We absolutely loved Turks & Caicos and the Royal West Indies Resort. Since the resort is a nice size everything is close and the beach area, pools and landscaping are beautiful. I think RWI has the nicest section of beach, the most beautiful pool/landscaping and the most comfortable beach lounge chairs. Guests had the use of two Hobies, water noodles, shovels/pails and bicycles. The noise from Club Med, which is right next door, was not an issue. We requested a ground-floor studio unit close to the pool and unit #313 fit the bill perfectly. It was steps away from both pools and had a secluded cactus garden patio. We had a full size fridge, small sink (dish liquid supplied) a microwave, toaster, coffee maker (coffee was included) and a washer and dryer (soap provided). The bougainvillea bouquets throughout the unit were a nice welcoming touch. RWI has a shuttle, which goes to the grocery store twice daily, at a cost of $20. for 1 or 2 guests. There was a very nice Managers welcome party on the Monday evening which included punch/rum punch, conch and jerk wings.

After researching on the internet we took canned tuna, crackers, margarine, cheese slices, bagels, breakfast pitas, peanut butter, Miracle Whip, salt/pepper, granola bars and snacks with us. Our plan was to eat breakfast and lunch in our unit. However, we found the lunch prices to be about one third the cost of dinner so we enjoyed breakfast on our patio, had a drink and granola bar around 11:30 then ate a full meal at the Mango Reef between 2:30-3:00. We ended the day with a lunch item (i.e. bagel with cheese, tuna sandwich) around 8:30. We bought wonderful fresh baked bread ($2.49), orange juice ($4.85), ice cream ($5.99), water ($1.29) bananas (.77), cheese ($3.45) and Diet Coke ($9.99/24) at the IGA and we didn?t find the prices bad. We ate three dinners (average $75 for two entrees, one dessert, no alcohol/appetizers) and four lunches (average $25) at the Mango Reef, one lunch at Bugaloos ($14) (car required), dinner one night at Café Bistro ($76.68) (a five minute walk) and one breakfast at Gilleys at Leeward Marina (car required). All meals at Mango Reef were excellent. I had the 16 oz. Jamaican Jerk Porterhouse Chop ($24) and the filet mignon for dinner; Willie had the Caribbean Combo of steak, jerk chicken and grouper ($24) and the King Crab. We shared, and really enjoyed, the pina colada bread pudding ($9). We ordered the pizza on Tuesday night (second at half price $22 total) and we really enjoyed them. The mango cream salad dressing is amazing. Alexis was a wonderful waitress, a delightful girl, and offered us suggestions on sightseeing. Since my husband is a great fan of conch (he ordered the conch sandwich EVERY SINGLE DAY) Alexis suggested we try Bugaloos roadside conch stand in Blue Hills on the day we rented a car. Willie had the cracked conch and said it was the best he had ever tasted. Since I am a North American Princess (and I do not eat seafood) I stuck with a safe can of Diet Coke! My husband thoroughly enjoyed his shrimp dish at Café Bistro but my meal was less than satisfactory; watery French Onion soup and a very greasy rib-eye steak. I was looking forward to the crème brulee but since I did not enjoy anything except the potato and vegetable I decided to skip another disappointment. You know you are in trouble when they hand you each your own can of OFF when you enter, the mosquitoes were terrible! We had a wonderful full breakfast at Gilleys for $5.95. We knew it would be good as most of the customers were locals.

If you ever rent a car, make sure it is a 4-wheel drive (or better yet a HUMMER); there are potholes big enough to swallow a small car. We rented from Provo Fun Cycles & Autos in Ports of Call and I would not recommend them nor use them again. If the price seems too low, there has to be a reason. There were 73,186 km on the car, the horn did not work, the car was pretty bashed up and the tires were bald. We were terrified the thing was going to leave us stranded somewhere. Total cost for the car was $45. plus $10 gas and after 5 hours we had only put 70km on the car. Even with a map it is difficult to find the tourist spots, as there are no signs anywhere and lots of road construction.

It was a very relaxing holiday, one we will definitely repeat, and we were more than pleased with our choice of R.W.I. Next time we will definitely take OFF bug spray (remember, aerosol cans are prohibited on the plane) and after-bite and we will use a taxi to find Sapodilla Bay instead of renting a car.

http://community.webshots.com/user/sengamilne

Enjoyed your report!

One comment on car rentals - I think most of the rental places on Provo have vehicles that are pretty tired. Yours was probably used when it arrived on the island (it would be kinda hard to drive 73,000 miles on Provo!).

If you head for Malcolm's Road Beach, it's actually better to have a small 4WD than a big one.

We are planning for a return trip in Feb., and I love hearing about how great everything is! Thanks for the report - and I loved your pictures (but JoJo is real - we saw him about four times in one week). Now you have to keep going back until you see him too!!

We're planning a return trip in November. Coincidentally, we had the same suite at RWI #313 that you had. It was a nice location.

We didn't bring nearly as much food, but we also found that the IGA prices weren't outrageous.

Sorry to hear about the poor meal at Cafe Bistro. I had heard somewhat mixed reviews of the place. Some people loved it, some were disappointed, and since there were so many other places to try, we skipped that one. Two of our better meals were at Magnolias (car or taxi required) and at Coco Bistro (very short walk).

We ended up talking to the manager at his party for quite a while, very nice guy who has worked at several properties on the island and very interesting.

Did you do any excursions while you were there? We like to mostly relax on the beach, but its fun to punctuate a couple of days with trips. Last time we took the all day snorkeling trip with Sail Provo and had a very nice time.

November is a long way off... but its fun to watch for trip reports and plan for it.

Thanks for the report.

Ken

Thank you for the detailed report and pictures. T&C is on our list of islands to visit...

No Ken, we didn't do any excursions as the reason for the trip was recovery from major abdominal surgery. When we go back I still don't think we'd do any excursions as the total relaxation was perfect. We usually do two Celebrity cruises a year but we would definitely be open to one cruise and one trip to TCI each year!

We actually did less than we intended. We blamed it on the high beach gravity around there. Once you got on the beach relaxing, it was so hard to get up the gumption to do anything. We're really looking forward to returning.

I had noticed all the cruises in your pictures. We've never been on a cruise... not sure we're cruise type people, although an Alaskan cruise would be interesting.

Ken

Hi Senga,

Enjoyed your review. One thing I have to say though is JoJo is not fiction. We saw him two or three different times swimming between Club Med & Royal West Indies! Quite an amazing sight to see.

Ken: We love cruising and a 10 day Caribbean cruise is less expensive than a week in Turks & Caicos. My husband's travel theory is, "if they don't have palm trees, I'm not going" so Alaska is out! Our daughter cruised Alaska for two weeks and loved it but when I see pictures of people with parkas on, and the hoods up, I know it isn't for us.