Tropical Travel Girl
Turks & Caicos
Why Turks and Caicos?
Providenciales, largest of the Turks and Caicos islands, is TripAdvisor’s #1 Traveler’s Choice Island in the World.
Accommodations
Accommodations on Providenciales (Provo) include hotels and resorts, villas and condos, and all-inclusive resorts, like Club Med Turquoise, where I stayed twice in the early ‘90s, and Beaches. Most recently, I stayed at Ocean Club West, one of two Ocean Club resorts on Grace Bay.
Activities
Diving and snorkeling, boating/sailing, beach and watersports, golf, fishing, gambling (one casino is on the island).
Beaches
White, powder soft beaches are found throughout the islands. Grace Bay Beach, known for its 7.5 miles of powdery white sand and clear, calm turquoise water, is on TripAdvisor’s Best Beaches list, year after year. It is home to many of Provo’s major hotels and resorts.
Food and Drink
Fresh fish and seafood is plentiful here, but on Provo, conch is king. Try conch fritters, marinated conch, cracked conch and conch chowder. The local beer is Turks Head.
Getting There
Airport code: PLS. Providenciales (Provo for short), the site of the only international airport in the Turks and Caicos, is where the majority of tourists visit. Direct flights from U.S.: Miami (MIA), Atlanta (ATL), NYC (JFK), Charlotte (CTL), Dallas (DFW), Boston (BOS), Philadelphia (PHL) or San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU). Direct flights from Canada: Toronto (YYZ) and Montreal (YUL). Flights vary according to airline and day of the week. Tourist board link for more information: Turks and Caicos By Air
Location
Providenciales (Provo) is the largest of the TCI’s eight inhabited islands. There are 40 islands and Cays making up the Turks and Caicos, which are located 550 miles southeast of Miami, Florida, just below the Bahamas chain and just to the east of Cuba and the island of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Vibe
Laid back, relaxed, low-key nightlife, very low crime rate, family-friendly but also great for couples.
Tourist Board Website: www.turksandcaicostourism.com
If you go, don’t miss:
Eat at Da Conch Shack, where you can sample conch in every way possible.
Conch served three different ways, Conch Shack, Turks and Caicos (© Debbra Dunning Brouillette)
Sail on Sun Charters’ former schooner, Atebeyra, where you will cruise through waters northeast of Provo. Enjoy sunning, snacking, snorkeling, and searching for sand dollars, ending with a spectacular sunset.
Sail on former schooner, Atabeyra, Turks and Caicos (© Debbra Dunning Brouillette)
Scuba dive on healthy reefs and walls that are part of the third largest coral reef system in the world.
Scuba dive on healthy reefs, Turks and Caicos (© Debbra Dunning Brouillette)
Published articles on Turks and Caicos:
Beat a quiet retreat to Ocean Club Resorts
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos — Twenty years had passed since my toes had touched the powdery, talcum-soft sand on Grace Bay. Time hadn’t changed the intensity of the calm turquoise waters, sheltered by the coral reef located a half-mile offshore, but my surroundings at Ocean Club West, a 68-unit all-suite beachfront property, were decidedly different from the livelier, party atmosphere of Club Med, the all-inclusive resort where I’d stayed in the early ’90s…
Read the rest of the article, published in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, by opening a PDF here. OceanClubResorts-Turks-and-Caicos article
Providenciales, Turks and Caicos
Shades of turquoise water and azure sky meet pearly white sand, soft and sugar-fine, the kind you sink your feet into and sigh. From the vantage point of my beach chair, I watched a dad and his young son building a sand castle near the shore. I smiled at a couple strolling hand-in-hand near the water’s edge, then sank back to doze a bit before leaving my beachy lair for lunch at Ocean Club West’s Seaside Grill.
I’d arrived on the island of Providenciales (commonly called Provo), the most developed of Turks and Caicos’ eight inhabited islands, less than 24 hours ago, but, like the sun’s warm rays, I was already feeling its laid-back vibe penetrating my pores…
Read the rest of the article, published on TravelSquire.com, at this link: TravelSquire-Providenciales-Turks and Caicos
Really like the way you are presenting the destinations by describing key categories. That would ease the challenge of choosing one’s first tropical travel vacation considerably.
Thanks, Jan. That was my intention as I thought about what to include on the Destination pages. Now I’m doing that in a more general way through my new blog series, “How to Choose Your Ideal Island Destination.” Posts in the series will cover all of the categories above in more detail. I hope it will be helpful to anyone trying to figure out where to go on a tropical vacation.