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Turks and Caicos | BCBusinessBack: The BCBusiness Guide to World Travel
Searching for bliss in Turks and ?Caicos – and finding it. If you’ve never heard of Providenciales in Turks and Caicos, you’re not alone. As a bride-to-be, the two most common questions I was asked were, “Who made your dress?” and “Where are you going for your honeymoon?” The answer to the first (Oscar de la Renta), everyone recognized. The answer to the second proved to be a mystery for many. ?
If you’ve never heard of Providenciales in Turks and Caicos, you’re not alone. As a bride-to-be, the two most common questions I was asked were, “Who made your dress?” and “Where are you going for your honeymoon?” The answer to the first (Oscar de la Renta), everyone recognized. The answer to the second proved to be a mystery for many.
Tucked just southeast of the Bahamas and directly north of Haiti, Turks and Caicos is a string of 40 islands and cays covering a total of 430 square kilometres. Only eight of these islands are inhabited, and Providenciales, known to locals simply as “Provo,” carries about half the population at 22,500. It’s here that I decide to book our honeymoon. My co-worker jokes that she only knows Turks and Caicos from reruns of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, which encourages me to speak in a Robin Leach accent our entire flight there.
The resorts on Provo are sprinkled along the crescent-shaped Grace Bay Beach. We quickly settle in and find that everything we need for our perfect honeymoon is just steps from our hotel door: quaint cafés, ice cream stands, even a neighbourhood IGA and Scotiabank, which provide a familiar reminder of the close relationship these islands share with Canada. Our first few days are spent, as every honeymoon should be, on the beach. We lounge, we tan, we swim, we sleep, we tan. By day three, we’re restless and ready to explore some island flavour. We ask how to get to Sweet T’s for fried chicken, an island institution bordered by a highway and a Texaco gas station. Our personal concierge raises an eyebrow but finds a driver named Dr. Love to take us there. We order $5 chicken and fries and feel like locals (indeed, we’re the only tourists in line). We decide then and there to continue to explore the island outside the comfort zone of our resort.
At the recommendation of our hotel driver, we hop an island ferry and head to North Caicos, where we rent a car. (My husband nicknames our ride “Rat Bag” mostly because it reminds him of the beater he drove in high school.) Soon we’re bumping along a causeway to Middle Caicos Island. We stop for lunch at Daniel’s Café – where the guest book has recently been signed by Keith Richards – and ask a local to open her gas station for us – it’s $7 a gallon and our rental didn’t come with a full tank. From there we carry on to Bambarra Beach, spotting wild flamingoes along the way. At the end of a road so washed out we fear Rat Bag might not survive, we find our honeymoon paradise. Crystal-clear green water, so shallow it only reaches our knees, stretches out for miles in front of us. We’ve stumbled upon our own private ocean bathtub and there isn’t another soul in sight.
That afternoon stays with me for the rest of the trip. As we head to the airport, we regale our driver with our adventures and he listens with a smile. I tell him how sad we are to leave, especially since we’ve only just started to explore the islands. He pauses for a moment, then leaves us with some parting island wisdom: “Look at it this way: you have to leave to come back.”
Turks and Caicos receives 350 days of sunshine a year; the hottest months are between June and October.
Five-star resorts abound, but Grace Bay Club (gracebay resorts.com/gracebayclub) is in a class all its own. Personal concierge, complimentary beachside watermelon sorbet and free bike rental take luxury to another level.
Caicos Dream Tours offers half- and full-day snorkeling trips to the world’s third-largest coral reef (caicos dreamtours.com). Coral Gardens in Grace Bay is equally impressive and home to hospitable stingrays.
Da Conch Shack serves fresh island conch, pulled from the water and shucked steps away from your table. (conchshack.tc)