My review of Mar '04 T&C visit...stayed at OCW
Jan 27th, 2006, 03:03 AM
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My review of Mar '04 T&C visit...stayed at OCW
If you're looking to relax and get away from it all, then welcome to Turks and Caicos Islands. Breathtakingly beautiful turquoise water.
Miles and miles of soft white beach to walk. Wonderful food and drinks.
No rushing, even if you want to, strictly island time here! Once you get used to the service [or lack of], it's ok. Relax and enjoy.
And it's ok that there's not much else to do, meals can last 2-3 hours in themselves.
Don't expect any good shopping yet either. The island is working on it though. Lots of construction. [Maybe by now there is!]
Ocean Club West. Lovely. We had a one bedroom 2nd Floor Unit was supposed to be Ocean View but they ran out of the junior suites so we were upgraded to a 1 bedroom. We did have a lovely view of the pool/courtyard. Our Bedroom had a small screen porch off of it, but it faced the road area so we did not use this porch. It had a door on the bedroom area. There was a nice kitchen area in the middle of the unit, so if you wanted to stay in for some meals, it would be quite easy. The large screened porch was off the great room area and overlooked the pool, it was wonderful. [The junior suites had the bed in the living room so people left the doors open and heard the waves at night, I think that would have been preferable but they did not have a separate bedroom or smaller porch].
The pool area was beautiful although we only sat near it for meals.
When we lounged, it was at the beach.
The beach area was lovely. Lounge chairs and umbrellas if needed.
Towels did not have to be returned to a certain spot [we left ours in the room].
The restaurant there was fine for breakfast/lunches if you didn't feel like going anywhere.
The bartender at OCE, JoMo, made a fantastic Mangorita! We walked down the beach every afternoon to have his cocktails. Their restaurant was also good.
Hemingways a mile down the other direction was wonderful. We had a lovely lunch and breakfast there.
Anaocona [at Grace Bay Club] was beautiful. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch there and watched the sunset there with drinks another evening.
Wish we had done a dinner there.
Favorite restaurant was Coco Bistro. Charming atmosphere. Food was wonderful and the service was actually good!
Other restaurants that we enjoyed were Coyabo and Grace's Cottage [chocolate soufflet fabulous]. They were both charming and of course expensive. The only restaurant we were not that impressed with was Magnolia. I was disappointed as this seemed to be the one with the best reviews online. It was a long drive and really I would have preferred to go to Anacoana or even repeat another restaurant.
I never made it to Shark Bite's or Tiki Hut for lunch. Others with us went to Shark Bite's for lunch and thought it was 'good'.
Snorkeling was 'OK'. Grand Cayman was much more beautiful snorkeling. I did not dive here but heard that was good.
We chartered a boat through Silver Deep and had a fantastic '5 hour trip' of snorkeling, and hanging out on a private island with the group and then having an AWESOME beach barbeque with fresh lobsters, conch, fruit, pasta, etc. It was wonderful!
Oh, we did a couple's rock massage the first day there. I booked it in advance online. It was at Spa Tropique right at OCW. Really wonderful experince.
We had friends visit the conch farm and they said it was a waste of time. Our boat charter took us to Iguana Island. It was entertaining [the guy was quite funny] but wouldn't have done it otherwise.
Gambling. A joke. A few in our group hit the casino at the Allegro and it was very lame. There were a total of about 12 people in there. I guess they're going to tear it down and build another. So I'm sure it will be better.
Other resorts. Walking the beach a lot let us check out the other areas. Beaches doesn't look desirable. The beach there is minimal and the solicitors are right there with them [hair braid, bracelet, etc.] It looked a little run down. Sands looked nice. It was a little more set back. That's where Hemmingways was.
Grace Bay Club [Anaocona] looks $$$ but lovely. And the restaurant was lovely. They also had a hot tub on site [wink wink].
Club Med was where the singles seemed to hang out. A little more happening but not 'lovely'.
The weather was beautiful. In the 80s, sunny, with a little breeze so you never felt 'hot'. At night, it did get chilly though. Definitely bring a couple sweaters.
5 days later I was not ready to leave.
Enjoy! And say hello to JoMo
Miles and miles of soft white beach to walk. Wonderful food and drinks.
No rushing, even if you want to, strictly island time here! Once you get used to the service [or lack of], it's ok. Relax and enjoy.
And it's ok that there's not much else to do, meals can last 2-3 hours in themselves.
Don't expect any good shopping yet either. The island is working on it though. Lots of construction. [Maybe by now there is!]
Ocean Club West. Lovely. We had a one bedroom 2nd Floor Unit was supposed to be Ocean View but they ran out of the junior suites so we were upgraded to a 1 bedroom. We did have a lovely view of the pool/courtyard. Our Bedroom had a small screen porch off of it, but it faced the road area so we did not use this porch. It had a door on the bedroom area. There was a nice kitchen area in the middle of the unit, so if you wanted to stay in for some meals, it would be quite easy. The large screened porch was off the great room area and overlooked the pool, it was wonderful. [The junior suites had the bed in the living room so people left the doors open and heard the waves at night, I think that would have been preferable but they did not have a separate bedroom or smaller porch].
The pool area was beautiful although we only sat near it for meals.
When we lounged, it was at the beach.
The beach area was lovely. Lounge chairs and umbrellas if needed.
Towels did not have to be returned to a certain spot [we left ours in the room].
The restaurant there was fine for breakfast/lunches if you didn't feel like going anywhere.
The bartender at OCE, JoMo, made a fantastic Mangorita! We walked down the beach every afternoon to have his cocktails. Their restaurant was also good.
Hemingways a mile down the other direction was wonderful. We had a lovely lunch and breakfast there.
Anaocona [at Grace Bay Club] was beautiful. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch there and watched the sunset there with drinks another evening.
Wish we had done a dinner there.
Favorite restaurant was Coco Bistro. Charming atmosphere. Food was wonderful and the service was actually good!
Other restaurants that we enjoyed were Coyabo and Grace's Cottage [chocolate soufflet fabulous]. They were both charming and of course expensive. The only restaurant we were not that impressed with was Magnolia. I was disappointed as this seemed to be the one with the best reviews online. It was a long drive and really I would have preferred to go to Anacoana or even repeat another restaurant.
I never made it to Shark Bite's or Tiki Hut for lunch. Others with us went to Shark Bite's for lunch and thought it was 'good'.
Snorkeling was 'OK'. Grand Cayman was much more beautiful snorkeling. I did not dive here but heard that was good.
We chartered a boat through Silver Deep and had a fantastic '5 hour trip' of snorkeling, and hanging out on a private island with the group and then having an AWESOME beach barbeque with fresh lobsters, conch, fruit, pasta, etc. It was wonderful!
Oh, we did a couple's rock massage the first day there. I booked it in advance online. It was at Spa Tropique right at OCW. Really wonderful experince.
We had friends visit the conch farm and they said it was a waste of time. Our boat charter took us to Iguana Island. It was entertaining [the guy was quite funny] but wouldn't have done it otherwise.
Gambling. A joke. A few in our group hit the casino at the Allegro and it was very lame. There were a total of about 12 people in there. I guess they're going to tear it down and build another. So I'm sure it will be better.
Other resorts. Walking the beach a lot let us check out the other areas. Beaches doesn't look desirable. The beach there is minimal and the solicitors are right there with them [hair braid, bracelet, etc.] It looked a little run down. Sands looked nice. It was a little more set back. That's where Hemmingways was.
Grace Bay Club [Anaocona] looks $$$ but lovely. And the restaurant was lovely. They also had a hot tub on site [wink wink].
Club Med was where the singles seemed to hang out. A little more happening but not 'lovely'.
The weather was beautiful. In the 80s, sunny, with a little breeze so you never felt 'hot'. At night, it did get chilly though. Definitely bring a couple sweaters.
5 days later I was not ready to leave.
Enjoy! And say hello to JoMo
Feb 2nd, 2006, 04:50 AM
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Vegas,
I tried to pm you on the Cayman Activity Guide site to exchange information on Turks and Caicos. Joe has now banned me from that site for trying to prosteltize you away from his site, when all I was trying to do was see if we couldn't exchange what we had learned here, and share what I had learned on another site. I had pm'd you my email to chat about Turks and Caicos, and am sorry you never received it. I would have loved for us two 'newbies' to have figured some of this out together!
And so, I am banned from that site, as are a myriad of others.
Oh well, wishing you a good trip, and since I am going a bit before you, I'll try and post a good trip report on our return with lots of info for you.
I tried to pm you on the Cayman Activity Guide site to exchange information on Turks and Caicos. Joe has now banned me from that site for trying to prosteltize you away from his site, when all I was trying to do was see if we couldn't exchange what we had learned here, and share what I had learned on another site. I had pm'd you my email to chat about Turks and Caicos, and am sorry you never received it. I would have loved for us two 'newbies' to have figured some of this out together!
And so, I am banned from that site, as are a myriad of others.
Oh well, wishing you a good trip, and since I am going a bit before you, I'll try and post a good trip report on our return with lots of info for you.
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