Turks & Caicos Part I

Terry and I left on Friday night/Saturday morning on a red eye out to Philadelphia, then on to Providenciales, Turks & Caicos. We booked our travel through a travel agent, and she took care of making sure we had a transfer to the resort, which made life super easy.

This view also made life easy

We ended up choosing to stay at Club Med Turkoise. We had never stayed at a Club Med before, but my friend Amanda was at this resort just a few years ago and said she had a great time. We ended up being pleasantly surprised by the food, location, and staff, but the rooms were disappointing. 

Bright, colorful buildings

A few little kittens hanging around

Right on the beach

Gorgeous landscaping

Nice-sized rooms, but old and not super clean

Nice pool, though we chose to spend our lounging time out at the beach

View from the hallway to our room (sadly, our actual room window looked out onto a courtyard instead of the beautiful beach)

We spent a lot of our time reading and relaxing on the beach the first day, though we made sure to take a long walk down the beach to check out the rest of the resorts.

That first day was WINDY! This is me fighting the wind. Obviously.

We also spotted a big crab!

The second and third days, Terry enjoyed some time off the resort to dive with Flamingo Divers. They were recommended to him by some dive friends, and he said they were awesome. A big part of our desire to travel to Turks & Caicos was for Terry to check out the diving, so I'm thrilled he had such a great time. He met a few people, saw some incredible fish and a few sharks, and added four dives to his log book!

Back at the resort, I used the time to myself to read, read, and read. I finished four books over the course of our trip, Julia's Cats, Horns by Joe Hil (not my typical leisure reading, but we chose it for our little book club), Summer by Edith Wharton, and Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner. All were great in their own ways, but honestly I was just thrilled to be reading on a gorgeous beach.

I also treated myself to a massage, which was pretty good and a great way to sink even deeper into my week long relaxation. 

When Terry returned from his dive trips each day, we grabbed a bite to eat and then either walked on the beach, read, or paddle boarded. We also took time each evening to relax in the room, get ready for dinner, and watch some Downton Abbey, which we brought with us. 

The dinners at Club Med--and the food in general--was on par with that of cruises we've been on before. Everything was buffet-style, and the choices provided plenty of variety. Each night had a theme--Italian, Island, Asian Fusion, French, Mexican, etc.--and our favorite was Island (Conch fritters, crab puffs, conch ceviche...yum!). They also encouraged clothing themes, but no one really followed those (they were super random, like "Pink and White" night and "Cappuccino Night"--what?). 

Our only complaint about the meals was that the tables were almost all large tables of about eight seats, so you were generally expected to sit with other people. I appreciated that they encouraged people to get to know each other, but there were times when we really wanted to just enjoy a meal the two of us and couldn't. A lot of the times, other people didn't seem to want to chat either, so it ended up being an awkward experience. Plus, since there is no set time for meals, some people were just sitting down to eat as you were finishing, so it felt a little uncomfortable getting up and walking away as they began eating. 

And drinks. Since it's an all-inclusive resort, we anticipated that the drinks wouldn't be particularly strong, but WOW--talk about weak! We stuck to the local beer, which was actually really good and came in both lager and amber brews, as well as daiquiris, pina coladas, and rum punch. We almost never tasted the alcohol in any of the drinks, but I suppose we shouldn't have been too surprised. 

Overall, the accommodations and resort were about what we expected. Thankfully the food was quite tasty and the location couldn't have been better. We also happened to choose a time when not very many people were at the resort, so we never had trouble finding a lounge chair or getting a (very mellow) drink.

I'll be back to share some of the island activities, plus our workouts and a night off the resort!