I'm booked at CG for a week in march and am wondering if i should change to RWI or OC? i've read alot about both the construcion on neighboring plots and also the fact the the beach is crowded due to the wonderful snorkleing. We are hoping for a nice, quiet beach vacation. Any feedback is appreciated!

The beach def. is crowded. It's for all levels of snorkelers. You have tons of families, etc. Personally, I'd stay elsewhere and just drive over early.

Peace

We stayed there in June/July and loved CG. There is construction, but it is blocked off by walls and we never experienced noise, although we were on the opposite side of the condo complex from the construction. If you stay by the beach, you are far away from the construction. The beach does get a little crowded, but it is a fairly large beach and you can get away from the main crowd. I did a reef fish survey around the protected reef, and it was really amazing: Id'd over 58 species of reef fish and filmed underwater the turtles grazing in the seagrass beds to the right of the cordoned off reef. Robert59

<b><font color="red">You will love it there! The reef right in front is so great... we saw some wonderful sea life.

Have fun... I'm jealous!</font></b>

stay with cg. the access to the reef is too good to pass up and cg is smaller than most of the resorts so it starts with less people. the guest parking area is limited to maybe 15 cars. no tour busses go there. you can walk 20 yds down the beach and be by yourself. early is good to snorkel because it's when the fish are most actively feeding.

CG sounds like the greatest off-beach snorkeling. Is it open to the public ? Far from the cruise port? Are there other off-shore snorkeling areas you would recommend? We'll have only half a day ashore. (not nearly enough time, I know!)

NGail, Coral Gardens is in Provo. Cruise ships dock in Grand Turk. Two totally different Islands of the Turks &amp; Caicos. They are many miles apart. Not feasible to get to in a few short excursion hours from your cruise ship.

KVR-
I just realized this when I found a map of the islands. I now feel a bit stupid to say the least!
As the late, great Gilda Radner used to say - &quot;never mind!&quot;
Thanks for your reply.

The noise is still ringing in my ears. I was at CG 2/13-2/16 and the construction is bad. I booked the coral gardens to find that I was at the reef residences which is behind the non stop construction of the windsong(next door to the CG), the other side of the CG is construction of the toscana is just starting so who knows how long they will be building. They worked from 6 or 7am till 10pm or later. Can't remember if there is construction near the RWI. When snorkeling you could hear the beeping and sawing at the far end of the reef. Provo has probably 30 or 40 construction sites over the whole of grace Bay all at various stages. We kayaked about 2 hours off the eastern tip of provo and still could hear construction in leeward complex. The barrier reef was great snorkleing but is the only place I couldn't hear construction. They are destroying a whole lot of natural beauty so I will probably not return to Provo though some of the raw beauty is great. Little water Cay was lovely, but will probably be condos if I return in a coupld of years. The service is very spotty with some nice but many vacant faced people who wished you would just leave. I should have known when the CG rep got in a yelling match with our angry taxi driver at the airport on our arrival which continued with me once the taxi driver started driving. BAD BAD BAD. Provo is the worst place I have been though it has some awesome beauty. Maybe if I was on a dive boat everyday it would have been better. There are lots of condos, houses and hotels, but few activities you can do without paying someone. Many of the beaches on the map have garbage on them. Smith Reef the other snorkling reef is unmarked and near a boating channel where some confused tourist got killed snorkling. The chalk sound nature park is gorgeous, but there doesn't appear to be a away to see it other than standing on a road some distance away. We visited Big Blue the Eco adventure outfitter to be insulted with each question. Things like do whales go by...the answer yes but you don't see them or what do you see if snorkeling on the barrier reef...answer fish!. We went and the same guy was better, but still memories of the day before's word games. We are well traveled but don't like overly touristy place, but the funny part is a lot of tourist stuff is missing except the opportunity to buy a 2 million dollar condo and have blank faced person serve me mediocre food. Couldn't even find a deceit postcard, though I could get a bottle of 1998 gaja at the IGA for $365. The IGA is better stocked then my local home store...weird! We had an good not great meal at Magnolia. Ate other meals at CG...including valentines on the beach. I think they had finished construction before 8pm that day...venue was great, but food was only fair to good, not great. Heard that coco bistro is good didn't go.

I'd like to know more about the tourist that got killed in the boat lanes.

I am here to tell you I PERSONALLY have seen boats come within the marked areas (they were not to be in ... glass bottom boat operators) when we were at Smith's.

It is ridiculous. Maybe I'll make sure to take the dive float. good grief.

If anyone can tell me more about this, I'd appreciate it.

And whoever told you Coco Bistro is good...told you right, Venturin

Seen CG many times always beach area full of people. Not much beach area in front of CG anyway. Always see more people from Beaches than CG people. Would stay at RWI nice and wide beach area. For a quite beach vac RWI all the way!!!!!!!!!