Trip report --Provo--long
May 26th, 2005, 01:52 PM
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Trip report --Provo--long
Arrival–Flew from Orlando to Provo via American on Sat 14 May for our 18th visit to the island. Was a little leery of a Sat arrival because of the flights also arriving from Boston and N.Y. Customs and Immigration were a breeze and we were out in 20 minutes and on our way to Coral Gardens.
Coral Gardens–This was our 13th stay here and we really like it. It keeps getting better every year. The staff, Andre, Vern, Ricardo, Hugh, Angie, Nuan, Charlie et al bend over backwards to see you have a wonderful vacation. Some changes from last year–WiFi access in the rooms along with CD and DVD players. Beach Café now provides room service if you choose to eat on your balcony. There is a small shop that sells a little of this and that and rents DVD’s ($5). It also had a lending library. Cold towels and sorbet on the beach. Charlie the pool/beach boy will order and deliver drinks to you. He is really great and does an excellent job of keeping interlopers from other resorts from using lounges and umbrellas. They now have inflatable floats and foam noodles along with two new kayaks for guests use. In the guest book is a description of various pillows offered for a wonderful nights sleep. Try one. Besides the managers cocktail party on Mon there is a complimentary designer martini hour on Thurs. Serenity Spa is going to be taken over and run by Coral Gardens in August. There will be a doctor on duty that will do body analysis. Also plans for a full fitness facility on site. In the interim Coral Gardens will provide complimentary transportation to Pulse Gym in Salt Mills Plaza (Daily Fee $15–weekly $75). Also on line NY Times news delivered daily with a personal message about events at Coral Gardens. Beach Café has redone the lunch menu and it is very good.
Restaurants–Normally we eat at a different restaurant each night but not this time. We ate twice at Coyaba which is excellent. They now have a chefs table in a separate room which seats eight.
Also ate twice at Magnolia Restaurant and Wine Bar which is our second favorite. Conched out at Aqua in Turtle Cove–smoked conch carpaccio for am app and pecan crusted conch for entree.
On Monday we went to Barefoot Café for conch night. Only one other couple there. Ordered a conch quessadila which was good but probably should have stuck with cracked conch. The other meal we had was at the Coral Gardens Beach Café. On Tuesday night they do a Gourmet Tide Affair Beach Dinner–Five courses each paired with wine ($60/person.) They set the whole thing up on the beach with tiki torches. Unfortunately it started raining at about 6:30 so we ended up eating under cover at the Beach Café. Good dinner. On Friday they do a BBQue with fish, shrimp jerked chicken ribs etc. One of the guests said it was really good. Jasmine at Salt Mills is now Iguana a steak house. Toured the Palms which is a very nice resort. Contemplated eating in their restaurant 23 Parallel but decided against it. It is built on the back of the building away from the beach and recessed into the building. Has an open kitchen and looked like it would be hot. No A/C. Dress code long pants and shirts with collar for men. One couple form CG did eat there and said there are a few rough spots as there are with any new restaurant and that it was hot.
For those of you that have been to Bugaloos where the big piles of conch shells are–Bugaloos has gone upscale and is no longer there. It is a couple of miles along the Blue Hills road before you get to Smokeys. Look for a white building with blue and green trim on the right. Really nice place and still islandy. Best conch salad, fritters and cracked conch on the island. Also had grouper and snapper and chicken along with peas and rice, mac and cheese and slaw. Great place for lunch.
General–Weather was marginal at best. Had about three good Provo weather days. Not a lot of rain except Sat 21 May but cloudy and overcast. Lots of construction still going on. They are on the last building of Somerset by the Palms. Huge complex. Alexandra is building a third unit. Tuscany next to Ocean Club has started. Pinnacle by OCWest is still building. The four new buildings at Grace Bay Club are immense and dwarf the original units, Regent Grand is building next to Renaissance, Seven Stars (old Allegro) has started and is going to be immense. Looks like 7 stories, large resort planned for Leeward. Mandalay by the round about by Sands is in pre construction sales as is Windsong and Toscana on either side of Coral Gardens. Coral Gardens is building 24 more small suites on 1 ½ acres. It is about 500 yards form the beach and is just east of The Seagate. Were not bothered by construction noise. Not much progress on Villages of Grace Bay except the entrances are finished and there is a paved road. New big resort Sandy Point planned for North Caicos. Wish it all would stop. Leeward Highway is complete and a big improvement. They are now paving access roads to, as well as Lower Bight and Grace Bay road. Some places are one way so be careful.
Sat 21 May–All good things must come to an end. About 9 AM it started raining and I never in all our trips saw it rain so hard. We had a 2 PM flight. All the roads were flooded on the way to the airport. The terminal was a zoo with three flights leaving within 1 ½ hours of each other. Of course AA only had about six umbrellas so everyone got soaked getting on the plane. As you can tell from above I am a conch nut. Arrived home safely around 9 PM with 10 pounds of conch. When I run out we’ll go back
Coral Gardens–This was our 13th stay here and we really like it. It keeps getting better every year. The staff, Andre, Vern, Ricardo, Hugh, Angie, Nuan, Charlie et al bend over backwards to see you have a wonderful vacation. Some changes from last year–WiFi access in the rooms along with CD and DVD players. Beach Café now provides room service if you choose to eat on your balcony. There is a small shop that sells a little of this and that and rents DVD’s ($5). It also had a lending library. Cold towels and sorbet on the beach. Charlie the pool/beach boy will order and deliver drinks to you. He is really great and does an excellent job of keeping interlopers from other resorts from using lounges and umbrellas. They now have inflatable floats and foam noodles along with two new kayaks for guests use. In the guest book is a description of various pillows offered for a wonderful nights sleep. Try one. Besides the managers cocktail party on Mon there is a complimentary designer martini hour on Thurs. Serenity Spa is going to be taken over and run by Coral Gardens in August. There will be a doctor on duty that will do body analysis. Also plans for a full fitness facility on site. In the interim Coral Gardens will provide complimentary transportation to Pulse Gym in Salt Mills Plaza (Daily Fee $15–weekly $75). Also on line NY Times news delivered daily with a personal message about events at Coral Gardens. Beach Café has redone the lunch menu and it is very good.
Restaurants–Normally we eat at a different restaurant each night but not this time. We ate twice at Coyaba which is excellent. They now have a chefs table in a separate room which seats eight.
Also ate twice at Magnolia Restaurant and Wine Bar which is our second favorite. Conched out at Aqua in Turtle Cove–smoked conch carpaccio for am app and pecan crusted conch for entree.
On Monday we went to Barefoot Café for conch night. Only one other couple there. Ordered a conch quessadila which was good but probably should have stuck with cracked conch. The other meal we had was at the Coral Gardens Beach Café. On Tuesday night they do a Gourmet Tide Affair Beach Dinner–Five courses each paired with wine ($60/person.) They set the whole thing up on the beach with tiki torches. Unfortunately it started raining at about 6:30 so we ended up eating under cover at the Beach Café. Good dinner. On Friday they do a BBQue with fish, shrimp jerked chicken ribs etc. One of the guests said it was really good. Jasmine at Salt Mills is now Iguana a steak house. Toured the Palms which is a very nice resort. Contemplated eating in their restaurant 23 Parallel but decided against it. It is built on the back of the building away from the beach and recessed into the building. Has an open kitchen and looked like it would be hot. No A/C. Dress code long pants and shirts with collar for men. One couple form CG did eat there and said there are a few rough spots as there are with any new restaurant and that it was hot.
For those of you that have been to Bugaloos where the big piles of conch shells are–Bugaloos has gone upscale and is no longer there. It is a couple of miles along the Blue Hills road before you get to Smokeys. Look for a white building with blue and green trim on the right. Really nice place and still islandy. Best conch salad, fritters and cracked conch on the island. Also had grouper and snapper and chicken along with peas and rice, mac and cheese and slaw. Great place for lunch.
General–Weather was marginal at best. Had about three good Provo weather days. Not a lot of rain except Sat 21 May but cloudy and overcast. Lots of construction still going on. They are on the last building of Somerset by the Palms. Huge complex. Alexandra is building a third unit. Tuscany next to Ocean Club has started. Pinnacle by OCWest is still building. The four new buildings at Grace Bay Club are immense and dwarf the original units, Regent Grand is building next to Renaissance, Seven Stars (old Allegro) has started and is going to be immense. Looks like 7 stories, large resort planned for Leeward. Mandalay by the round about by Sands is in pre construction sales as is Windsong and Toscana on either side of Coral Gardens. Coral Gardens is building 24 more small suites on 1 ½ acres. It is about 500 yards form the beach and is just east of The Seagate. Were not bothered by construction noise. Not much progress on Villages of Grace Bay except the entrances are finished and there is a paved road. New big resort Sandy Point planned for North Caicos. Wish it all would stop. Leeward Highway is complete and a big improvement. They are now paving access roads to, as well as Lower Bight and Grace Bay road. Some places are one way so be careful.
Sat 21 May–All good things must come to an end. About 9 AM it started raining and I never in all our trips saw it rain so hard. We had a 2 PM flight. All the roads were flooded on the way to the airport. The terminal was a zoo with three flights leaving within 1 ½ hours of each other. Of course AA only had about six umbrellas so everyone got soaked getting on the plane. As you can tell from above I am a conch nut. Arrived home safely around 9 PM with 10 pounds of conch. When I run out we’ll go back
May 26th, 2005, 01:56 PM
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To Mass Mom--Hole in the Wall no longer has the seafood buffet and rake and scrape on Tuesday. Banana Boat still has bingo on Sunday. The 13 year old can play the nine year old can't. From what I gather it's more locals than tourists.
May 26th, 2005, 04:12 PM
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do you know anything more about bugaloo? like where he is now? i think i recall seeing the other conch shack on blue hills highway. is it as much fun?
did you hear anything about building out by malcolm beach?
i agree i wish it all would stop. seems once again paradise is being paved.
did you hear anything about building out by malcolm beach?
i agree i wish it all would stop. seems once again paradise is being paved.
May 27th, 2005, 08:45 AM
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Penny's right. Anguilla 31 july--8 days for carnival. Never done it before so should be fun.
Virginia--Bugaloos may have taken over one of the cinch schacks you see on the Blue Hills road. After you make the turn off Leeward highway the raod does a Y. If you go to the left you end up in Northwest Point--Bear to the right and it takes you into Blue Hills. Bugaloos is a couple of miles on the right. Had another couple in the car with us and we were talking and I went all the way to the end of the road looking for the piles of conch shells. Bugaloos has become so popular he really needed to expand. It is really nice and still fun. There is a new kitchen and bathroom facilities a covered deck that seats about 24 and picnic tables in the sand. Great view!!! Fun place for lunch or early dinner. --Same menu. Forgot to mention they don't take credit cards--never have.
Virginia--Bugaloos may have taken over one of the cinch schacks you see on the Blue Hills road. After you make the turn off Leeward highway the raod does a Y. If you go to the left you end up in Northwest Point--Bear to the right and it takes you into Blue Hills. Bugaloos is a couple of miles on the right. Had another couple in the car with us and we were talking and I went all the way to the end of the road looking for the piles of conch shells. Bugaloos has become so popular he really needed to expand. It is really nice and still fun. There is a new kitchen and bathroom facilities a covered deck that seats about 24 and picnic tables in the sand. Great view!!! Fun place for lunch or early dinner. --Same menu. Forgot to mention they don't take credit cards--never have.
May 27th, 2005, 01:32 PM
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Howard,
Great update! Sorry to hear that the weather wasn't fabulous during your stay. I was pretty bummed out as well by all the current and future construction in the works on Provo, and I've only gone once. But it's their island, so lets hope they've planned out the impact on that pristine stretch of beach. At least they're all luxury accomodations in the works, if that's any consolation.
Seeing your post brought back fond memories of T&C for me. Just got back from a Big Island (Hawaii) trip, and kept thinking the following to myself as I visited its beaches: "This is nice, but it's no comparison to Grace Bay Beach." Provo, T&C has spoiled me!!!
Great update! Sorry to hear that the weather wasn't fabulous during your stay. I was pretty bummed out as well by all the current and future construction in the works on Provo, and I've only gone once. But it's their island, so lets hope they've planned out the impact on that pristine stretch of beach. At least they're all luxury accomodations in the works, if that's any consolation.
Seeing your post brought back fond memories of T&C for me. Just got back from a Big Island (Hawaii) trip, and kept thinking the following to myself as I visited its beaches: "This is nice, but it's no comparison to Grace Bay Beach." Provo, T&C has spoiled me!!!
May 27th, 2005, 03:10 PM
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Thank you Howard for your great trip report. We are leaving Friday for two weeks at Coral Gardens. I have a few questions for you. I do not have my own laptop so I will be looking for someplace to email back home, does Coral Gardens or anywhere else have a computer I can use for a fee to do email? Also, did you ever call USA from Provo? How did you do it and how expensive was it. We have elderly parents and might need to communicate with home. Thank you for any help you can give me with the above.
May 28th, 2005, 04:59 AM
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There is a computer in the Beach Cafe for guests use. Never called home but think most people buy Cable and Wireless calling cards which are readily available. Know they have them at Grandview IGA. Lot cheaper than calling from the room. Have a great trip
May 28th, 2005, 05:35 PM
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shirleyk- definetly find a cable and wireless card. if they are not avail. at the iga as howard suggested you can get one from their office on the leeward highway (pretty big sign on left traveling east maybe half way driving from the airport to turtle cove road?)
May 30th, 2005, 03:39 PM
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Thanks for the great trip report. Is the Gourmet Tide Affair Beach Dinner a large event or just a few tables? Is it on the beach? Did you get to choose your dinner or is there a set menu? Do you have to be staying at the Coral Gardens to eat there? It sounds fun.
May 31st, 2005, 06:04 AM
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The reservations for the beach gourmet dinner are limited to twelve people and it is set up on the beach at one long table. It is a fixed menu with the exception of the entree where we had a choice of fillet or fish. Don't see any reason why they wouldn't accept outsiders if the table is not full. Call and check it out
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