Turks & Caicos 2021
So the title might be misleading, but it got you here didn’t it? In May of 2021 we flew to Providenciales and spent the week on the beach. Going to the less inhabited Caicos islands didn’t seem like a good use of time based on some of the reviews we saw, and getting to Grand Turks would have involved another flight. Since Grand Turks is also the countries cruise stop, we decided to skip it for now. Our plan was to enjoy the beaches, relax along the canal, and get a little work in to pay the bills, all during a time where COVID-19 was still top of mind for most travelers.
Providenciales on a (Reasonable) Budget
These islands are not your typical Caribbean islands where you’d expect a lot for a little, Turks and Caicos is consistently on the list of top 5 most expensive Caribbean destinations. You can spend your entire time at the resorts, and pretty much know what you’re going to spending, or you can try a few tricks like we did. Our plan was to stay at an Airbnb that was centrally located, and gave us the ability to chart our own course all week, we lucked out when we found a cottage along the canal in Cooper Jack Bay Settlement. This ended up being just a short ride to Leeward Hwy, which is the main route on the island. Speaking of driving, that’s an adventure in itself, more on that later.
Getting there and back
This section hopefully won’t age well, but early in 2021 there are still a lot of additional safeguards in place for travel. Obviously we spent the whole day wearing masks from airport to airport, but we also had to do a test for each location. Getting into Turks and Caicos requires a negative test within 5 days of travel, travelers insurance, and an approved certification for travel, this entire process is covered on the TCI Assured site. Getting back into the US also required a negative test within 3 days of travel, which means we had to go to a pharmacy in Providenciales, pay $50/person out of pocket, and bring that test to the airport. Traveling out of the airport in Providenciales was a bit of a circus, so we were glad we gave it plenty of time to get through the lines. One line was for checking documents, and then the next line was actually checking us into the flight, including another check of documents. The security line included a temperature check, some guy even lifted his stroller up to the digital display so he didn’t have to get his kid out for it. There was also a document check at the gate, and then we were finally on our way home. The take home message for us was that everyone seems to be making it up as they go, so plenty of time is advisable.
The Beaches
Grace Bay Beach - The largest, busiest, and most famous beach on the island, Grace Bay Beach is littered with resorts but the beaches are public, so you just have to find parking. The water here gets deep pretty quick, so it’s colder than the other beaches and you can also get a good sunset picture. Someone will probably offer you an umbrella, but they don’t hassle you at all.
Bonefish Beach - This ones a hard one to get to with a small rental car, but it’s doable. We had the beach to ourselves with the occasional couple walking by and finding their own secluded section. The water was very shallow and warm, the sand in the water was very soft, it felt like the sand has settled over seaweed but you couldn’t see it. We found a number of large starfish and got some nice pictures with them. We also hiked up to the top of Split Rock for some panoramic pictures.
Sapodilla Bay Beach - The most lively of all the beaches, this one is short with not a lot of space between the water and private property. There’s limited parking along the road and a $3 parking lot not far away. There are several bars on the beach and there was a floating one right offshore.
Long Bay Beach - Home of the kite surfers. This beach is, as you’d imagine, very long, windy, and wavy. We found a little path that led us to a secluded part of the beach where we could see the kite surfers in the distance, but enjoy some nice quite time as well. The beach was fairly smooth with a few rocks here and there.
Smith’s Reef - This short stretch of beach has a roped off section of coral that you can snorkel at with some views of stingrays and colorful fish.
Pelican Beach - We didn’t feel like we were allowed on this beach, we had to park in front of a million dollar house, walk past a couple of other million dollar houses, and then walk up the beach past several other million dollar houses to enjoy our little slice of sand and water. We were actually allowed on this beach, but it didn’t feel like we were necessarily welcome on this beach. Go there and stick it to Richy Rich and all his neighbors.
Restaurants
Hideaway Grill and Chill - There is no reason to not make your way here at least once, and you might find yourself here a few times. The owner is great and very friendly, the food is excellent, we had the jerk chicken, which had a solid spice to it, and the snapper sandwich, which was very flavorful, the fries were very well seasoned but the fried plantain lacked flavor.
Omar’s Beach Hut - There are some values to be had here, the fish tacos and jerk chicken were affordable and delicious. The drinks were par for the island as far as price goes, which means they were expensive. The experience was pretty neat, since they are right on the beach with some benches, a boat, and a few other picture worthy props you can hang out at.
The Sharkbite Bar & Grill - This place would fit right in at any Florida harbor. Good bar food, decent prices, and a solid drink menu. Parking was pretty limited, but that wasn’t much a problem for us.
Mr. Grouper’s - We didn’t stray far from the name on this one and we both got grouper sandwiches, one fried, one blackened.
The Patty Place - We tried both locations since the one closest to us was pretty limited when we went. The beef and cheese was pretty awesome, the chicken one had a lot of curry and wasn’t really our favorite. The bacon sandwich was surprisingly satisfying. The sweet treats looked pretty good, but we didn’t partake, mostly a product of our schedule.
Pizza Pizza - Ok so who doesn’t like a good pizza, right? Every trip needs a solid go-to option for whatever reason, and this wasn’t a bad option at all. Their online presence is non-existent, but we were able to call from the brew pub and pick it up on the way back to our place. This was a delicious pie that would be acceptable at any NYC corner bodega.
Getting around
Getting around in Providenciales can be interesting, there’s no mass transit and taxies are scarce and expensive, often times rides are negotiated at one price and then later clarified as per person, so be careful.
We rented a car, which we felt was the best choice for us. The cars typically come in two sizes, squirrel powered and SUV, we went small and took our chances on some of the rougher roads. Driving is done on the left side of the road, there are no stoplights, and they advertise their speed limit in mph where we had a rental car with a speedometer that listed speeds in kph. Added to that was that everyone had their own opinion of which lane was the fast/slow lane, some improvised roads, and no real radio stations, driving was certainly an experience unto itself.
Our road to Bonefish Bay Beach was about as bad of a road as you could be on with such a tiny car. The rough parts were in about a 5 mile stretch and it took us the better part of an hour to make it through. On the way back we took a chance and found a better route that took us along the airport, but it wasn’t on any map and we were lucky it didn’t just end somewhere.
Gas isn’t cheap, since everything Caicos doesn’t have a deep water port, so everything has to be brought in via small freighter, but we used less than half a tank during our entire week there.
The tourist stuff
If beaches, relaxing, and more beaches get old, there are a couple of things we found along the way. If you’re staying along one of the canals, paddle boarding or kayaking can be a fun break from the beach, the AirBnB we stayed at offered both options free of charge. A second distraction we found was just driving around and seeing how the other half live. There are some pretty amazing houses on the islands with unmatched views.
Our favorite tourist thing to do was visiting Turks Head Brewery. We did the tour of the facility and learned some interesting details and then got a few beer flights to sample their selection. Knowing how expensive alcohol is on the island, we decided to get a growler and brought it back for a couple of refills.
This might have been one of the most boring trips we’ve ever been on, but boring in a good way. Turks and Caicos are known for their beaches, their chill mentality, and their purposefully slow island time. The food was delicious, the drinks were expensive but not disappointing, and the people were mostly pretty nice. As far as beach vacations go, we didn’t go wrong with this choice.