3 Days in Turks & Caicos
Sunday, August 07, 2016
To begin, we actually decided to go because I got an email notification on a flight deal. Our round trip flight from Newark, NJ was only $280 (Some dates were as low as $270). When I see a good deal, I start digging into it more to see how much our trip would cost with hotel and other things like car rental and food before I book based on just flights. The best option I found was doing a Flight+Hotel bundle through one of the travel sites. I use Orbitz because it gives you reward points for future travel and they had a promo code for vacation bundles for $50 off. I was lucky enough to find a 4-star beachfront hotel for a 4 night stay with our flight for only $594 per person. That sounds pretty ridiculously good when you compare to the per night prices of some of these other resort hotels. I believe our hotel had a promo of stay 3 nights get 1 free which contributed to the low price. The only other thing we booked was a car rental. We ended up booking with Grace Bay Car Rental because they were fairly priced and had good reviews. Our 4 day rental was $170.
Day 1
We arrived at 1pm in the afternoon and picked up our rental car at the terminal. After we picked up our car it was about a 15 minute drive to our hotel, Sands at Grace Bay. This resort was a beachfront hotel resort on Grace Bay. This beach is rated #1 beach in the world by Trip Advisor this year. After checking in we immediately went to go look at the beach. This was my first photo just from my phone!
We decided to check out the grocery store nearby. It is about a 15 minute walk, but we drove instead. Eating out on the island can get pretty expensive. The grocery store is more expensive than the prices you may be used to but can be a good cheaper alternative for some meals. We bought a 24pk case of water for $7 and some fruit. When we got back to the hotel we enjoyed the rest of our day on on the beach. We arrived on a perfect day because our hotel has a manager's reception party every Tuesday at 5pm. We got to enjoy some free snacks and drinks by the poolside. For dinner we went to Turks Kebab nearby. Best cheap eats in the area! More details about food in my next post.
The lounge chairs and umbrellas outside Sands at Grace Bay. Suprisingly not crowded during this time of year. I read that the summer months are actually their low-season.
Day 2
We went to Bight Reef at Coral Gardens for snorkling. This is a popular snorkling spot since it's easy to just walk right into the reef from the beach shore.
After a morning of snorkling we headed to lunch with a view of Chalk Sound. Las Brisas is the only restaurant and spot that offers a great view of Chalk Sound since most of the area is residential and private. There are not many visible public entrances. My pictures can't describe how this body of water looks like in real life. It was like majestic glowing turquoise green waters. Truly amazing. The colors looked as if it changed as you looked further too from blues to greens. You can even book a boat tour or kayak! I kind of wanted to try it but it was super sunny out with no shade anywhere. Don't think we would have had the energy to enjoy it. Maybe next time!
Our next stop was a beach that was near the Chalk Sound area. There are actually 2 popular ones called Taylor Bay and Sappodilla Bay. I read in the reviews that they can be hard to find since there are no public entrances and no parking. We almost gave up but we finally found a spot we could park at on the roadside and asked this couple that was walking out from the bushes if this was where Taylor Bay was. So happy we didn't give up because this beach was GORGEOUS. Hands down the best beach I've ever been to. I still love the long stretch of white sand on Grace Bay but this one was different. It was small and secluded, only two other families were there when we arrived. The water was super calm and you can walk out for over 200 yards and still only be knee deep in the shallow water. It was perfect for just lounging and relaxing as if your in a huge pool. The water temperature was just perfect so you can easily walk in without freezing. I would come back to TCI just to enjoy this beach again. Because I read reviews that there are no shade here, I ordered a cheap pop-up tent that I brought with my in my carry on suitcase. We are so glad we brought this. We would not have been able to last more than an hour if we didn't have this as shade. You can easily burn up from the high sun without realizing it.
Day 3
We decided to use this day to enjoy our beachfront hotel on Grace Bay. We got some take out breakfast and sat on the lawn chairs at our hotel. Soon after the weather started changing. When we were checking the weather for TCI before our trip, it showed a lot of rain. I was so distraught that our entire trip could be rainy. But it reassured me when I read that the storms here are usually passing since its a small island and doesn't last long. We were lucky it was sunny when we arrived and had a gorgeous day 2. Around 11am on Day 3 the sky turned dark and the waves got a little stronger. But we were not worried, it was actually nice to enjoy some clouds and a breeze in the middle of our trip. It was also great to see how the colors of the water drastically changed during this time. I'm pretty sure I even saw a sting ray swimming in the water!
The only bad news was that every Thursday they have a "Fish Fry" where local vendors gather at Children's Park (near Coral Gardens) where they have a night of food and music. Even though the rain had stopped in the afternoon, it seemed like it got cancelled. We decided to go to a restaurant nearby for dinner called Somewhere Cafe and enjoyed this beautiful sunset on the beach.
Day 4
For our last full day, we changed our plans around since we just wanted to relax and visit Taylor Bay again. We went in the morning this time. There were more people this time but still plenty of room. I kind of wish I tried visiting Sappodilla Bay too. It is supposed to be similiar but bigger and also more populated because it's easier to find.
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| Last sunset |
Day 5
Our flight was at 2pm. We checked out at 11am and when to pick up some lunch to go at Turks Kebab again. The line at the airport on Saturday was pretty long so 2 hours was perfect amount of time to arrive and drop off our rental car and go through security.
I'm so glad we had this spontaneous trip. It was the first time I booked flights because I saw a flight deal and just went for it from there. Hoping to learn and plan more trips like this in the future.
I hope my tips will be helpful for your future trip to Providenciales on Turks & Caicos islands. My next post will be my food reccommendations on the island.
xoxo Reeni
1 comments
Such a nice posting on traveling on. If you are looking for traveling you can do camping or hiking. They are the cheapest and most adventurous. Check out the camping store.
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