Grace Bay Club, Villas at Grace Bay Club, and the Estate at Grace Bay Club

PROS: phenomenal location and vista, superb massages, helpful staff at breakfast and on the beach, very nice oversized rooms.

CONS: The hotel's signature "personal concierge" service is unfortunately a joke at best. While we were told to expect a team of two concierges to service our needs 24/7, we had to make repeated requests for the simplest of bookings.

EXAMPLES

1) I asked about a sunset sail five times, twice prior to arrival and thrice while on property; even when we gave the staff an internet printout of an available option, they responded 24 hours later that nothing was available during our five night stay!

2) Upon arrival, we were asked by one of our concierges (Boda) to wait outside by the elevator while he took another couple to their room. Each of the managers I spoke with indicated this was not acceptable.

3) Arranged by the hotel in advance of our arrival, we booked a day of scuba diving -- when we arrived at the shop, the owner was irate that we did not have a voucher; we had informed the front desk of the issue more than an hour earlier and were told they would take care of the issue in advance of our arrival at the dive shop.

4) Booked by our "concierge" once we arrived, a 4 hour speedboat experience brought us back to the hotel after two hours. After arguing with us that we had only booked 3hrs vs. 4hrs (yes, they had booked it for us earlier that same day!), our concierge came back with an offer of an (unimpressive) 10% discount...which was not applied to our bill!

5) By the fifth day of our stay, several senior management members had been alerted by us to the issue by me personally. Despite a one-on-one conversation with the general manager Andy, nothing has been done to correct the staff issues or provide us with a new team. Additionally, despite telling me that he would be "fair", absolutely nothing has been adjusted on the bill (in fact, we have two full charges without discounts to which we are entitled).

SUMMARY. If you are up for a self-service holiday at first-class prices, the GBC cannot be beat. If you expect any amount of customer service, you will likely do better elsewhere.

Note: the author has spent more than 1500 nights in hotels in four dozen countries over the past decade.

For the East Coast, Turks is the best place to go. Short direct flights, beautiful beaches, and great food. nice people.