To be honest, I had never heard much about Turks & Caicos, over than what I had read on Page Six. Sure, Don and I had been to the Caribbean, but had mostly chosen “jungle” islands such as Dominica instead of the stereotypical desert island with the snow white sand beach. So I wasn’t sure what to expect when my editor asked me to do a story on the development that had taken place on Providenciales, or Provo, the island home to Grace Bay – and many luxury hotels.

We went in early January, just after the holiday season. We flew DCA to Providenciales on US Air, changing planes in Charlotte. No problems coming or going. We rented a car through Avis, a short shuttle ride from the airport. We were very happy to have one – otherwise, it would have been very difficult to get to the Blue Hills area and do some of the reporting for my story.

Our life on the D list:

“Don’t you know who she is?” a woman in designer sunglasses asked me, her voice booming across the small snorkeling boat.

I considered her friend, a slight woman in a bikini again, my mind racing through the starlets gracing the pages of the US Weekly magazines piled up at home. She was too old to be a starlet, too young to have gravitas that say, Peter Michael Goetz, a character actor known for his work at the Guthrie Theater and in the Father of the Bride movies, had. He happened to also be sitting on the boat, waiting his turn to conch dive.

“Er, I’m not really up on celebrities,” I said, ignoring my husband’s dig into my side as he overheard the lie.

“She’s Candice Night!” the woman said.

Er, pardon?

“She’s the lead singer of the band Blackmore’s Night!”

Still not following.

“She’s married to Ritchie Blackmore,” the woman continued, frustrated by my lack of recognition. “He’s the lead guitarist of Deep Purple!”

Ah, Deep Purple. I had heard of them. But before I could confess a fondness for “Smoke on the Water,” my husband interrupted.

“Ritchie Blackmore! He’s great!” Don gushed. Then to my horror, he violated the first rule of celeb-wrangling – by singing the famous riff right in Candice’s face. “Dun dun DUN, dun dun DA DUN, dun dun DUN, DA DUN.”

To her credit, Candice seemed OK with my husband’s juvenile air guitar moves. I was able to interview her for the story, and she told me about the Renaissance-themed wedding that she and Ritchie had held the year before. Out on a girlfriend getaway, she and her friends flirted with Delroy and plotted their spa treatments. Back at work the next week, I received a copy of her CD in the mail. On the jacket, Candice looked like a Medieval waif, her long blond hair swirling around her. Ritchie stood next to her in what appeared to be a doublet and hose, a castle in the background. Apparently the two of them are huge with the Ren-Fair set. It’s not my type of music, but hey, they seem happy working together. Kudos to them.

Highlights

Weather. Gorgeous! Seriously, every day was a sunny 80 degrees, with little humidity

Snorkeling: We did the half day snorkel with Caicos Dream Tours  with Delroy Bain as our guide. The trip starts out with some snorkel time, then conch catching in the straits on the northeastern part of the island. We also stopped and walked around Iguana Island, where Delroy made conch salad for lunch.  

We also tried the snorkel trail at Bight Reef. Both my husband and I have our own masks and snorkels (after our pink eye experience in Costa Rica), so we parked at the public beach and plopped right now. We snorkeled and saw some great fish, even better than we had seen on the boat trip.

Resort lifestyle: If one of my well-heeled female friends was going through a divorce or other tough time, I would tell her to come to one of the larger resorts on Provo where she could indulge in infinity pools, lounging pods and swim up bars and luxe spas. We toured many of the major properties on the island, including the Grace Bay Club, the Regent Palms, the Sands, Nikki Beach, Amanyara, Somerset on Grace Bay and Beaches (the Gansevoort wasn’t open yet). While all of them had their pluses and minuses, my favorite was the Regent Palms, which had somewhat of a Miami Beach vibe. I also couldn’t resist their 25,000 square foot spa. My massage here was heavenly, albeit too rich for my blood.

Us being D listers, of course, we were at Ocean Club West, one of the cheapest resorts on the island (and it still was hardly a bargain). Our studio was very small for the price. The property was nicely landscaped, however, with a great pool. It was also within walking distance of the Grace Bay Club, which was convenient for some guests – we saw guests at a wedding there staying at OCW.

Restaurants/bars:

Nikki Beach Resort. This is the first resort that the Nikki Beach club chain – based in Miami – has opened. It’s away from Grace Bay Beach, on the Leeward side of the island, near a marina (you definitely need a car to get there). We arrived for “naked sushi Fridays” – basically, a Happy Hour where the sushi snacks are placed on a model lounging in a bikini on the bar. The sushi was not directly on her body (there were green plastic “leaves” under it), but I still felt strange picking food off of another person – my husband and I squeamishly asked the bartender to do it for us. Some younger guys had no compunction doing so, however!  UPDATE: According to this Sept. 13 NY Daily News story by the indomitable Tina Moore (a former colleague of mine), the owners of this Nikki Beach have gone into receivership and closed the resort.  

Hemingway’s at the Sands  This was our favorite stand-alone restaurant on the island. We found the atmosphere casual yet romantic, and the food was extremely good (I had the lobster pasta). This was the best bang for the buck, foodwise, that we found on the island.

Da Conch Shack  We took our car and drove up to the Blue Hills area to check out this highly recommended restaurant. It was a bit of a relief to escape from the resort atmosphere. We enjoyed the rum punch and the conch platter.

We felt that the food at some of the resort restaurants (Grace Bay Club, Amanyara, Somerset) was just not worth the money.

Lowlights:

Expense. This is not a place for bargain hunters. The recession was prompting many hotels and resorts to drop prices, but we still talked to people paying $500-$700 a night. But then again, we’re not luxe-oriented travelers and rarely pay more than $200 a night for a room, no matter where we go.

As a travel writer, I try to examine destinations from the point of view of the intended audience. It doesn’t necessarily matter if I like it – the question is, would a particular type of traveler like it and does it offer value to them. In that light, Turks & Caicos is perfect for those with a little money to burn who love beautiful beaches, turquoise water and elegant, amenity-rich condo resorts. While there are quite a few buildings on Grace Bay Beach, it’s not overcrowded (yet) and still feels somewhat sleepy. There were many times during cold February when I thought back to T&C and wished I could be there, lounging in the perfect weather.

What did we miss? Leave a comment here: 

Searching for sun? Check out my other beach trip reports: Costa Rica, Mexico (Cancun/Playa del Carmen).