the lineup and a vote for the best lobster sampler.

At Cow Wreck, you can stop for a lobster sampler and walk straight out onto one of Anegada’s widest stretches of white sand. At Big Bamboo, the next tasting can double as a stop at Loblolly Bay. And at Vivi Mara, one of the island’s newest restaurants, you’ll get a first look at what a festival newcomer does with Anegada’s signature ingredient.

That’s the idea behind the Anegada Lobster Festival, which returns for its 14th edition this month. The BVI Food Fête calendar lists the event for Nov. 27–29, with 12 restaurants named in the British Virgin Islands Tourist Board’s announcement.

We’ve been writing about Anegada’s lobster for years. A whole spiny lobster split over the grill and served with garlic butter is still one of our favorite meals in the British Virgin Islands. The festival gives you three days to see what else the island’s kitchens do with it.

Twelve Restaurants, One Island

Each participating restaurant will serve its own lobster sampler. You can choose your stops, taste as many as you like and vote for your favorite through an online poll on the tourist board’s social channels. The tourist board is also running a free shuttle to participating restaurants, with private taxis available separately.

The lineup includes Anegada Beach Club, Anegada Reef Hotel, Big Bamboo, Cow Wreck, Flamingo Pride, Lil Bit’s, Lobster Trap, Pink Flamingo, Potter’s by the Sea, Sid’s Pomato Point, Tipsy and first-time participant Vivi Mara.

That’s up from the nine restaurants we counted at last year’s festival. The sampler format gives you room to compare several kitchens in one afternoon. You could start near the ferry dock at Anegada Reef Hotel, then take the shuttle north for a tasting at Cow Wreck Beach and leave time for a swim.

What to See Between Tastings

Anegada is the only coral island in the British Virgin Islands. It sits low on the horizon as you approach by ferry, and once you’re ashore, the roads take you past salt ponds and scrub on the way to long stretches of sand.

Between restaurant stops, you can look for flamingos around the salt ponds, see the island’s conch shell mounds or visit the Faulkner House Museum. If you’re staying overnight, you can spend part of the next day kayaking or bonefishing. Or you can spend it at Loblolly Bay, where Big Bamboo puts lunch within a short walk of the water.

Getting to the Anegada Lobster Festival

The tourist board lists ferry access from Road Town and Trellis Bay on Tortola and from Virgin Gorda, with additional connections from St. Thomas and St. John. Fly BVI is also scheduled to offer service from Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport on Beef Island.

At the Anegada ferry dock, arriving guests will find music, a welcome drink and a prize wheel with giveaways that include restaurant samplers. Visitors arriving by private boat will be greeted at the Anegada Reef Hotel marina.

If you’re coming for the day, check the return sailing before you head out to the restaurants. An overnight gives you time for a sit-down lobster dinner after the sampler rounds. At Anegada Beach Club, some of the rooms are canvas-walled palapas on the dunes, close enough to the water that you can hear the surf from bed.