Beaches Turks and Caicos

Pirate Island Resort! …Pirate Island? .....Yes, Turks and Caicos means Pirate Island in Lucayan. In the 17th and 18th centuries Pirates would hide out and attack European ships from the string of islands now known as Turks and Caicos. In the Mediterranean during the Ottoman Empire the word Turk became synonymous with pirate, it is thought that the term made its way to the Caribbean, and thus, Pirate Island was born.

Turks and Caicos has some of the most beautiful water that you will find in the Caribbean. The bottom is visible for many meters and the colors are breath taking. This makes these island waters a playground for snorkeling and diving. Leaving Miami Florida, it takes a bit over an hour to reach the islands making this trip very convenient for those living on the east coast of the US.

Host to Professional Conferences

Beaches Turks and Caicos is a family favorite for us because the resort plays host to an annual Emergency Medicine Conference. My wife is able to work towards maintaining her credentials, our business is able to acquire plenty of experiences to review and as a family we can find time to relax and play.

This trip was our 2nd to Beaches T&C and the 2nd time attending this conference series. Both of our stays were at the Seaside Village on the far-right hand side of the property. On many promotional maps the Seaside Village is absorbed into the Caribbean village because they share the same two pools and are both connected to the main entrance.

The Caribbean Village

Our children traveled with us on this trip to review the resort and activities for teens and tweens. To accommodate our whole family, we purchased the Caribbean Deluxe Double room. The rooms come furnished with two double (full size) beds and an arm chair that turns into a small trundle type bed. Our kids took turns sleeping on the trundle bed and said that the mattress felt as comfortable if not more comfortable than the double bed.

The rooms have a reasonably sized bath with a tub shower combo and a single sink with full size vanity mirror. Our room also came with a mini fridge and a small round utility table. There were also night stands, a dresser and a closet. The balcony had a smaller bistro style table with two chairs as well as a towel drying rack. This room was just right for a family of four but for a larger family may feel cramped. There was an interior connecting door so I imagine that our room was part of a larger family suite that could be purchased if needed or desired. But…. For a place to sleep and dress this room was absolutely fine. We had perfect weather for our stay but had we needed to find a dry place to relax other than our room, there were many spots throughout the resort that you could lounge until the weather improved.

Pirate Island

The resort has five pools and a waterpark! Our favorite two pools were the Waterfall pool in the Caribbean Village and the Italian pool in the Italian village. Both have swim up bars and offer drink menus for both children and adults. The waterfall pool is much smaller but boasts a bridge a grotto and of course the waterfall. The Italian pool has two focal points, the swim up bar closest to the beach and a hot tub on the opposite end. This pool is by far the largest on the resort it also attracts the most guests. If you decide to enjoy the hot tub, there is no need to worry that you are quite a distance from the swim up bar. Several feet from the hot tub you will find a gazebo style bar offering drink service for both children and adults.

The Pirate Island Water Park section combines Water slides with the Kids Club, the X Box Lounge and aTeen & Tween Lounge. Also, on this property is The Food Trucks, Bobby Dees Restaurant, and a very cool Kids Swim Up Bar. In this area you will find the cotton candy inside Bobby Ds as well as a hair braiding and temporary tattoo studio.

Pirate Island has a splash pad for the little kids with a pirate ship and an age-appropriate slide. For younger school age kids there are two water slides that dump into a kid’s depth swimming pool. Big kids, teens and adults seem to love them as much as the younger children. For the adults, Beaches includes a hot tub next to these slides with a view of the kid’s pool, this way mom and dad can relax while the kids play. Our kids are 13 and 9 and had a blast with these twisty water slides. For big kids through adults there are 3 larger more challenging water slides. The slides are very enjoyable and often smaller kids slide along side the older children. These water slides include two open tube styles for single or double tubes as well as the blue twisty body slide. If this is not enough, the three slides empty into a lazy river with multiple entrance and exit points around the water park. Wow! But beaches is not done yet. Along the lazy river is the Surf Rider Attraction. This pool allows the riders to surf or boogie board in place on a looped wave. Our kids spent most of their afternoons here surfing and boogie boarding while mom and dad relaxed. For a full overview Check out Harr Travel’s Pirate Island video https://youtu.be/4za6dOofFe0 @HarrTravel

Gourmet Restaurants

Beaches Turks and Caicos boasts 21 gourmet style restaurants! Most of the restaurants are open to walking in with minimal to no wait and a few places need reservations which you can set up with resort staff when you arrive. beaches.com/resorts/turks-caicos/restaurants/ Our favorites include Schooners, Soy, Kimonos (which is by reservation only), Barefoot by the Sea, Neptune, and Bayside. We had breakfast each morning at the buffet located in the lobby of the Caribbean Village. Lunch would depend on our location for the day. We chose Arizona and the jerk Shack for days spent at the Caribbean pool, Barefoot if we were at the Italian Pool, and Neptune if we wandered up the beach past the Dive Shop for the day.

Bayside has the feel of a high-end waterfront restaurant with a menu to match. What makes Bayside unique is that the food is served buffet style. Most resort buffets can not get away from a cafeteria style feel. Beaches hit the dinner buffet out of the park with Bayside. The bar at Bayside is also excellent and our go to in the afternoon if we were enjoying the beach on the Key West side of the resort. Above Bayside is an adult only roof top restaurant called Sky. This spot serves both Breakfast and Dinner and the best part… No reservation required!

Crystal Clear Turquoise Water

The waterfront at beaches Turks and Caicos is spectacular! The color and clarity of the water is unrivaled across the Caribbean. The Beach is narrow, but the resort has been able to get multiple rows of lounges with umbrellas as well as beach huts with lounges in place for enjoyment. As with pool seating the lounges are acquired quickly in the morning by guests reserving spots for the day. It is best to wake early before breakfast and claim a space to enjoy for the afternoon. Drink service is hit or miss on the beach so if you like to relax with a few beverages, it is a good idea to set up near a pool bar so you can retrieve your own drinks.

We did not dive while on this trip, but the dive center is world class. The center is PADI certified and can get you through certification classes while on vacation. beaches.com/scuba/ Certified divers can get 1 dive per day as part of the resort’s included activities. Other waterfront activities include snorkeling, SUP, and small boat sailing. Third party vendors offer other near shore activities such as snorkeling and parasailing.

Adventurous Excursions

What trip would be complete without an excursion to see something beyond the resort. Beaches T&C has 8 excursions to choose from. All the resort offered excursions require additional costs beyond the cost of the resort stay. beaches.com/tours/ We chose a catamaran adventure aboard Kitty Cat. Kitty is Beaches own 65-foot party catamaran. We snorkeled off a nearby reef, explored Iguana Island and then had a boat party that included a cannonball contest off of the bow of the boat. Safety was always the priority, but there was a lot of fun had by all! Except…. Maybe…. Alaina. My wife is known to have some mild motion sickness but never anything that holds her back when she pretreats with the appropriate medication. Unfortunately, the swells at the snorkeling spot were huge. If you have the slightest amount of motion sickness you may want to choose a land-based excursion. I am not sure if the swells are a year-round occurrence but watch the waves from the beach out on the horizon and if they are rolling Kitty Cat will be as well.

If you enjoyed this overview of our trip subscribe to our mailing list and watch our social media pages. We will be writing some Top 10 articles based on this trip. The Top 10s will go into more detail on the food, drinks, pools and activities. We will be interviewing our kids to get their take on Beaches Turks and Caicos so look out for that blog as well.

Six more bottles of sunscreen recycled after this trip and not a single burn. Please do not forget to like and subscribe as well as share our content with friends and family who also love to travel.

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