JennTurks

I'm just posting this in case it's helpful for anyone else looking for something similar... We were looking for a 4 start resort experience in Turks and Caicos, but had a limited budget and were surprised to see how expensive the hotels and airfare were (in the May timeframe.) Based on a recommendation from Blamona on this forum I called Turks and Caicos Reservations. I worked with Sonya there, as well as Susan and Val, who were all very helpful. Sonya sent me several options, and talked back and forth (several times!), and was aware of "flash" sales and specials at each resort.

My husband and I decided to spend 3 nights at Seven Stars for a busier/downtown like experience so we could walk to restaurants, have a large a pool etc. They had a special for an oceanfront room for 50% the price. Then 4 nights at Windsong, further up the beach, close to snorkelling at the Coral Reef. They have a very small, standard size room at a great price, and a beautiful resort. I did also really like West Bay Club and it sounds like that is a great resort and choice as well. However we wanted to spend some of the time more in the "hub", so this worked out pricing wise...

Furthermore, we found a direct flight out of NY for $400 and will take ground transportation to NY. Otherwise our tickets were looking around $900 each, so this freed up more for hotels, taxis, dinners etc.

I found this forum and all the great advice so helpful and plan to post my TR...!

blamona

Awesome! You will be in love. Jim Cantore of Weather Channel just posted his 1 and only selfie there a couple of days ago.

Amazing water!

So Fodor's just came out with Fodor's In Focus: Turks and Caicos (discloser, written by me, which why I have so much knowledge ;-) ) You can get it cheaply on Amazon

Also go to wherewhenhow.com click on current issue, it will get you going.

Email WWH, they can send you a current copy in the mail.

Have fun, and please post pictures!

WWK

Have fun, JennTurks! And don't miss SOMEWHERE cafe (next to WINDSONG, behind CORAL GARDENS) if you like Mexican food/drinks!

JennTurks

That's really cool. I looked at the selfie, I work at the Nature Conservancy (who partnered with the Weather Channel and Today Show on the Nature selfie. I had heard the WC participated but didn't know it was in Turks...beautiful photo of the beach!)

I just ordered my copy of Foder's in Focus since I know it will be good advice!

WWK, we will definitely check out Somewhere Cafe since my husband and I really like Mexican food/drinks. (Wish we were there right now, haha : ) Thank you again.

dulciusexasperis

I visited Provo several times in the mid-80s when only a few hotels were to be found on the island. I recall the first condos being built near the Club Med location.

There was only one small supermarket which got its deliveries on a Wednesday by boat and was basically empty by Friday. The manager was a young Canadian guy I got to know and later sent him a Canadian flag to fly in front of the supermarket.

There were a lot of political problems going on then with corruption and even a serious attempt to persaude Canada to become involved with taking over the islands.

The band Alabama used to visit Provo for some R&R time back then. I had a drink in my hotel bar with a couple of them several times over one Xmas/New Year.

I recall Jojo swimming in front of the hotel almost every afternoon and interacting with people. Non of this captive in an acquarium 'dolphin experience' which I detest.

The water in the hotel(and everywhere else on the island) ran brown and smelled very strongly of sulphur. Has that changed?

The hotel we stayed at was right on the beach and had a covered porch upstairs where the restaurant was. I'd go for lunch and take a book. Between ordering a club sandwich and it's delivery to the table was around an hour on average. Hence the book.

My favourite memory of Provo was a story the hotel bartender told me about two guys who had sat at the bar one night. They got talking to one another and one asked, 'what do you do?'
The other replied, 'I'm a travel writer, what do you do?'
The first replied, 'Oh, I'm a surgeon. But you know, I've always thought I would like to write a book when I retire.'
The other then responded with, 'Really, I've always thought I would like to try my hand at surgery when I retire.'

I doubt I would recognize Provo now. I have much the same memories of Akumal, Mexico around that time and which has also become far more built up. It's becoming harder and harder to find places that still haven't been taken over by package tourism.

Sassafrass

Sounds like a wonderful place to consider for taking our DD and GD. Glad all of you posted.

Sassafrass

Dulci, is there any place you haven't been? Have you worked as a travel writer? Would love to read your bio sometime.

blamona

Dul, I see you've traveled more than I! (that's hard to find) your other post I questioned about traveller all over the place now makes sense to me!

So, my first trip to Provo was only 4 places to stay-- Le Deck (now Sibonne), Club Med (first on island), Princess Resort (now Beaches) and Ramada Turquoise Resort (where I stayed, now Seven Stars)

During the "boom" I didn't recognize the island every 4-6 months!

While it's still sparse compared to many other islands, you wouldn't recognize it.

Now instead of Alabama, it's Prince and Bruce Willis every Christmas

The silver smell is the irrigation that taps into wells to water landscape. There are places on island you can still smell only a couple of minutes while it turns on. Very rare to really notice anymore.

Grand Turk and Salt Cay have remained untouched, as has North and Middle for the most part.

I would love to hear your stories! I too had been to Akumal and Playa Del Carmen, 1980 when Playa was only 3 blocks long and sleepy. No crowds, just a couple of hammocks in between palm trees.

Yikes I'm showing my age!

Please post more TCI stories!

dulciusexasperis

Sassafras and Blamona, I have always been a traveller. See what you think of the trip (it's one of mine) described on this link. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntr...planned-travel

I have always travelled and no doubt always will. But to me it is more a state of mind than anything else. I have a friend who I see every few years and our catch-up conversation always starts the same way.

She says to me, 'Well I'm on chapter 56 now.' and describes whichever chapters (years) of her life I have missed since last time we got together. She sees the years of her life as chapters in a book.

Then she will ask me, 'So where have you been?' The longest I have ever lived in one place since age 18 is around 7-8 years. Even then, I see it as a stop along the way. I once went to a Greek island expecting to stay for 6 or 7 days and stayed for 7 years.

When tourists in a bar found out I had been there for some years, they would often ask, 'what made you decide to stay here?' and I would honestly answer that I had never actually decided to stay, I just hadn't decided to leave yet.

I'm always travelling even when I'm not. A few days ago, I went out for lunch. I drove 20 minutes to a small (50 people perhaps) crossroads town in the Canadian countryside near where I am currently living. I was there for perhaps a half hour.

There were 6 or 7 locals who were obviously farmers sitting around. Here's what I heard.
1. It's wild turkey hunting season and where the best places locally to shoot some are.
2. Some farmers are trying corn started under plastic sheeting which keeps the ground warmer so you get a head start on the crop but the risk is if it sprouts up through the plastic too soon, you risk losing it to frost.
3. A guy who owns 10,000 chickens gets an average of 9500 eggs a day from then when things are going well.
4. The eggs are picked up every Sunday NIGHT at 5am (Interesting concept of when night vs. day is).
5. The reason they are picked up then is because the guy picking them up is running two sets of books. One set on the seat and one set under the seat. At that time on a Sunday, the chances of his being stopped by the Agricultural Department for a random spot check and look at his books is very low.

So you see, even lunch can be a real travel experience where you learn about local culture and customs. It's a state of mind really if you have the eyes and ears of a traveller.

If I wrote a bio Sassafrass I would probably have to have it published as fiction. As the second response given on the link above says, " it's so "hard" to believe as it seems to be the perfect adventure."

blamona

Definitely a "state of mind". Majority of travels I did alone, amazing what you learn by just watching.

I travel differently, but still have the "my mind is always traveling". I lime having a home base and family to come home to, and love that my 12 year old officially has the travel bug. So I feel like I get the best if 2 worlds.

I have awesome stories to tell, and also feel that no matter how big the world is, it really is quite small.

I've never been a writer, kinda ironic I ended up writing guidebooks fo Fodors!

Thanks for sharing

dulciusexasperis

I've been published a few times blamona and paid for it(as well as not paid for it) but it isn't really something I do, just something that has happened along the way here and there.

I once had a great compliment from a magazine in Crete, published for tourists. I got an e-mail from them asking if they could reprint an article on understanding Greek Logic for tourists, that I had written. They said I understood Greeks 'too well'.

Home is where you hang your hat as they say and for me it is quite true. I understand the concept of 'homesickness' but have never experienced it. I've heard tourists saying they miss 'home' after being somewhere for 4 or 5 days. I can't imagine it.

When I was 35 I had a 'Eureka' moment. I realized that I did not want to work till age 65, retire and then die 2 years later as so many in fact do. So I decided to put travel mainly on hold and put my nose to the grindstone in order to be able to retire early and be free to do as I wished forever more. I came up with a 10 year plan to retirement and achieved it in 7 years. I have been retired ever since. That was 25 years ago.

When I was working, I always used to say that work is what you do between trips. A question of where you place the emphasis.