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Waterfront Drive, busy with traffic and lined with bars, restaurants, shops and markets selling clothes and souvenirs to tourists fresh off the ferries, is the modern face of Road Town. A few steps west, picturesque Main Street is lined with brightly painted wooden and stone buildings, some more than 200 years old, and has a more laid-back, local feel. The many shops and restaurants here cater mostly to locals and it's a great place to look for crafts, jewelry, clothing and spices, or sit down to an inexpensive West Indian meal. Along Main Street you'll find most of Road Town's tourist sights. A good place to start is the VI Folk Museum (officially Mon-Fri 8.30am-4.30pm but hours are erratic), though the old building itself is probably of as much interest as the contents - a small collection of Amerindian, plantation-era and RMS Rhone artifacts. The white building at the heart of the street is the eighteenth-century colonial prison - today HMS Prison and still operational so not open to the law-abiding public. The prison is flanked by the reforming influences of two of the island's main religions, to the south St George's Anglican Church, featuring a copy of the 1834 Emancipation Proclamation that freed the islands' slaves, and to the north the Methodist Church. |
Walk north on Main Street for fifteen minutes to reach the four-acre oasis of the Joseph Reynold O'Neal Botanic Gardens (Mon-Sat; closes at dusk; free), named for a local dignitary. Its jasmine-scented pathways are a delight to stroll down and you can learn all about the wealth of tropical flora on display - orchids, banana trees and cactus among others - through self-guided walks. Finish off your exploration of Road Town with a visit to Fort Burt, set on a hillside above Waterfront Drive at the southern end of town, which offers wonderful views of the harbor. Only the foundation and mezzanine remain of this seventeenth-century fort built by the Dutch to guard Road Harbor, so once you've glanced at the ruins, drop in at the Pusser's Fort Burt Hotel, grab a drink and watch the sun set over the bay.
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British Virgin Islands
- Road
Town - The town 
