Virgin Islands
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50 free Virgin Islands trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Virgin Islands are a small Caribbean chain with an oversized story. The archipelago is split between two countries and several flags have flown over it, so neighbouring islands a short ferry ride apart can have different governments, different histories and different holidays. This quiz turns the best fun facts about the Virgin Islands into questions. It covers both the American and the British islands: where the place names come from, the pirates, planters and colonial powers who fought over the harbours, the beaches, reefs and wildlife, the local food and music, and the well-known people with roots here. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the story as you play. It suits travellers planning a yacht charter or a cruise stop, islanders testing what they know about home, and anyone who likes Caribbean history and geography.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which road rule sets the U.S. Virgin Islands apart from every state and other territory of the United States?
Driving on the left
Driving on the left is the rule in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the only American jurisdiction that does it. Most cars come from the mainland, so the steering wheel sits on the left too.
Q 02Christopher Columbus named the Virgin Islands in 1493 after which martyr and her legendary 11,000 maiden companions?
Saint Ursula
Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgin followers gave the islands their name, which was soon shortened to the Virgins. Columbus sighted the chain on his second voyage across the Atlantic.
Q 03Which wartime fear drove the United States to buy the Danish West Indies, now the U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1917?
A German submarine base
A German submarine base in the Caribbean was the scenario that worried Washington during World War I. Denmark accepted $25 million in gold for its three main islands.
Q 04William Thornton, born on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, designed which famous Washington landmark?
The U.S. Capitol
The U.S. Capitol was designed by William Thornton, who was a physician, inventor and painter as well as an architect. He was born into a Quaker community as heir to sugar plantations.
Q 05NBA star Tim Duncan grew up on St. Croix training for which sport before Hurricane Hugo pushed him toward basketball?
Swimming
Swimming was Tim Duncan's first sport, and he hoped to reach the 1992 Olympics. Hugo destroyed the only Olympic-sized pool on St. Croix, and a fear of sharks ended his ocean training.
Q 06Which Virgin Gorda beach draws visitors with giant granite boulders that form tunnels, arches and grottoes?
The Baths
The Baths formed from granite that cooled far underground and eroded into boulders up to 40 feet long. Much of the rest of the Virgin Islands was built by volcanoes instead.
Q 07Which British Virgin Islands pirate haunt reputedly inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's novel about Long John Silver?
Norman Island
Norman Island is one of several islands reputed to have inspired Treasure Island. Its water-level caves still draw snorkelers, and some visitors arrive hoping to find buried loot.
Q 08Which private retreat in the British Virgin Islands is owned entirely by Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson?
Necker Island
Necker Island belongs to Richard Branson, who also owns nearby Mosquito Island. Barack and Michelle Obama have stayed there as his guests.
Q 09Which philanthropist donated his extensive St. John landholdings in 1956 to help create Virgin Islands National Park?
Laurance Rockefeller
Laurance Rockefeller gave the land on condition that it be protected from future development. The park now preserves about 60% of St. John.
Q 10Which rum cocktail topped with grated nutmeg was created at a beach bar on Jost Van Dyke in the 1970s?
Painkiller
Painkiller blends rum with pineapple juice, orange juice and cream of coconut. Pusser's Rum later trademarked both the name and the recipe.
Q 11In the 1917 deal for the U.S. Virgin Islands, America agreed not to object to Danish control of which other territory?
Greenland
Greenland was Denmark's price beyond the gold: Washington promised not to object to Danish interests covering the whole of it. The United States had held a claim based on Arctic explorations.
Q 12In British Virgin Islands legend, which pirate marooned his crew on Dead Chest Island with only cutlasses and rum?
Blackbeard
Blackbeard stars in the tale, but its earliest known tellings date from the 20th century. It is almost certainly folklore spun from a pirate song in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
Q 13Which St. Croix beach, a nesting refuge for leatherback turtles, appears in the last scene of The Shawshank Redemption?
Q 21Which low-lying coral island in the British Virgin Islands takes its name from the Spanish for flooded land?
Anegada
Anegada rises only about 28 feet above the sea, while its volcanic neighbours are mountainous. Its 18-mile Horseshoe Reef has caused hundreds of shipwrecks.
Q 22Which Tortola summit, cloaked in semi-rainforest, is the highest point in the whole Virgin Islands archipelago?
Mount Sage
Mount Sage reaches 1,716 feet. The forest around it became the first national park in the British Virgin Islands in 1964, on land acquired from private farmers.
Q 23Which bird fills the centre of the U.S. Virgin Islands flag, between the letters V and I?
An eagle
Sandy Point
Sandy Point is a national wildlife refuge at the southwest corner of St. Croix. Its two miles of sand are ideal for leatherbacks, the endangered species the refuge chiefly protects.
Q 14The wreck of RMS Rhone off Salt Island in the British Virgin Islands appears in which 1970s diving thriller?
The Deep
The Deep used the wreck for diving scenes with Jacqueline Bisset. The Royal Mail steamer went down in an 1867 hurricane that killed 123 people, and it is now a popular Caribbean dive site.
Q 15Which St. Croix headland, marked by the Millennium Monument sundial, is the easternmost spot of the United States?
Point Udall
Point Udall is named for Stewart Udall, a former Secretary of the Interior. The westernmost spot of the United States, in Guam, carries the same name in honor of his brother Mo.
Q 16Which leader of the American Revolution spent boyhood years on St. Croix, clerking for a Christiansted trading firm?
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton clerked for the export-import house of Beekman and Cruger after losing both parents. In 1772 local businessmen paid for him to continue his education in New York.
Q 17Which Catholic military order ruled St. Croix from 1651 to 1664 in the name of France's King Louis XIV?
Knights of Malta
Knights of Malta ran the island for thirteen years before it passed to the French West India Company. Denmark's own trading company then bought St. Croix from France in 1733.
Q 18What kind of reptile found on Virgin Gorda ranks among the smallest land vertebrates on Earth?
A gecko
A gecko called the Virgin Islands dwarf sphaero takes the honor, and it is nearly as small as a U.S. dime. A biologist first collected it on a dry, wooded hillside in 1964.
Q 19The women who led the 1878 Fireburn labor revolt on St. Croix are honored in the Virgin Islands under which title?
Queens
Queens is the title given to Mary Thomas, Agnes Salomon and Mathilda McBean for leading the uprising. All three were sentenced to prison and shipped to Copenhagen to serve part of their terms.
Q 20Facing a mass rebellion on St. Croix in July 1848, what did Governor-General Peter von Scholten proclaim?
Freedom for all slaves
Freedom for all slaves in the Danish West Indies was his answer to the revolt. Back in Denmark a court stripped him of his office and pension, until the supreme court cleared him in 1852.
An eagle modelled on the national coat of arms fills the flag, but it grips three arrows rather than thirteen. They stand for St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John.
Q 24Which currency has been official in the British Virgin Islands since 1959, despite the territory's ties to London?
U.S. dollar
U.S. dollar adoption followed the territory's close economic links with the neighbouring American islands. The same money is therefore used on both sides of the border.
Q 25What are mocko jumbies, the masked and costumed figures seen at carnival parades in the U.S. Virgin Islands?
Stilt dancers
Stilt dancers of this kind trace back to West African traditions brought to the Caribbean by enslaved people. Many say the name comes from a term for a healer or guardian spirit.
Q 26Which rum brand has been made on St. Croix since 1760 and managed by the Nelthropp family for eight generations?
Cruzan
Cruzan comes from a distillery once known as Estate Diamond, which has operated for more than 250 years. The Nelthropps stayed in charge through several changes of corporate owner.
Q 27The so-called Spanish Virgin Islands, just west of St. Thomas, are governed today as part of which neighbor?
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico runs the two islands as municipalities. They stayed Spanish until the war of 1898, long after their eastern neighbours had passed to Denmark and Britain.
Q 28Which Elizabethan sea captain gives his name to the channel separating Tortola from the smaller islands to its south?
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake anchored off Virgin Gorda in 1585 before his raid on Santo Domingo. He passed through again in 1595 on his last voyage, during which he died.
Q 29Which March 31 holiday in the U.S. Virgin Islands recalls the day in 1917 when the Danish flag came down for good?
Transfer Day
Transfer Day recalls a ceremony timed to the minute: the Danish flag came down at 4:48 p.m. and the American one went up at 4:53. Islanders mark it with parades and reenactments.
Q 30Fungi, a Virgin Islands staple usually eaten with boiled fish or saltfish, is made chiefly from which ingredient?
Cornmeal
Cornmeal is boiled with okra until thick to make the dish, which is pronounced foon-gee. Despite the spelling, no mushrooms are involved.