BVI Customs & Entry Fees Explained (2026)

Most visitors heading into the British Virgin Islands from St. Thomas or St. John are doing a one-day trip — Jost Van Dyke for a beach bar crawl, Virgin Gorda for The Baths, maybe Norman Island for the Willy T. For that kind of trip, the fees structure is much simpler than the cruising-permit world most blog posts describe.

Here's what you actually pay in 2026.

The short answer for day trips

Both numbers are per person, regardless of age — kids, infants, adults all pay the same. Every guest also needs a valid passport; passport cards are accepted for sea travel only, not flying.

Private charter: $85 per person, flat

For a standard BVI day trip on a private charter out of the USVI, the operator will bill a single $85-per-person "BVI fees" line item on your invoice. That number folds in everything you'd otherwise track line-by-line:

• Customs entry and immigration clearance
• BVI environmental / tourism levy
• The boat's share of the cruising permit (prorated to a single day)
• Standard day-use mooring or dock fees

What's typically not included in the $85:

• Weekend / holiday customs overtime (see below)
• National Parks Trust fee if you visit a park like The Baths ($4 per person per day)
• Gratuity for the captain and crew (15–20% of the boat rate, paid directly)

Weekend and public holiday surcharges

BVI Customs charges overtime when officers clear boats outside standard business hours — that includes Saturdays, Sundays, and BVI public holidays. The surcharge gets passed through to passengers on top of the flat $85, usually as an added $10–$30 per person depending on the Port of Entry and time of day. Always ask your operator what the all-in weekend total is before you book.

The exact 2026 weekend/holiday rate is set and periodically revised by BVI Customs. Your charter operator will have the current figure — confirm in writing before your trip date.

BVI public holidays that typically trigger overtime: New Year's Day, Commonwealth Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, Sovereign's Birthday, Territory Day, Emancipation holidays (early August), St. Ursula's Day, Great March Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. Midweek trips avoid all of this.

Ferry: $30 per person, flat

If you're ferrying over (no private charter), the customs fee drops to a flat $30 per person, paid at the BVI terminal on arrival. This is confirmed in the pricing schedule on Inter-Island Boat Services's Red Hook ↔ Cruz Bay ↔ Jost Van Dyke route page. Other ferry operators on the same corridor (Native Son, Road Town Fast Ferry) charge comparable BVI fees.

The $30 is in addition to your ferry ticket. For Red Hook → Jost Van Dyke round-trip you're looking at roughly:

Weekend and holiday overtime can apply to ferry passengers too, though in practice the ferry companies often absorb it or bundle it into the ticket price on published sailings.

Ferry vs. private charter — which is cheaper?

2 people: the ferry wins clearly. ~$120–$150 per person all-in vs. a private charter's $85-per-person customs plus the cost of the boat (typically $1,500–$2,500 for a full day).

6+ people: a private charter starts to make sense. You get your own boat, your own itinerary, and can island-hop multiple stops instead of committing to a single ferry destination. See our full USVI charter pricing guide for base-boat numbers.

What to bring on the day

• Passport for every guest (adults and children). Passport cards work for sea travel only.
• Some cash in small bills — customs often prefers USD cash for small fees.
• BVI entry form — your captain usually pre-files it for private charters. Ferry passengers fill it out on board.
• 30–60 minutes of buffer for clearance at the first Port of Entry, especially on busy mornings.

If you're doing a multi-day BVI cruising charter

This is the part most other fee explainers focus on, and for good reason — once you're spending multiple days in BVI waters, you're no longer paying a single flat $85. Instead, the operator (bareboat charterers: that's you) pays each line item separately, and the cruising permit becomes the biggest single cost.

BVI cruising permit

Charged per foot of boat length, per day. Varies by season:

• Peak (Dec 1 – Apr 30): $2.00/ft/day (foreign-registered), $0.75/ft/day (BVI-registered).
• Off-peak (May 1 – Nov 30): $0.75/ft/day (foreign), $0.50/ft/day (BVI-registered).

A 40 ft foreign-registered boat on a 7-day peak-season charter pays $560 in cruising permits alone.

BVI environmental and tourism levy

$10 per person per visit, on top of everything else. One-time charge, not per day.

Customs and immigration

$10–$25 per person for the initial clearance, depending on Port of Entry and whether you're cleared as a day visitor or overnight. Weekend/holiday overtime still applies.

National Parks Trust (NPT) fees

Only charged if you visit a National Park or pick up an NPT mooring ball:

• $4 per person per day to enter a National Park (The Baths, etc.)
• $35–$45 per night for overnight on NPT moorings at premium spots (The Baths, Cooper Island, Norman Island); day use is often free with a small donation.

Sample total — 7-day BVI bareboat on a 40-foot cat (4 guests, peak season)

Compare that to four people doing two day trips instead: 4 × 2 × $85 = $680. The multi-day permit math only makes sense if you're committing to genuinely multi-day cruising.

Further reading

• How much does a boat charter cost in the USVI?
• Best USVI day-trip charter routes (no BVI fees)
• Browse live BVI charter requests