Recently, my family took a vacation at Beaches Turks and Caicos. While we were there, we were amazed by the bright blue color of the ocean. It really is like the pictures you see. But in my opinion, it’s so much more beautiful in person.
Stepping off the plane for the first time, directly onto the tarmac, gave Turks and Caicos that exotic island feel right from the start. I had been here once before with travel colleagues, and I promised myself that I would bring my family back to experience it with me.
This was the first All Inclusive resort my daughters had ever been to, and their excitement and sheer awe was apparent from the moment they stepped off the plane. It was completely different from any other airports they had seen before, with the smaller scale airport and primitive island deplaning experience embracing them.
Walking Through Customs at Turks and Caicos
We breezily went through customs and back outside to find our shuttle. At the far end of the exit, past all the hustle and bustle of other resort transportation, is the Beaches Resort check in counter. We were greeted with a smile and a bottle of water before we even gave them our names.
We were instructed to take a seat, as our shuttle was arriving shortly. Sure enough, in about 5 minutes, our van came to take us to the most beautiful resort we had ever seen. And that’s coming from me, a Travel Advisor..
The Villages of Beaches Turks and Caicos
After a short 15 minute ride, we were dropped off at the lobby entrance to the resort. There are 5 “Villages” that make up the Beaches Turks and Caicos Resort. They consist of Caribbean Village, Seaside Village, Italian Village, French Village, and Key West Village. We had the privilege of staying in TWO of the 5.. The Caribbean and Italian villages. Our first stop was the Caribbean Village lobby, where we were greeted again, with smiles and some punch. (Also, plenty of RUM was added for Mom and Dad.. wink wink.)
Our luggage was tagged and we were escorted to check in. The lobby area is beautiful; it’s large, open and has plenty of seating. There is coffee available for everyone throughout the day. At breakfast, there is a mimosa station outside of the “Reflections Restaurant,” which serves a buffet of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our room was not quite ready, so they encouraged us to grab some lunch, explore the grounds, and even change into bathing suits and head for the pool or beach.
After a long morning of connecting flights from Philadelphia, we decided to grab some lunch. We had a delicious meal at Reflections, and then headed over to Concierge to make dining reservations.
Restaurants at Turks and Caicos
Out of the 21 restaurants (all included with your stay) there is only ONE restaurant that requires reservations at Beaches Turks and Caicos… “Kimonos,” which is an amazing, super fun Hibachi experience for the whole family. I definitely wanted to experience this restaurant, so I made reservations while we waited on our room to be ready. The Dining Concierge is the place to go if you have food allergies or restrictions. They will assist you by contacting the chefs and letting them know about your allergies. Or, by helping you arrange a special dinner on the beach, for an additional fee.
Hotel Rooms at Turks and Caicos
Full bellies and dinner reservations made, our room was ready and we were off to check it out. We were placed on the second floor in a “Deluxe King” room in the Caribbean Village. We had a King bed for my husband and I, and the girls had a single sofa bed, with a single trundle that pulled out of the bottom.
This is the entry level room category, and it was completely sufficient. It wasn’t anything super fancy, but we all had a place to sleep and we were steps away from the beach, the restaurants, and 2 of the 7 pools on the resort.
The Sights of Turks and Caicos
We all quickly changed into our swimsuits and headed out to explore the property. I can not even begin to tell you how pretty this property is.. the greens and blues are amazing! Everything was well kept, cleaned, and pristine.
The entire property looks overwhelming on the map, but everything is so much more condensed than you would imagine, and very easily walkable. However, there are golf cart rides offered to those who would like to quickly get from one end of the resort to the other. In fact, there is a fun ride through “the tunnel” that we didn’t necessarily NEED to take, but I requested it just because I knew my kids would enjoy it, haha.
The Caribbean/Seaside area has 2 large pools. We visited the Iguana pool, which hosts a volleyball net and daily organized games, as well as the Cascades pool, which has a fun swim through “cave” with a waterfall. (It gets a little deep in places, just be warned.) Both these pools have swim up bars, which have both grown up AND kid drink menus. The Cascade pool also has a hot tub, that seats about 12 guests.
The Beaches at Turks and Caicos
The beach is gorgeous. Plenty of chairs and umbrellas and even some “tents” with 2 chairs in each one. The beach is fairly long and a nice walk, however it is not private, so there are some vendors trying to sell their products. We didn’t find them intrusive, but we did have to give out a few “no thank you’s.”
The dive shop is where you can sign up for snorkeling, scuba diving and various other water sports (including lessons). I advise you to sign up early for scuba, snorkeling or the glass bottom boat. We barely got into the snorkeling, and we missed the glass bottom boat ride by a day. (the first availability they had was the day after we had to leave.) I highly recommend signing up on your first day on the property.
Activities at Turks and Caicos
Snorkeling was fun, and we took a boat out to the open ocean, which the whole family really enjoyed. We were supplied with life vests, snorkels, and fins. We also did the “Hobie Cat” rides. You can take them out yourself if you are experienced… we are NOT, haha, so we had one of the staff take us. The whole experience was just wow! It’s hard to believe that those things really move powered just by the wind. I highly recommend trying this.
The waterpark area is pretty big for a private resort. The large slides, a lazy river, splash park, and surf simulator gives something for everyone. Throw in the frozen yogurt and mac and cheese trucks and you have yourself an amazing day of family fun!! Centrally located, it’s close enough to the pools at the French Village or Italian Village so that Mom and Dad can sit and have a cocktail at the swim up, while older kids run off to play at the water slides.
Also in this area is the Xbox lounge, the arcade (complete with pool, table tennis, foosball, etc), and Bobby Dee’s, where you can get things like burgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers and fries 24 hours a day! Oh.. and did I mention soft serve ice cream? Yeah.. we visited this area quite often!
Dining at Beaches Turks and Caicos
As I mentioned before, Beaches Turks and Caicos has 21 places that you can stuff yourselves! Options range from snacks, coffees and pastries, to gourmet meals, to oceanside dining, to “Adults Only” restaurants (Sapodillas).
Sapodillas is where I had the best surf and turf of my LIFE!!! (Lobster only when in season.) There is a “dress code” for some of the restaurants, so men, pack at least ONE pair of pants, just in case, haha. A few of the other restaurants also have age restrictions for dinners.. For example, “Sky” is 16 and older, and “Le Petit Chateau” is 12 and older.. again, only for dinners. All others are completely family friendly. Mario’s even has a small area for kids (smaller tables and chairs), and Guiseppes’s occasionally has a Sesame Street Character Breakfast!!
Italian Village at Turks and Caicos
After a few days, we moved over (1 building.. haha) to the Italian Village. There, we had a 2 bedroom room with a Kids Suite. This room was AMAZING! My husband and I had a King bed in our bedroom, and the kids had their own room that boasted a huge bunk bed that even had a trundle underneath, so you could sleep 3 in there. There was a short hallway with a very large bathroom, complete with a soaking tub, separate shower, and water closet area.
It was gorgeous and had plenty of space for larger families, or ones that just prefer to spread out. In fact, Beaches Turks and Caicos has quite a few different accommodation types.. from 1 room hotel rooms, to multiroom suites, to even conjoining rooms so you can make one HUGE accommodation area.
There literally is “something for everyone” here at Beaches Turks and Caicos. My family has deemed it our favorite family vacation (and we’ve been to some pretty cool places… haha), and we look forward to going back again very soon.
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Thanks to Embrace the Journey Travel Planner, Tracy Devlin, for writing this blog post for us. You can learn more about Tracy here.