Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Turks & Caicos?

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Keep seeing references to them. Excuse my ignorance, but where are they located? What are thet like? What is there to do? Recommend a place to stay? Any info would be appreciated.

The Turks and Caicos are a group of islands at the most southerly end of the Bahamas chain north of the Caribbean. They are a relatively "new" destination with Provo (Providenciales) in the Caicos being the most traveled and rapidly growing. They are great for snorkeling off the reefs, diving and incredible beaches. If you do a search, you'll find tons of information. Not much other than beach and water that is fantastic. Depending how remote you want to be you can choose from small resorts on their own island to mega touristy all-inclusive like Beaches depnding on your tastes and budget. Provo has many condo resorts all one one beach, sharing Grace Bay with its few low rise hotels. No cruise ships (Grande Turk will be getting them) and one little tiny casino on Provo so it's not the honkey tonk like Aruba and some of the other popular destinations. It is British and a bit more reserved and like the other British islands and territories, it can be an expensive holiday because everything has to be shipped in since they are arid islands and have little agriculture of their own.

They used to be part of the Bahamas but when the Bahamas declared their independence Turks and Caicos stayed with England. Have been there over 12 times. The Grace bay Beach is consistently rated as the first or second best beach in the Caribbean by Conde Nast traveler and Caribbean Travel and Life. They are coral islands so are flat and don't have the lush tropical vegitation, waterfalls etc of volcanis islands. Pretty laid back islands with not a lot of night life if that's what you're looking for. A good source of info is www.wherewhenhow.com the on line magazine of the Turks and Caicos. Feel free to e-mail me with more questions

We were there in later April/early May 2002 and found a little piece of heaven. Water color, fish variety like you wouldn't believe. Beaches all to yourself, most friendly people, safe to travel everywhere of which we went from one end of island to other. Gorgeous beaches and wonderful, wonderful restaurants. We stayed at the Coral Gardens, THE most convenient lodging as "the" underwater trail that everyone drives to or walks down to is located right out Coral Gardens back door, and we snorkeled every single day at least three times. Beautiful accomodations and a view of the beach off to the left totally unobscured. Howard who posted before me is a walking library of everything you would want to know and he is so kind to answer any and all questions and I found his posting to be so valuable in my research before we went and then found his suggestions to be right on the money. It is definitely an island not to miss, and it is so laid back, non-commercialized, a true gem, and am afraid will change if the government does not stay deligent in protecting their little piece of heaven.

I would agree with everyone else that the Turks & Caicos is still undeveloped for the most part, and is quite the gem. Delta had offered a great deal out of Atlanta a couple of Labor Day weekends ago, and we also got a good deal at The Sands resort at Gracy Bay. Labor Day weekend is basically the end of the tourist season for the islands, so there was almost no one there. We basically had the place to ourselves with only a few other guests there, and the weather was still great. There were also a lot fewer people there competing for restaurant reservations and the like. Some places already had closed as of September 1st, but not enough to make a difference in our visit. I noticed most of the shops had closed on September 1st. However, we don't shop much, so that didn't really matter to me. We found that Labor Day weekend was a good time to go down there for a little less money than normal. I'd highly recommend The Sands as a place to stay as well. The Provo Golf Club is nice, but it's very pricey. I'd only recommend taking the clubs if you're a die-hard golfer. The course is nice, but not great. I'm a golf junkie, so I couldn't possibly go the entire weekend without playing a round. We'd recommend the Baci Ristorante for some good Italian. The Caicos Cafe had great conch fritters & lobster, and is also pretty close to The Sands. You could ride a bike there if you wanted, but my fiancee & I are pretty lazy, so we just cabbed it. Baci is a pretty good cab ride away from The Sands, though.

Thank you Kariblslander, Howard C., Denette, & Stalder for your info on the Turks and Caicos--sound like thet're worth exploring. Howard C., what is your e-mail just in case since you offered?

Sorry--I guess with the new registration requirement you can't get direct access to e-mail addresses any more. It is [email protected]