Turks & Caicos 🇹🇨
- Lauren
- Apr 4, 2016
- 5 min read
For your one year wedding anniversary you are supposed to give your spouse paper.... here's hoping that plane tickets count! :)
We decided instead of gifts we wanted to get away for a few days. We loved the Caribbean so much we looked around for an island that was easy to get to and relatively affordable! Flights to Turks & Caicos were around $330 a person and only 2.5 hours! Sounds like a deal! According to locals their season is April to October so March isn't as expensive for flights because of this. Try and stay away from September as it's their hottest month with the least amount of cool winds.
Turks & Caicos is anything BUT affordable... little did we know. However, we had a wonderful time.
We booked our flights and then after doing some research, found out that the island had a 12% tax on top of steep prices on food and goods so we knew we may be in for a shock when we arrived.
Our flight landed around 2:30 on March 4th and by the time we made it through customs and to our hotel it was 4:30 PM. The first thing we did was head to a local grocery store to stock up on some breakfast food and snacks. We took a taxi and it was $9 a person round trip!! The taxis add up quickly as they charge per person per trip, so $9 a person whether the taxi had 1 or 5 people in it.
We were definitely shocked when we got to the store and a bag of grapes was $15!!! Almost all food and goods are imported so simple conveniences are considered luxuries here. We bought the necessities like coffee and eggs and headed back to our hotel, which had a small kitchen.
That evening the town was having a local fish fry and it was all we heard about since landing so we decided to check it out.
It was so fun and we ran into a friend of Brandon's from high school so we explored the local crafts, watched the entertainment and then walked down to Somewhere for a late dinner and live music.
After a few hours, we wandered into Danny Buoy's to watch some Karaoke before calling it a night after a few too many rum punches!
The next morning was a little rough but after some breakfast and relaxing on the beach we decided to do a little Stand Up Paddle (SUP) Boarding and then headed to the front desk to check out some bikes.
We rode our bikes down to a little dive shop and snorkeled at Smith's Reef. Smith’s Reef was a very easy spot to get to and had a decent amount of sea life just a short ways out. There are buoys clearly marking an area to not swim past as you could easily be hit by a speed boat.
We saw several signs for snorkeling guidelines:
Don’t touch or stand on anything. Coral is a living animal and you will likely kill or severely harm any part you contact.
Make sure not to brush anything with your flippers or gear.
Don’t take anything. This includes all shells, sand dollars, sea urchins, starfish and small pieces of coral.
Don’t heavily coat yourself with sun screen or other lotions before snorkeling. Use biodegradable lotion.
Don’t follow closely or chase any sea life.
Don’t attempt to feed any sea life.
If you are in charge of children, make sure that they understand and follow these guidelines.
The snorkeling and bike ride were both fun and beautiful. Our ride was about 6 miles round trip which at times was scary but very fun. After we got in, we got cleaned up and headed to dinner at the restaurant in the hotel ASU. Have the Kale Caesar salad. OMG.
The next day we decided to rent a scooter from Scooter Bobs. Which was MUCH cheaper than another scooter shop in town and about $300 cheaper in taxi fairs for all the sites we saw!
After I had a mini freakout and we got accustomed to the scooter, we decided to tour the island and see how the locals live. Our first stop: Da Conch Shack! Brandon had some fried conch and conch fritters, he loves conch, and I had some wings which were spicy as hell but so good!
Off to our next stop which was on the far end of the island and where we probably were not supposed to be.
The water was beautiful here and the resort was very private and exclusive so we wandered around for a bit before we deciding to leave and hopped back on our scooter, we drove around a bit longer towards some of the ritzier areas of T&C and a local stopped to ask us if we were lost. He told us about Taylor Bay which is a hidden public beach down off Chalk Sound Dr. Some rich guy bought the beach and put up a PRIVATE sign but its not technically a private beach so locals still go to it. The water was STUNNING!
I'd never seen a red starfish before!
After laying out on the beach for awhile we hopped back on our little scooter named Rick and headed inland for some more island food. We stopped off at Chinson's for some local grub.
We ended our night watching the sunset and walking down the beach to dinner at Bay Bistro inside the Sibonne hotel.
The next morning was our anniversary, March 6th, and we took the scooter down the the Blue Haven Marina to check out some of the yachts and the beautiful turquoise water. We stumbled upon this little beach where kite surfers usually are and saw this very unique sign:
We didn't have too much time because we had a boat tour planned where we had to meet on the beach at 1:30 with Island Vibe Tours! Brandon dropped the scooter and we made our way to the beach to get picked up for a day full of snorkeling and rum punch!
After a long day on the boat and exploring Iguana Island, we made our way back to the hotel for a quick nap before dinner. We heard that Coco Bistro was THE place to eat on the island, but unfortunately they did not have reservations available until April, so we decided to try Mango Reef for dinner... it did not disappoint. Our waiter was very friendly and knowledgeable of the menu, so we ate ourselves into a conch food coma and then finished off the night with dessert.
The next morning we watched the sunrise and were very sad to pack up and leave so we spent our last several hours on the beach. We asked the front desk to hold our luggage, grabbed brunch at Asu and enjoyed some margaritas on the patio before hopping in a taxi back to the airport.
We loved our stay in Turks & Caicos and felt 4 nights was the perfect time to stay. Things I wish we had known about:
Bug spray- after rain, mosquitos come out like crazy... definitely pack some
SPF 1000++ - we went through a ton, the sun is SO hot here
Caves- the taxi driver told us about these on Middle Caicos on the way out. Wish we had known
Coco Bistro- Get reservations in advance. Everyone raves about this place, but we missed out
Tipping- Everything has a service charge, so tipping can be considered extra in most places
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