Turks and Caicos 2022 – Trip summary

We did it! We actually made it to Turks and Caicos and enjoyed the whole week just the two of us, without kids, doing exactly what we wanted and when we wanted it 🙂

So, what did the trip involve?

Dates:
– Feb 5th to Feb 13, 2022
Itinerary:
– Fly Delta to New York on Feb 5th, explore the city
– Stay the night at Hilton Garden Inn Times Square
– Fly Jet Blue to Providenciales on Feb 6th
– Stay at The All New Grace Bay Suites for 6 nights (Feb 6th to Feb 12th), breakfast included
– Fly Jet Blue to New York on Feb 12th
– Spend the night in the airport due to change in flight times, not allowing for a hotel stay between the flights
– Fly Delta back home on Feb 13th
Costs:
– Accommodations: $1,722
– Restaurants/Food: $914
– Transportation costs (including airline fees, Uber, NY transfers): $500
– Entertainment/Other (includes COVID tests, travel insurance, snorkeling boat trip): $738
– Total out of pocket: $3,875
– CC travel award savings: $1,115 (22% of the total costs)

Preparation for the trip

That was the worst part of the trip – preparation for it! Travel requirements to T&C were as such: Fully vaccinated people with negative test obtained within 3 days of arrival to T&C. Once the test results are obtained, they needed to be loaded on the T&C travel portal, along with COVID insurance (including quarantine cost coverage), and the portal would then issue an authorization to travel within 24 hours. Only once you have the authorization, you can travel, without the authorization you are not allowed on the plane to T&C!

So, I spent hours on Facebook groups, learning the specifics, how to fill the information on the portal for all travelers, what type of tests are acceptable. Searched for and booked appointments for testing with more or less acceptable costs. Tried not to meet with people a few weeks before the trip to not accidentally get exposed to Omicron and ultimately test positive for the trip.

But then the stars aligned, we got negative results on Friday morning, immediately submitted the paperwork to the T&C travel portal and obtained the authorization at 2 a.m. on Saturday. The flight to NY was departing Seattle at 7 a.m. Saturday morning, and off we went!

New York

I consider us very lucky: the weather in NYC was cold but sunny. That means no weather related delays and cancelled flights that people faced just a few weeks earlier on the East coast. But it was very cold! Since we were flying to the Caribbean paradise and since we did not have any luggage, just backpacks (that was our attempt at travelling light), that means we had no room for a lot of warm clothes! And boy, those warm clothes were desperately needed 🙂

Upon arriving at JFK, we decided to transfer to our hotel in Manhattan using public transit rather than taking an uber. Again, we had no luggage, the hotel is near Time Square and not that far from Penn Station, so why not? The transfer consisted of taking the Airtran from the airport to Jamaica Station and then taking Long Island Railroad (LIRR) to Penn Station. That was easy and inexpensive, less than $15 per person. The trains were clean and the transfer at Jamaica station was very easy. I would recommend this to other people, who are like us, ready to try other, maybe less convenient options.

After arriving at Penn Station, we were greeted by the sight of the Empire State Building, and the song started playing in my head: “Now you are in New York, New York… Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, There’s nothing you can’t do.. ” But we also were greeted by very cold air, luckily augmented by sun, making it slightly more bearable… The hotel was about a mile away, walking up the 7th Ave through the Time Square. The walk took about about 20 min, we were surrounded by a lot of people walking in the same direction, and the smell of marihuana was accompanying us all the way! It’s unbelievable how many “edibles” selling trucks and people on the streets on New York! When we departed the next day, early in the morning, I was glad to NOT encounter those trades, as it was too early for the customers, I guess…

The hotel was nice, on the 8th Ave, a few blocks away from the Central park. We decided to talk a walk in the park before dinner. In the end, because of how cold it was outside and since the sun was no longer shining, the walk turned into a brisk jog through the south end of the Central park, after which we hurried to find tasty and warm/hot food somewhere! We ended up visiting a Dim Sum place a couple of blocks away from the hotel, where the food was delicious (as you mostly would expect in New York)!

The next morning we walked to Penn Station in hopes to take NJ Transit/Airtran combination to JFK, only to realize that we just missed the NJ transit train and the next one will be in an hour! I, being prone to panicking, immediately ran to Amtrak and buying tickets to the next train, which was departing in about 20 min, not realizing how much more expensive that option was ($45 per person instead of about $15 using NJ transit). And we could have easily waited for the next NJ transit train, I guess, but I really did not want to miss our flight to T&C, so we ended up riding Amtrak, and added it to the list of public transit options we tried in NY 🙂

Ultimately, our flight was delayed by an hour due to a switch in flight attendants, but on a plus side, there were maybe 10 people on a plane with us flying to Providenciales. I know we were lucky since we flew on Sunday, while most people would travel on Friday or Saturday, to maximize their time on the islands. But the plane was needed to get a lot of people who were coming back, so we ended up enjoying the luxury of having the plane to ourselves and, more importantly, breezing through the security and customs, being in and out of the Providenciales airport in 15 min max, as compared to 2-3 hours wait most people encounter.

Turks and Caicos

Finally we are at the island! The equivalent of uber took us to our hotel, which is just 4 min of walk away from the beach! Grace Bay Suites is a small hotel, with total of about 24 rooms, its own pool (that we never used) and some equipment that you may want to borrow (bikes, kayaks, etc.). Most importantly, it had its own designated chairs and umbrellas on the beach, which was the main reason we went with the hotel instead of Airbnb this time.

The famous Grace Bay beach is amazing, and we were smack in the middle of it! What surprised me the most was how relatively few people were on the beaches at all times. As compared to some other beach locations we visited, the Grace Bay beach was not crowed, and if you walked further east to Leeward beach (about 20 min walk), you barely see anyone, just rare wondering couples/singles who were adventurous enough to walk to that beach. It created a feeling of having all that beauty to ourselves, and I absolutely enjoyed that!

The same was with the sea – very few people got in the water, and if you swim a little further towards the buoys, you have the blue clear sparkling Caribbean sea all to yourself! At least I did 🙂 One of my most favorite things to do at any beach location is to wake up very early, go to the still relatively empty beach and swim in calm water, enjoying the feeling of peace and having the sea to myself. At T&C I did not have to wake up early to get that, I could have a beach (and certainly the sea) to myself at any time of the day! And that’s what makes T&C at the top of the destinations I ever visited!

Food on the island was relatively expensive, since it’s all imported. Since we stayed at the hotel, we couldn’t cook for ourselves, so we developed a plan. We had a breakfast at one of the cafes for which our hotel provided vouchers. At lunch we had some snacks – deli meats/cheese/bananas/cookies with tea, all of which we purchased in a local grocery store (10-15 min walk from the hotel). And for dinner we went out to one of the many restaurants in the area. We had some Thai/Italian/Greek, but most of the nights we ate local food, such as conch fritters/conch chowder/Jamaican jerked chicken/ox tail stew/and such at the restaurants recommended by the hotel staff. All in all, this worked for the week we spent in T&C, but next time I may want to rent and Airbnb with a kitchen, just so that I have a choice to cook more if we want, especially when on longer stays in the area.

Most of the days we spent outside, either on Grace Bay beach or walking to Leeward beach, sometimes even further (one day we walked all the way to the east end of the island, where we could see the next island, where only iguanas live). We walked to all restaurants and back (because why not and it’s a good exercise, and the weather in the evenings was very pleasant). One day we borrowed the bikes from our hotel and rode to the snorkeling sites on West Providenciales. Of course, our bike ride coincided with the only tropical rain on the island during the week we were there, and we got soaked in the matter of minutes. But the rain was over in maybe 15 min, and we got dried while biking through the island. What an adventure to remember! 🙂

One day we also signed up for a half day trip on a catamaran boat, snorkeling at the corral reef that protects the island from waves and making a stop at the iguana island and yet another pristine and deserted breathtaking beach. That trip was a blast! We really enjoyed the ride, got to chat with some very interesting people while on the beautiful beach, and even went to karaoke with some of them at the bar next to our hotel! That trip, in addition to all that natural beauty, provided me with a social interaction outside of the company of DH, which I needed 🙂

Return to NY and then home

The trip back was a little tiring since the flight back from Providenciales to New York was rescheduled to the later time, so while we had a little more time in T&C, the plane landed in Newark at midnight, and the next flight to Seattle was from JFK at 7 a.m., so that absolutely killed any home to get some rest at a hotel. Instead, we spent a few hours transiting from Newark to Penn Station (this time using NJ Transit) and then from Penn Station to JFK. We arrived to JFK in the middle of the night, to discover that our terminal is closed till morning and only the Internal terminal is open through the night. So we spent a few hours in the international terminal, had some breakfast and then got onto our plane home. We discovered that we are too old to be awake through the night in a terminal, so next time I will try to plan better and hope that the air companies won’t screw up with our schedule again 🙂

Summary

All in all, that was a fantastic trip! Traveling without kids gave us freedom to do what we want without trying to organize everyone and cater to everyone’s needs. The location was amazing, and I am afraid that from now on I will compare all the beaches to those of Turks and Caicos. While the food was relatively expensive, we made it work and I know how to make it better next time (renting an whole apartment with a kitchen). Will I come again to T&C? Definitely maybe. However, there are still so many Caribbean islands that we haven’t seen yet that coming back to T&C may take a while…

What are your favorite Caribbean destinations, must see places? What else looks as beautiful but maybe not so expensive?