Friday, April 20, 2012
BYOB at Smuggler's Cove
"Bar open" flags are no longer flying at Smuggler's Cove due to a recent government crack-down on unlicensed operators of the rustic beach bars.
According to this article in BVIPlatinum.com, some of the vendors stopped playing nicely. And following a scuffle between two of them, the police got involved which then led the Trade and Consumer Affairs Department to send the cease and desist letters. I took my parents to this beach the day after the bars were shut down and we were completely mystified with the abandoned bars and shacks. (Little did we know what had happened the day before!)
As for any contributing factors, we've noticed an increased amount of cruise ship traffic at Smuggler's in recent months. When we moved here in 2009, most of the taxi drivers took cruise ship tourists over the hill to Cane Garden Bay, but more and more of them were bringing tourists to Smuggler's instead. I suppose the increased traffic led to more competition between bar operators. For the longest time, there were only two, but in January, we counted six different bars!
You may remember for our one-year anniversary, Stephen from Smuggler's helped us pick a winner for the give-away! It's sad to think that he may have been one of the ones involved in the beach bar brawl.
Smuggler's Cove remains our favorite beach on Tortola - bars or no bars, but there was something quite nice about just showing up with a towel and enjoying a cold beverage made by someone else. We'll just have to improvise when it comes to making those yummy frozen drinks and substitute a beer from our own cooler instead.
According to this article in BVIPlatinum.com, some of the vendors stopped playing nicely. And following a scuffle between two of them, the police got involved which then led the Trade and Consumer Affairs Department to send the cease and desist letters. I took my parents to this beach the day after the bars were shut down and we were completely mystified with the abandoned bars and shacks. (Little did we know what had happened the day before!)
As for any contributing factors, we've noticed an increased amount of cruise ship traffic at Smuggler's in recent months. When we moved here in 2009, most of the taxi drivers took cruise ship tourists over the hill to Cane Garden Bay, but more and more of them were bringing tourists to Smuggler's instead. I suppose the increased traffic led to more competition between bar operators. For the longest time, there were only two, but in January, we counted six different bars!
You may remember for our one-year anniversary, Stephen from Smuggler's helped us pick a winner for the give-away! It's sad to think that he may have been one of the ones involved in the beach bar brawl.
Smuggler's Cove remains our favorite beach on Tortola - bars or no bars, but there was something quite nice about just showing up with a towel and enjoying a cold beverage made by someone else. We'll just have to improvise when it comes to making those yummy frozen drinks and substitute a beer from our own cooler instead.
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1 comments:
I agree it could get crowded w/ cruise ship people, but I will miss the painkillers!!