Turks & Caicos Club is now called Beach House & wonderful

That explains why I never hear anyone mention T&C Club. We enjoyed the location and the suites very much. Glad to hear it is still wonderful. The one and only complaint I recall was the decrepit beach chairs. I assume that has been long since remedied, lol.

Blamona -Thank you for link to map! Things now make more sense. I had not realized that West Bay Club was west of the reef, and that is why it is further from restaurants.
The Somerset looks good but 25 minute walk to reef is too far for us. We often snorkel twice a day. Since Coral Gardens is in poor shape it would seem that either West Bay or Windsong would be our best bets.It seems odd that the beach at Windsong is narrow (disappears at high tide) and beach at WBC is mentioned as wide and beautiful.
How do rooms and hotel features of Windsong compare to WBC which everybody seems to like?
I see that Smith's Reef is another snorkel area. Can you walk there from WBC?
Also what about Gansevoort? Not much mention of that.
I do not see Beach House on the map. Where is that located?
Thank you all for the input!

Thanks everyone for your great input! We decided to stay at Somerset in a Garden View room. Should we request a particular building or are they all nice?

Can't request. Most condos are individually owned and placed in a rental pool treated as a resort. They must be fair to all owners and rotate them, so they don't honor requests in general.

Did you get a lockout room or English cottage? If English cottage than you're fine, if lockout room, avoid!

As for WBC vs Windsong, both have lovely rooms. Both include breakfast. Windsong has gorgeous bathrooms. The beach is a little narrower, but doable. (it doesn't disappear, it's just narrower than other sections of Grace Bay)

WBC has the widest beachfront in entire Grace Bay. All the rooms face the ocean, and the furniture is gorgeous. If wanting to snorkel twice a day, I would pick WBC.

Gansevoort is also very chic and gorgeous. Very modern with beautiful people, quieter version of South Beach Miami vibe.

Beach House the roof is now light blue. The resort is beautiful, but I still feel they have to fine tune some things to make it great. For example, beach loungers are assigned by room, not first come first placing basis. So they might have 2 families next to each other and empty areas to itself. Odd.

They also have full kitchens, but took out the stovetops and ovens. Again odd.

The restaurant closes between 2-6, so you can't expect service during that time.

The other resorts of that caliber offer food whenever you want it.

Sounds picky, not trying to be. I would stay there and be fine. But others might expect more services (or different) when you're at a higher caliber property.

For snorkeling, I would choose WBC.

Thank you all! We have booked at West Bay Club in a l bedroom Luxury on an upper floor. Seems best of the lot for snorkeling. Close to Coral Gardens Reef. Not sure if we can also walk to Smith's Reef. Will need to take a taxi to some of the better restaurants, but imagine there are some restaurants within walking distance at the nearby hotels. Someone also mentioned a Mexican place nearby.

The Mexican place is SOMEWHERE cafe, located next to the snorkeling reef and Coral Gardens.

Have to disagree with Blamona re: rooms and beach at WINDSONG. I was given a personal tour of this hotel, and the lowest category room is not that great. And the beach does come and go with the tides, so if you're an avid beach worshipper, you may not be happy there.

nancylee,

You're going to love the 1 bed luxury at WBC! We were blown away by our first visit there. The unit is gorgeous. We have never noticed sea grass in the water. Maybe we don't go out far enough? The beach at the resort is one of the nicest and widest on the island. And the beach staff is wonderful!

Lastly, just wanted to clarify my comments about WINDSONG. Most of the rooms are magnificent! But beware of the lowest category rooms which are quite dark, some with no view.

Also, during our visit, the beach in front of WINDSONG was so narrow that chairs were often at the water's edge. Not what I would want on vacation, when so many resorts have beautiful beach fronts!

WWK-
Thank you for your 2 recent posts.
We can not wait for January!

Hi nancylee, I just got back from a week at Grace Bay. The posters above certainly know the resorts there better than I do, and it looks like you've gotten great advice. One thing I'd add, though, is that IMHO the snorkeling at Bight Reef (Coral Gardens) is not in the same league with Nazareth Bay, which is where Secret Harbour is located in St. Thomas. And that's generally true for snorkeling from the beach in T&C versus the USVI - not nearly as nice. I did not have the opportunity to go on a boat trip out to the barrier reef off shore, which is supposed to be great.

Now the beach itself - Grace Bay - is about as close to perfect as you can get.

Coral gardens condos are independently owned and vary. We stayed last year in the penthouse in building one and loved it. Screensaver views and a great staff. Somewhere cafe on site. Dive shop on site and the reef out front. There is an attendant that sets your chairs up and reserves them for you everyday. The people that had a bad experience probably where in the back of the newer angled building that fronts construction. From where we were we couldn't see construction if we wanted to
Room was very nice and well appointed