Turks and Caicos Archives

April 26, 2020April 26, 2020

Why You Should Plan a Trip to Turks & Caicos

Approximately 575 miles southeast of Miami, Florida lies a beautiful tropical archipelago comprised of 40+ small islands. It’s called the Turks & Caicos Islands. The islands are separated into two groups – the Turks Islands to the east, which include Grand Turk and Salt Cay and the Caicos Islands to the west, including Providenciales, North Caicos, South Caicos, Middle Caicos, Pine Cay and Parrot Cay. All in all, there are 8 islands in the chain that are inhabited.

The archipelago is a British Oversees Territory and is home to over 31,000 full time residents. Due to its stunning calm, blue water and white sand beaches, T&C has become a popular beach lovers destination and welcomes more that a million tourists annually.

Have you been to T&C? If not, here are some reasons why you should plan a trip to Turks & Caicos!

Beaches

It’s no secret that we love a beautiful white sand beaches and the islands of Turks & Caicos have some of the prettiest we’ve seen. With miles of secluded beaches to explore, these islands are truly a beach lover’s paradise. Some of our favorites?

Grace Bay, Providenciales. This stunning beach frequently makes the “Top Most Beautiful Beaches” list and for good reason. At a little over 3 miles long, this white sand beach lapped by beautiful turquoise water just begs you to come in for a swim, float, snorkel or to play. Some areas around the resorts can be busy at times, but we’ve never had a problem finding a quiet, beautiful area to enjoy. And, if you get hungry or thirsty after a day in the sun, there are several restaurants and bars (such as Somewhere Cafe’ & Lounge) to quench your thirst and satisfy your hunger while enjoying the incredible views.

Sapodilla Bay, Providenciales. Although not as long as Grace Bay Beach, Sapodilla Bay compares in sheer beauty. Crystal clear water and white sand make this beach an absolute treat for the eyes. There are villas for rent just off the beach and if you get hungry, Las Brisas Restaurant is close by.

Whitby Beach, North Caicos. There are several stunning beaches on North Caicos and you will most likely have the beach entirely to yourself. We enjoyed Whitby Beach, a long stretch of soft white sand with a small restaurant/bar named Barracuda Beach Bar & Grill. The beach and shallow water were dotted with pretty conch shells during our visit and were used as decorations at the beach bar.

Mudjin Harbour Beach, Middle Caicos. A stunning coastline of beautiful beach, a rugged rocky outcropping called “Dragon Cay”, caves and high limestone cliffs that somehow reminded us a bit of Ireland all combine into one special place on Middle Caicos called Mudjin Harbour. Accessed by boat tours or by car via the causeway between North and Middle Caicos, this area is definitely worth a visit. Read more here.

Eat & Drink

Not surprisingly, conch is a popular dish in Turks & Caicos. Whether made in a ceviche, fritters, chowder, curried or in a salad, we found it all to be fresh and delicious. Wash it down with a refreshing rum drink (Bambarra is the local rum) and what more could you need! Other seafood is also readily available, such as Grouper and Caribbean Lobster (in season). Some of our favorite restaurant/bars so far?

da Conch Shack, Providenciales & RumBar. Enjoy a delicious dinner (cracked conch and jerk chicken are excellent) with a tall glass of Jan’s Rum Punch while sitting on a picnic table with toes in the sand. Perfect. Read more here.

Mr. Grouper’s. Sometimes it truly pays to ask the locals for a dining recommendation. Unsure of where to go one evening, we asked a lady we met for a good local eatery. She said that if we like seafood, we should definitely try Blackened Grouper at Mr. Grouper’s. Man, was she spot on. We ordered a Blackened Grouper and a Coconut Crusted Grouper with Mango Chutney Sauce. Other dishes are available, but when we went back a second time that week, we ordered the exact same thing, Delicious.

Bugaloo’s Conch Crawl, Providenciales. A beach side, seafood restaurant with delicious food and great drinks. Dine on the deck under the trees or grab a table in the shallow water, if there’so one available! Read more here.

‘Somewhere’ Cafe’ and Lounge, Providenciales. Located on the beach in West Grace Bay, this multi-level restaurant and bar serves up a beautiful view of Grace Bay Beach in addition to tasty food and drink. Excellent place to enjoy a colorful Turks & Caicos sunset. Read more here.

Other Things to do in Turks & Caicos

Besides spending time on the beach or eating and drinking, what else is there to enjoy in Turks & Caicos? Here are a few ideas:

1. Diving and snorkeling – with such amazingly clear water, it’s no wonder that diving and snorkeling in Turks & Caicos is top notch. The coral is vibrant and the reef fish are plentiful .

2. Take an excursion to a deserted cay and enjoy your own private island for the day!

3. Visit Water Cay and learn about the endangered Rock Iguanas that used to live on all islands in the Turks & Caicos but are protected here.

4. Attend the Thursday Fish Fry on Providenciales. Sample food from local restaurants and vendors, enjoy some live music and shop for local arts and crafts.

5. Play golf. Get a round in between beach days at Provo Golf Club.

6. Explore other islands. Ferry to North Caicos, rent a car and explore North Caicos and Middle Caicos (connected by a causeway) for the day.

7. Catch a sunset on Grace Bay Beach or Leeward Beach. Stunning.

What to Bring Home from Turks & Caicos.

Bambarra Rum
Locally made jewelry, sea shell creations, paintings and ceramics
Turks Island Roasters Coffee
PeppaJoy Hot Sauce
Lots and lots of pictures!

Pumpkin Bluff Beach, North Caicos

O.K. we admit it – we are just crazy about beaches. Something about the beautiful blue water and creamy white sand absolutely soothes our souls. We’ve been lucky to have seen some amazing beaches in our travels and this is one of the top on our list.

Getting there:If you don’t like deserted beaches, with miles of undisturbed sugar soft sand, you should probably not read any further. We visited this one, Pumpkin Bluff Beach on North Caicos three times during our stay on the island, never saw another person – and LOVED the solitude…

Pumpkin Bluff was not the easiest beach to find on North Caicos – perhaps the reason it was so isolated. In fact, we never saw a sign leading to Pumpkin Bluff and originally called it Shipwreck Beach because of the freighter shipwrecked just off the reef. It wasn’t until we returned home and located the beach on a map that we realized the name was Pumpkin Bluff. Still think we like Shipwreck Beach better!

We’d recommend just getting a good map and exploring until you find it – it’s well worth it. Three Mary Cays on the right in the distance is a great place to snorkel.

Pumpkin Bluff has very long expanse of beautiful white, soft sand and the water is shallow and clear for a long way out. The weather was calm and warm while we were in North Caicos and the swimming (and floating) were great!

The Rum Therapy gang enjoying the beach all to ourselves…

Amenities: none :)

Recommended for: swimming, anyone that enjoys a quiet beach experience. Take a picnic and your favorite rum drinks and enjoy the solitude.

Other Turks & Caicos post that you might enjoy:

Rum Therapy in Turks and Caicos

Mudjin Harbour, Middle Caicos

Find Pumpkin Bluff Beach on our Turks and Caicos Map

To see more posts on the Turks and Caicos islands and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory

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Pictures and other content may not be re-used without written consent from Rum Therapy, LLC

March 8, 2013June 6, 2019

Mudjin Harbour, Middle Caicos

On the North coast of a sparsely populated island called Middle Caicos is a beautiful area that is a bit reminiscent of Ireland – with probably a wee bit more sunshine. The area is called Mudjin Harbour and it’s spectacularly beautiful!

Middle Caicos is one of the island in the Turks and Caicos chain. The largest of the islands, Middle Caicos, is 48 square miles with a population of under 300. The north shore of Middle Caicos is more dramatic than the other Caicos Islands with limestone cliffs and long sandy beaches.

Access: If not taking an excursion via a local tour operator, the best way to get to Middle Caicos is to take the ferry from Providenciales to North Caicos, rent a car on North Caicos and drive across the causeway to Middle Caicos. Credit cards are sometimes not accepted at gas stations – so be sure to bring cash and fill up on North Caicos as there are no gas stations on Middle Caicos.

Once on Middle Caicos, turn left into the Blue Horizon Resort and park by the cement path to the beach. Follow the Beach Cave Trail for a short hike to the overlook of Mudjin Harbour.

Beach Cave Trail Sign
Overlook of Mudjin Harbour
Looking down at Mudjin Harbour
Mudjin 5
Beach: Snorkeling in this area can be excellent when the ocean is calm and the beach is wonderful for walking and exploring small beach caves. When the tide is low you can walk from the beach to “the dragon” – the rocky outcropping about 200 yards off the beach. Take the trail from Mudjin Bar & Grill over the top of the cliffs for stunning views of the area.

Amenities: Mudjin Bar & Grill serves food and drinks with an excellent view. Want to stay longer? The cottages at Blue Horizon Resort offer quiet and tranquility with easy access to the beach.

Recommended for: anyone willing to go a little out of the way to see a stunning beach and overlooks of limestone cliffs and a turquoise sea, those who like to explore relatively unknown and uncrowded beaches, and photographers.

Tip: In addition to Mudjin Harbour, while on Middle Caicos, be sure to check out the caves – some of which you can explore on your own and some that require guides. Hike part of the Crossing Place Walking Trail. Stop at Conch Bar Village for some fresh seafood and the Middle Caicos Co-op to see a collection of handmade TCI crafts. Drive a little further to see beautiful Bambarra Beach and if you’re lucky enough to be in the area around Valentines Day, check out the Traditional Model Sailboat Races in the Valentines Day Cup

Find Mudjin Harbour on our Turks & Caicos Map

To see more St. Thomas and other island posts, check out our Island Blog Directory

July 18, 2012June 5, 2019

Rum Therapy in Turks and Caicos

The promise of beaches like the one above caused us to book our first trip to Turks and Caicos a few years ago.

In researching Turks and Caicos, we found that some cays and islands had fantastic high end resorts (Parrot Cay) and some were very quiet with very little tourist traffic. We really wanted to experience a week “off of the grid” and as we were traveling with 4 other adults, we also wanted to find a place large enough to comfortably accommodate 6 on the beach. We ran across a villa rental on North Caicos and thought it might fit the bill. It did.

We flew in to Providenciales, gathered our luggage, hailed a taxi, stopped at a grocery store in Provo before catching the ferry (we read that groceries were quite limited in North Caicos) and caught the ferry to North Caicos.

The ferry arriving in Provo

We rented a car in North Caicos for the week. Quite the feat to drive on the right side of the car on the left side of the road, but a car was really necessary and luckily there’s n0t much traffic at all on North Caicos.

Our villa was located off the main road (see above) and road signs are scarce on North Caicos, so fortunately we had plenty of sunshine left to find our villa.

The villa was right on beautiful Whitby Beach and we took advantage of the amazing view every day – and night.

So what did we do for a week? Let me tell you!

Beaches
The beaches we visited on Turks and Caicos beaches are indescribable. The sand was soft and white… Most beaches on the north side had extremely sandy bottoms and we could walk many feet into the ocean before there was a drop off. On North Caicos we rarely saw another person on the beach and conch shells were everywhere!

Snorkeling and Shelling
We took an excursion and spent the day snorkeling and shelling. Our captain took us out to a reef where the snorkeling was excellent with vibrantly colored fish and coral. We stopped at a deserted Cay to do some shelling and were amazed to find hundreds of unbroken sun bleached white sand dollars of all sizes.

We made one more stop at Little Water Cay – a nature reserve, to check out the Turks and Caicos Rock Iguanas.

Exploring other Islands
Middle Caicos
We took a day trip and drove to Middle Caicos which is connected to North Caicos by a causeway. Middle Caicos looks entirely different than North Caicos and we thought parts of the Beach Cave Trail looked a wee bit like Ireland!

Providenciales
Provo is the most populated island of the T&C chain and home to Grace Bay Beach, frequently named as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It’s an easy ferry ride from Provo to North Caicos and we spent the day shopping, enjoying a few beverages and walking Grace Bay Beach.

Relaxing
This was our week to get “off the grid” and it didn’t take long to get on island time. No internet access and limited cell phone coverage was a little strange at first, but by the end of the week we were lovin’ it. It gave us plenty of time to do this:

and this,

and lots of this…

Odds and Ends
Just a few other things we enjoyed during our time in T&C.

Great dock to watch the sunrise and sunset on Horsestable Beach.

Excellent Caribbean Lobster dinner with Karen at the Silver Palm Restaurant – North Caicos

Conch, conch and more delicious conch at Miss B’s Island Hut – North Caicos

Finally finding (after several failed attempts) and snorkeling at Three Mary Cays in North Caicos

One thing that every trip we take to the islands teaches us is that you can never see and do all there is to see and do on an island in just one week. Our first trip to Turks and Caicos proved that to be true once again. Although we saw A LOT, did A LOT and relaxed A LOT (Yes, we enjoyed a good bit of Rum Therapy there!), we really only saw a fraction of what these beautiful islands have to offer and hope we’ll have the opportunity to return someday to see much more…

To see other posts on Turks and Caicos and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory