Staying at my first Rosewood group resort was a bucket list trip for sure. They are very expensive, and ultra high-end, but when their Black Friday deals came around in 2024, I jumped on the opportunity to get 30% off our entire stay, plus $100 resort credit and free breakfast every day. I honestly never thought I’d be able to afford a trip here even for just a couples getaway, but this deal allowed me to bring the teens as well!

We stayed at Rosewood Little Dix Bay for seven nights in early June, 2025, and while it was definitely an amazing luxury trip, there were some little and some big quirks about staying here that made our experience less magical than it maybe could have been, or possibly simply less magical as it was for others staying here.

The Location

Rosewood Little Dix Bay is located on the island of Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. It is not super easily accessible, and that’s part of what makes this place special. You need to make an effort to get here, and it’s not cheap. When I was planning the trip, one of the airlines (Silver Air) serving Tortola (the largest airport in the BVI – there is also a smaller airport on Virgin Gorda, but very few flights coming and and out of here), was going bankrupt, so I didn’t want to book a flight with them through San Juan, even though flights were still being offered. It’s a good thing I didn’t because they did go belly up and started their BK sale right before we were set to fly out. I opted to fly direct from Chicago to St. Thomas, and then we hired a private charter to take us directly from the marina in St. Thomas to the dock at Rosewood Little Dix Bay. This was about a 90 minute trip on a boat, with a stop at immigration in St. John, BVI. Beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) were supplied for the crossing.

I would highly recommend Ocean Bliss Charters water taxi for a smooth and seamless experience. It was about $2700 roundtrip, which was actually cheaper than flying on Cape Air, the only other option. The reason a private charter is cheaper than flying is because Rosewood charges $200 per person roundtrip for the 20 minute boat ride from Tortola to the resort, and for the four of us, that’s already $800. Tack on $$ for an additional flight, and it starts getting really pricey. I was really happy to only have to deal with one, direct flight in and out of STT, and a private charter that we could trust would be on time. It all ended up being extraordinarily easy.

Virgin Gorda itself is absolutely stunning, and is surrounded on all sides with pristine white sand beaches, turquoise waters, and massive granite boulders flanking the beaches. The resort itself is located very close to the marina, as well as The Baths. Little Dix Bay itself its absolutely gorgeous, and you won’t want to leave once you’re here.

Rosewood Little Dix Bay is not super easy to get to, and that makes it even more special. You’re not going to be annoyed with cruise ship people here, and even the catamaran traffic is pretty minimal. It’s got a secret hideaway type of feel, and when you arrive, you start to relax immediately.

The Amenities

Rosewood LDB offers gobs of complimentary amenities that make this resort a pretty good value, despite it’s high room costs. The primary complimentary amenity is daily beach drops and snorkel trips, which you can read about more of below, and here.

They also offer complimentary ice cream on the beach daily, and afternoon tea. While we didn’t manage to catch afternoon tea, we definitely enjoyed the ice cream on several occasions. It’s homemade and fresh, with flavors rotating regularly. There’s also a large kid’s club and they have a ton of activities for kids under 13, although our kids were a bit too old. Our teens enjoyed grabbing their own ice cream, using the pickleball courts, running along the trails and swimming in the calm bay.

Additionally, Rosewood LDB offers complimentary snorkel equipment (that you keep for your entire stay) which was some of the best equipment I’ve used in over 10 years of traveling and snorkeling. Water sports like kayaks, SUP’s, and Hobie Cats were also complimentary and are scattered along the massive beach for anyone to use.

Speaking of snorkeling, the beach and snorkeling opportunities just within Little Dix Bay are some of the best on the whole island. Just off the beach, I spotted tons of tropical fish, sting rays and sea turtles. The beach itself is massive, and you never have to fight over lounge chairs – there are plenty for everyone. The lounge chairs are also serviced with the sweetest staff we experienced at the resort. They were attentive, chatty, so kind, and made us feel special. This level of service is what you should expect throughout the resort.

There’s a very large fitness center on the property, as well as several tennis and pickleball courts available for guest use. To get around the property, there are bikes pretty much everywhere. Some are in better shape than others but they were a fun, quick way to get around.

The property contains three different restaurants as well as a Rum Bar, and the food here is very good. I did a pretty comprehensive article on all of your food options while staying here, and the food is definitely one of the top reasons you should book. The complimentary breakfast buffet is extensive, and not to be skipped!

Finally, the Sense Spa was easily one of the highlights of the week. It’s located on a higher point of the resort, and is a very tranquil, beautiful place, so spend as much time as you can here. With its own infinity pool, private casita treatment rooms, and highly professional service and staff, our getaway at the spa was easily one of my favorite moments of the trip. Check out more on our spa experience here!

Rosewood Little Dix Bay is full service, and you really don’t need anything that they cannot provide for a super fun, or super relaxing trip. That said, the service itself, specifically the compulsory butler service, was very spotty, and really detracted from our trip feeling extra special. More on that below.

The Butler Service

Butler service is “included” with everyone’s stay at Rosewood LDB, however they do charge a compulsory service fee of 10% per night, per room, so it’s not truly something that is included with your stay, you are absolutely paying for it whether you want to or not. The last time we experienced Butler Service was at Blancaneaux Lodge in Belize in 2021, and it was extraordinary, making our trip feel extra special. Cesar, our Butler, who we all adored, was always available via walkie-talkie for any of our (pretty minimal) needs. He knew when our excursions were planned, and always was there to see us off, make sure we had everything we needed including lunches, and was always there to greet us when we returned. After one of our full-day excursions, Cesar set up snacks and drinks in our villa. We almost never even needed to ask for anything, he knew what we needed before we did.

That was not even close to the experience we had a Rosewood LDB with our butler Neal, who called himself part of the “Dream Team” of butlers, along with Mikel, who was only there for one day of our stay. The whole point of butler service, in my mind, is anticipating the guest’s needs before they even ask, to make them feel special, and to have a seamless, easy, relaxing experience. Neal actually ADDED stress to our trip, and made us feel more like we were inconveniencing him if we ever asked for anything. He was smug, and made us feel like we were intruders on his property, rather than guests at a luxury resort. He was late in grabbing our picnic lunch for a beach drop one day, and was never around one single time to greet us when we returned from excursions. I injured my foot early in the trip, and I told Neal that we would be needing more rides around the property via golf cart, but even after knowing this, he never anticipated or asked when we would need a ride to breakfast or dinner (even though we did get a ride every single day).

While we often stood around waiting for Neal to show up, we witnessed other butlers on the property scurrying around making sure their guests were comfortable and had everything they needed. Rosewood even features butlers on their Instagram page occasionally, praising how they go out of their way to make their guests feel special, even creating little gifts and trinkets out of shells and coral found around the bay for their guests to bring home as souvenirs. This was not our experience. After we returned, I scrolled through Trip Advisor and noted a few other reviews complaining about he terrible service the “Dream Team” provided. Honestly, this sort of thing can make or break a trip, and really left me with a bad taste in my mouth. While we were in the lowest category room on the property, we did book two rooms, and we spent A LOT of money here. Unfortunately, we were treated by Neal to be second-class citizens and this really detracted from my overall impression of this resort.

I think this place could be extraordinary, but it’s sad that our experience with the butler service was so abysmal. The fact that people have complained before and nothing has improved is also disappointing. While I would not base my entire recommendation on our experience with Neal, I would definitely request a different butler team before you arrive, so you don’t have this same experience. You’re paying a lot of money to be here, and service should be perfect. Still, three months after our trip, when I think about Rosewood LDB, the first thing that pops to mind is not the stunning beaches, nor the yummy food, but Neal, and how disappointing his level of service was.

The Room

We booked two Ocean View Cottage rooms, which is the lowest category of room at this resort. That said, it does not feel like a basic room at all. The cost for a total of 7 nights was $5,000 per room, after the 30% discount for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Note that Rosewood does have a good Black Friday deal pretty much every year across their properties, so if you’re looking to book a trip at one of their resorts, hold out for Thanksgiving weekend for a nice discount!

The cottages were about 25 yards from the beach itself, and offered lovely views from the balconies. They are located at the very northern end of the resort, and so you’ll be doing a lot of walking, or taking golf carts and bikes to get around. We didn’t mind the secluded feeling of the cottages, though.

The room itself is very chic, with high end furnishings including the most comfortable bed you will ever sleep in. The furniture in the room is all solid and extremely high quality, and this is the case from the bed all the way to the shelving in the large closets. It’s a bit minimal and stark in the room, but the light woods throughout make it feel inviting anyway.

The bathrooms are very nice as well, including impeccable tile work and luxurious finishes. There was a large soaking tub (that we never used) that I thought was a bit of a waste of space in the relatively small-ish bathroom, but the shower was still a really nice size and had good water pressure.

I was really impressed with the quality of the furniture, tile work and details in the room, and I appreciated the vaulted ceilings and super strong ceiling fan along with very good air conditioning. The only note I would have is that the room’s curtains are not very good and let a lot of light in at night. We were so exhausted each day, though, and the bed was so extremely comfortable, that the light didn’t bother me too much.

I absolutely loved our room overall, and can only imagine how nice the fancier rooms are on the resort. Even still, the lowest category of room was more than enough for us, and since we had two adjoining rooms, it seemed extra big and luxe.

The Activities and Excursions

The primary activities that surprised me here were the complimentary beach drops and snorkel trips offered daily. Usually anything having to do with a boat at any other resort is the priciest thing you could do, but here, it’s all included. Check out my article on beach drops for my recommendations on where to go. Beach drops and snorkel trips are offered daily.

We booked a tubing experience for $140, which I thought was a really reasonable price for an hour of getting whipped around on a giant inflatable couch around the island. This was one of the kids’ favorite experiences while here, and so the price was worth it for sure.

Rosewood doesn’t offer island excursions through the resort, though they do make recommendations on which tour and charter outfits to use if you want to book a half or full day sail. I would hands-down recommend booking a full day sail with Bowline Yachts, which you can read about here.

If you want to see other parts of the island, including The Baths, Rosewood will basically arrange a taxi service for you to drive you around. Note that I believe that they do charge you per person rather than per ride, and it can get ridiculously expensive. For the four of us to get to the Marina, which is less than 2 miles from the resort, they charged us $80 roundtrip. To get to the amazingly delicious Hog Heaven, which was about a 20 minute ride away, it cost $176 roundtrip. Bananas!

The Vibe

Rosewood Little Dix Bay has a laid back luxury beach vibe going on, that is carefully preserved throughout every last square inch of this very large resort. The grounds are manicured, but not fussy. The beach is raked and the loungers set with towels daily, but it’s easygoing. The rooms are effortlessly chic, but minimalist. The service (apart from our particular butler experience) is friendly and chill, yet attentive.

This is a very large resort, and it most certainly never feels crowded since the grounds are massive. Folks here are relaxed and there are is probably an equal mix of honeymooners and families, so its a great place for all types of vacations.

The Recommendation

If you’re looking for a high-end luxury resort that is located in the extraordinarily unique setting that is Virgin Gorda, I would recommend booking here, with the caveat of not expecting too much from the butler service, and even possibly requesting in advance that they don’t pair you up with the alleged “dream team.” It’s sometimes hard for me to separate our disappointing experience with Neal from the rest of the resort, but looking at the week and our vacation as a whole, there was nothing else that wasn’t absolutely perfect here. The food is fresh and delicious, the vibe is luxurious and chic, the complementary beach drops are second-to-none, and the setting of Little Dix Bay is truly special.