Cooper Island Beach Club

Each of the eight Beachfront Guest Rooms looks out over the Francis Drake Channel, with views that peek over the tops of palm trees which can be enjoyed from the deckchairs on your private balcony. The bedrooms include large four-poster double beds, ceiling fans and large windows with screens to let the sea breeze in but keep the insects out. This negates the need for inefficient air-conditioning units which can are damaging to the environment. The rooms feature a connecting door on the balcony, meaning they can be turned into a duplex with two bedrooms and two bathrooms for families and groups travelling together. The en-suite bathrooms feature large walk-in showers.

Guests staying at Cooper Island Beach Club can enjoy delicious meals from the club’s restaurant, including fish and chips, burgers, salads and wraps. Finish off a mouth-watering lunch with one of their many tasty desserts. Vegetarian and gluten-free options are also available. Guests can sit indoors or out on the comfortable deck chairs, positioned in the warm sun. Happy Hour runs from 3pm until 5pm Thursday – Monday, where guests can enjoy a 2 for 1 deal on cocktails and craft beers made at Cooper Island Beach’s solar-powered custom-built microbrewery.

Guests can visit the Coffee Box, a charming coffee shop where you can enjoy a hot cup of tea or coffee in the comfy shade. Indulge in Cooper Island Beach Club’s homemade pastries, or cool down with delicious Italian gelato, while enjoying the elevated views of the Sir Francis Drake Channel. Power outlets for laptops and free wi-fi are also available.

Cooper Island Beach Club’s Rum Bar has the largest selection of rums in the Caribbean, holding over 280 different types. This includes house infusions and rare aged rums, as well as classic cocktails and rum-infused chocolates. Guests are able to try various rum samples and learn about the drinks and their origins while enjoying the gentle sea breeze.

Travel to one of the many amazing diving sites that surround Cooper Island such as Vanishing Rock, Cistern Point or Dry Rocks East, and explore the otherworldly environment that lurks under the sea. Look out for exciting aquatic creatures such as tarpon, parrotfish, triggerfish and squids. Search for life among the coral reefs, and immerse yourself in this vibrant and colourful underwater world. Cooper Island Beach Club has partnered with Sail Caribbean Divers to provide tours, equipment and tank fills. Dives can be enjoyed from 8:30 am until 4 pm.

Cast your line in the ocean waters and enjoy a peaceful afternoon of deep-sea fishing. Fish from the beach, or travel out in a boat for the exclusive chance to reel in swordfish, thresher and snappers. Guests can also expect to catch blue and white marlin, sailfish, wahoo, kingfish and tuna.

Travel to the famous Wreck of the RMS Rhone, where guests can go on dives to view the sunken UK Royal Mail ship which was wrecked during a hurricane in 1867. Swim alongside sea turtles and lobsters and explore the ruins of the ship over the course of two dives. Many of the ship’s artefacts remain within the wreck and can be seen by divers, as well as the aquatic life that has since claimed the fallen vessel.

Take the ferry to Tortola and St Thomas, and explore Cooper’s neighbouring islands. Guests can enjoy an educational trip to Tortola’s historical district and see Fort Recovery, Callwood Rum Distillery, and the many bays that once hid pirate ships. Or take a trip to St Thomas’ local history museum at Fort Christian, or Blackbeard’s castle. Guests can also enjoy wandering along hiking trails and exploring these residential islands.

Guests can enjoy a wide array of watersports while staying at Cooper Island. Take out a kayak or sailboat and explore the island from the water. Glide along the clear Atlantic waters on a paddleboard and pass over incredible marine life while fish weave between colourful coral reefs. Watersports are an exciting opportunity to get closer to the ocean and discover new experiences.

Cooper Island Beach Club work with local suppliers and businesses in order to reduce food imports and to support the local community. They source ingredients for the kitchen such as organic vegetables and seafood from local farmers and fishermen from the British Virgin Islands. Reducing food imports not only supports these businesses and the local economy, but also reduces carbon emissions that would be generated by having products shipped from far away.

Cooper Island Beach Club has an ‘eco-luxe’ ethos which means that they aim to provide guests with a luxury holiday experience without creating a detrimental impact on the environment. This is conducted through their reduce, reuse and recycle policies. For instance, bottled water is not sold at the resort to limit plastic waste. Instead, guests can receive drinking water from the club’s triple-filtered and treated drinking water system. Rainwater is collected and then treated by the club’s desalination plant which runs on solar power. Wastewater is then processed by the club’s submerged-membrane bioreactor, and reused for watering their gardens.

Any bottles that are used are made from glass. The empty bottles are then taken to a GL sand glass crusher, where they are reduced to a fine sand which can be used as a construction material for the resort.

Cooper Island Beach Club is off-the-grid, receiving electricity via the 303 photovoltaic panels which are fitted to the roof of the resort. These panels provide ‘85% of our electricity needs and this has saved over one million pounds of carbon emissions so far. Our hot water is also provided by solar hot water heaters throughout the resort.’ A cistern is located under each of the site’s buildings in order to collect rainwater which is then heated by a solar water heater and supplied to the showers.

Cooper Island Beach Club is home to a custom-built microbrewery, meaning that the resort is able to serve their own craft beer rather than generating carbon emissions by having beer imported to them. This also reduces aluminium waste as they do not can their beer. Instead, they use washable glassware and cups made from corn starch rather than plastic, which once discarded will biodegrade. In addition, the club uses lemongrass and sugarcane stalks as drink stirrers, rather than plastic stirrers or straws which can end up in the ocean and cause harm to marine life.

‘We only serve draft beer at the resort so we no longer import cases of beer to the island or have to dispose of thousands of aluminium cans. The brewery was designed to be as efficient as possible and we only use 570L of water to produce 500L of beer. The spent grain is donated to a local farmer for goat-feed and because we clean the equipment & kegs with food-safe products, the wastewater can be used for garden irrigation.’

In 2017, Cooper Island Beach Club launched its Turtle IPA, made at their on-site microbrewery, and donate $1 from every IPA sold to BVI Sea Turtle Conservation. This programme works to protect sea turtle numbers by deploying staff to patrol known nesting beaches to aid hatchlings in surviving those first crucial days. They also tag leatherback turtles to monitor nesting activity and conduct research into how turtle populations can be further supported.

BVI Sea Turtle Conservation also work to raise public awareness of how locals, guests and fishermen can help sea turtles and limit the damage inflicted on their habitats, for example reducing the use of plastic to prevent it from ending up in the ocean, and participating in their volunteering programmes.