Review: Royal West Indies Resort

We stayed at the Royal West Indies Resort (RWI) on Providenciales in Turks & Caicos in March 2008 for 7 nights and we were very happy with our choice. This condo resort is located on Grace Bay, where most of the hotels and restaurants on Providenciales are located.

RWI has 8 3-story buildings scattered across a beautiful, lush property that includes two separate pool areas, a gourmet restaurant called Mango Reef, and of course direct beach access to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Although TCI is a chain of desert islands, the RWI grounds feature lush, tropical flora and fauna.

We stayed in a studio botanical view, which was perfectly suited to our needs. The studio is larger than the typical hotel room, but also includes a small sitting area, a washer/dryer, and kitchenette. The resort has studios, 1 bedrooms, and 2 bedrooms available and they all come with with either a kitchenette or full kitchen depending on your room selection and a balcony or patio. The larger rooms have full kitchens, which saves a lot of money on an island where food is expensive.

Our third floor botanical view.

We found the rooms to be clean and well equipped. The kitchenette had utensils, glasses, bowls, and plates in addition to a refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker and toaster. Detergent is provided.

The bathroom was clean, and even though this is a condo hotel they provide the usual shampoo, conditioner, and lotion assortment for your use.

Since we went during high season, resort umbrellas at the beach were always taken. My tip is to reserve your umbrella before 9 AM if you know you will be lying out all day. During the rest of the year, I have heard this is not an issue. If you don’t get a beach umbrella, you can lie out next to the pool. The sun is very hot in TCI, so an umbrella is pretty much mandatory.

RWI has direct beach access to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

There are two main ways to reserve rooms at this resort. You can either book through the resort or any travel agency (Expedia, etc) or you can book through a direct owner of a unit through vacation rentals by owner at vrbo.com. You will typically get cheaper rentals directly through an owner, but the spaces fill up fast. Also, if you book through an owner you only get maid service once or twice a week while booking through the resort of travel agency will get you daily maid service. Once you get there, there is no difference in service quality. I will also note that you should not book through the website because the response is slow but instead use their 800 number.
Overall, we were pleased with our stay here. The hotel’s location was great right on the beach, the restaurant was delicious, the rooms were fairly clean, and it is a good value on Grace Bay.

A Caribbean Paradise: Turks & Caicos

When I was thinking about what to write about my visit to the gorgeous Turks & Caicos Islands, I was seriously worried that I would come across like a commercial. How can you say anything bad about a chain of islands in the Caribbean with the most beautiful uncrowded beaches and the most turquoise blue waters you have ever seen?

Beautiful Half Moon Bay is located on an uninhabited island and was created by a hurricane. It is reachable only by boat.

You do not need to adjust the settings on your monitor. This is how blue the water really is in Turks & Caicos.

The Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) are a chain of islands just southeast of the Bahamas and about 500 miles from Miami, Florida. A British Overseas Territory, Turks & Caicos is part of the British West Indies.  Automobiles are driven on the left here, but the U.S. dollar is the official currency.  Although it cannot be verified, many believe these islands represented the first landfall for Christopher Columbus on his famous sea voyage. These islands were also used by pirates, although they probably didn’t look like Johnny Depp.

Grace Bay

Most of the resorts line the stretch of Grace Bay Beach on Providenciales (Provo), the island with the largest population. Only about half of the main 8 islands are inhabited and there are more than 20 other small islands in this chain. There are resorts from every price range on Grace Bay, but by and large the beaches are still relatively uncrowded compared to other Caribbean islands.

The home of the Queen Conch. You will literally trip over conch every 3 feet in these shallow warm waters off Provo.

Turks and Caicos’ natural resources include the spiny lobster, conch, and other shellfish. Although conch are considered an endangered species in many places around the world, these creatures are farmed on Turks & Caicos. This is one of the only places in the world that exports conch. You may bring up to 3 conch or conch derived products out of Turks & Caicos with a free permit from the department of the environment.

My freshly harvested conch. It must be larger than 7 inches across. We literally picked it out of the ocean.

Our boat tour with Caicos Dream Tours consisted of snorkeling at the barrier reef, diving for conch, and having fresh conch salad prepared from the conch we caught while we explored the deserted beach of Half Moon Bay. Many boat operators in TCI do a version of this tour. It was a lovely morning in paradise.

Conch salad (similar to ceviche) is a must-eat. This bowl is from da famous Da Conch Shack.

Turks & Caicos is well known among scuba divers. The barrier reef off TCI is the third largest in the world after Australia and Belize. There are a myriad of activities to do. Besides sitting on the gorgeous beaches, you can snorkel, snuba, sail, water ski, banana boat, explore sea caves, go on a pirate tour, or just worship the sun.

I can really only find one downside for Turks & Caicos, and that is the expense of the food. Since everything needs to be imported onto this desert isle, groceries are expensive. The existence of several top notch gourmet restaurants also means dinners are expensive. Fortunately, since many resorts on TCI are actually condos, you can save a lot of money by using the kitchen provided for meals. While there is a great IGA supermarket on Provo, it is also expensive so we packed lots of snacks, which saved some money.

We maximized our beach time on our visit to Grace Bay.

All in all, we found Turks & Caicos to have just the right mix of pristine beaches that are not too crowded (Grace Bay is comparable to Eagle Beach in Aruba), fun water activities, friendly locals, good seafood, solid tourist infrastructure, and good public safety.  In many respects, it’s similar to Aruba based on our experience.

We stayed at the Royal West Indies on Grace Bay, a condo resort that we recommend. Review to follow!