Turks & Caicos Vacation

In January, Brian and I took a vacation to Turks & Caicos. T&C is a small island in the Caribbean. It is a British Territory, but they accept the American dollar. Convenient.

The trip was a quick one for us with it being only 3 nights, but that is my ideal trip length! We arrived in T&C on Monday (Jan 1st) in the afternoon and easily found a shuttle to take us to our resort. Once we checked in and checked out our room at Ocean Club West, we headed out to find some food. The resort did have an on-site restaurant and bar, but it was an odd hour for a meal (3pm maybe) so they were only serving snacks at the time. We were able to take a short walk and found a dive bar with delicious food (and pretty good mojitos!). Once we ate, we headed back to our resort to check out the beach. The resort had beach access and the beach was gorgeous. We walked on the beach for a bit and then enjoyed the sunset!

Sunset on the beach

The next day, we looked into snorkeling excursions. We thought about doing one that afternoon, but they were booked. It ended up working out though because it turned out to be a rainy afternoon. We were able to get a snorkeling adventure booked for Wednesday. We decided to spend Tuesday on the beach and swimming in the resort pool. The resort had paddle boards and kayaks that we could borrow so we did that as well. Well, Brian and I kayaked, but only Brian attempted the paddle boarding. Paddle boarding just looks like too much work for a vacation! After we had our fill of swimming, we walked around a bit. There was a grocery store within walking distance of our resort. I think we went to the store almost every day we were there! We didn't buy much, but exploring different groceries stores is always an adventure in and of itself! I couldn't believe how expensive the food was!

Brian paddle boarding

Afternoon coffee at the CUTEST coffee shop. Of course B took a blurry picture when I really wanted to capture the background of the shop.

Wednesday morning was our snorkeling adventure day. We were picked up at our resort by the excursion company. After picking up about 20 more people, we were taken to the dock and boarded a standard snorkeling boat. The weather was nice (not raining!), but still a little chilly once we were on the move. The excursion consisted of 3 different snorkeling spots all around a reef. The water was beautiful and clear. I ended up sitting out the 3rd snorkeling dive because I was just too cold in the water. (I didn't notice it the first stop, but the second stop I was shivering in the water). On the way back to shore from the 3rd stop, the driver spotted dolphins! This is the highlight of the trip for me. Not only did the driver point out the dolphins, but he drove the boat right to them and we were sooo close! Brian and I were sitting at the front of the boat, so we had an amazing view of the dolphins. We saw an adult and baby dolphin swimming together and then a 3rd adult slightly apart from the first two. It was so amazing seeing the baby & mom jump together and swim together. And we were so close, I almost felt like I could touch them if I just reached into the water!

Selfie while B was snorkeling at stop #3

Rum punch

Dolphins!

Can you make out both dolphins in this picture?

Our final day was Thursday. We decided we'd do our souvenir shopping that day since our flight was later in the afternoon. We were able to leave our luggage at the resort after we checked out, so that made it easy to walk to the little shopping center and browse. We shopped some and then had lunch before walking back to the resort to pick up a taxi that would take us to the airport. The airport was so small and easy. Besides the dolphins, that might have been one of my favorite parts - how easy the logistics of the trip were! The check-in counters were outside (life in the Caribbean, I guess!). The airport only had 8 gates total so very small, but super convenient.

Sitting at resort restaurant looking out toward the beach

Such a great vacation! Can't wait until we go back!!