2 days in Turks and Caicos Islands: Clear blue water!

Why did I choose Turks and Caicos Islands?
I had always wanted to see and swim in clear blue water on a white sand beach. In case you didn’t know, I have an obsession with natural clear water that humans can swim in. I had been to Mallorca during the winter so I didn’t have the chance to swim in the turquoise water (it was a bit too chilly). I had never been to the Caribbean and two weeks before the trip, I saw that prices to the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos were low! We took advantage of it and made a quick decision to finally visit the Caribbean and enjoy the clear blue water.

I think something very important to mention is that Dustin and I are not “beach” people, which doesn’t mean we don’t like beaches (we love beaches!), but our favorite trips are usually more on-the-go and activity-filled. Relaxing on a beach and sitting still is great for a few hours, but we wouldn’t be able to do it for more than a day. If you’re reading this trip itinerary, be prepared for an activity-filled beach trip!

Communication
Easy, since everyone speaks English

Currency
United States Dollar – didn’t need to worry about exchanging for another currency!
Side note: Turks and Caicos is actually quite pricey in terms of food/groceries/sunblock. A lot of things are imported.

My Travel Time
June
The weather is pleasant all year round, but peak season is December to March. June to November is rainy season and hurricanes could be a threat. You never know though. We went during June and it was sunny every day. It was insanely hot, but jumping into the water was even more enticing because of that. Make sure you apply sunscreen several times a day. I did and I still got burned. In fact, I still have my swimsuit tan lines 5 months later – crazy!
Click here to check the weather
Click here to check when the sun rises and sets

My Flight Details
Airline: United Airlines, EWR – PLS (4-hour flight)
Flight prices vary depending on the time of the year and the hurricane forecast. My flight price to Providenciales was around 300 USD and I booked 2 weeks in advance.
When you’re on the plane, make sure to enjoy the view of the islands from up above. The blue water is unreal.
Airport to/from city: I took a shared taxi to my hotel; it’s around 20 USD per person. Someone outside will help you get a taxi. Your hotel may also have an airport shuttle service.

My Hotel Details
Caribbean Paradise Inn
Caribbean Paradise Inn is 5-minute walk to Grace Bay, which is rated one of the best beaches in the world! It’s definitely the best beach I’ve ever been to in my life (not sure how much that means, but the beach is clean, clear, and just unimaginably beautiful – white sand, blue sky, and blue water). One night at Caribbean Paradise Inn is nearly 200 USD. Price includes Wi-Fi and is walking distance to more ‘local’ restaurants and a supermarket. Because Turks and Caicos is a tropical island, there are a lot of mosquitos; make sure you have some bug spray with you. The room is big with a kitchen/grill/sitting area outside. There’s also air conditioning, which is extremely nice to have after coming back from being outside under the blazing sun. If you’re more of a pool person instead of a beach person, Caribbean Paradise Inn also has a pool available. To be honest, if I were to go back to Turks and Caicos Islands, I might try a different hotel/resort because although still close to the beach, it wasn’t right on it and they didn’t have their own sit down restaurant.

Day 1
We arrived around lunch time to the islands; we checked into our hotel and walked to Grace Bay Club for lunch. Turks and Caicos is truly a tropical paradise where everything just looked more colorful and brighter. As mentioned above, Caribbean Paradise Inn doesn’t have its own sit down restaurant. Dustin had a chicken wrap and I had fish tacos; we shared a super refreshing smoothie! For lunch, we could see the beach and we couldn’t resist running toward it to touch the water for just a few minutes as we had an activity planned soon after lunch.

We went horseback riding at Taylor Bay beach. They have horseback riding in Grace Bay as well, but by the time we booked (less than 2 weeks before), everything was already booked. Fortunately, we were able to book with TCI Heritage Tours – our tour guide picked us up from our hotel and brought us to their horses. It was nice to be able to see another part of the island and a different beach. On the beach, there were a lot more conches and small boats near the dock. There were no tourists on the beach, only locals. It was an incredible experience. It was 120 USD each, but absolutely worth the experience. The tour guides help you feel comfortable with the horses, help you take pictures, and let you decide how deep into the water you’d like your horses to go. For dinner, we walked to the Grace Bay beach, spent some time in the water while watching the sun set and got dinner at one of the hotels by the beach. There are plenty of options and the food was always decent. At night, we walked to the super market to grab some fruit, snacks, and sunscreen (we had packed a sunscreen, but we had forgot that they airport security takes liquids away over a 100 mL).

Day 2
Dustin and I woke up and immediately went to the beach. At first, we relaxed, sat in the shallow end of the beach, but then couldn’t sit any longer so we put our googles on and started swimming towards the deeper end and tried to see how long we can tread water. We loved every minute of it! Grace Bay beach is very long, so we walked all the way down to the end where there were no people and no beachfront hotels. It was awesome to see the different parts of the beach. One thing was constant, the water was always super blue and super clear. After our walk, we wanted to kayak. Caribbean Paradise Inn didn’t have kayaks of their own, but we asked to use another hotel’s kayaks. The fee was minimal for a 2 seater kayak – I’m pretty sure they just made some fee up as guests from another hotel don’t usually ask for kayaks. We had the kayak for a couple hours and went further out into the water and we could still see the bottom of the ocean because the water was so clear. After kayaking, we freshened up at our hotel before we watched the sunset again. The sunsets in Turks and Caicos were unforgettable. They’re exactly what you would envision a perfect sunset to look like: the sun sitting right above the line where the sky meets the sea. Be sure you watch all the sunsets while you’re at the islands. After the most gorgeous sunset, we walked to Crackpot Kitchen for dinner since our taxi driver from the airport said this was his favorite place to eat. We had a conch salad (Turks and Caicos is known for conch) and a heavy pork rib dish with mashed potatoes and vegetables; it was delicious.

Other activities in Turks and Caicos
Next time I would love to try snorkeling and paragliding. We had a few activities in mind that we wanted to do, but we strived to have a better balance between beach time and activities. We chose the activity that interested us most: horseback riding in the water.

At the end of my trip, when we were at the airport, we noticed a lot of Americans bringing back dogs. I later googled why there were so many dogs being brought home. On the islands, there is a dog rescue charity based in Providenciales called Potcake Place. Their mission is to reduce the number of homeless potcake dogs on the island. People are allowed to pick up a puppy to take out to the beach for some tender loving care and they’ll provide everything needed. These puppies are also up for adoption. I heard that there’s a pretty long line to pick up a puppy to play with, but I would’ve loved to help out and take part in this.