Thank you to Ocean Club Resorts for hosting us during our stay!
I’m so excited to share a recap of Michael and I’s trip to the Turks and Caicos with you today! The Turks and Caicos has been on our travel list for quite some time, so I was thrilled when we had the opportunity to visit the island and stay at Ocean Club Resorts last month! We visited during the last week of October, which was the PERFECT time to visit! For one, the weather was amazing. The high temperatures everyday topped out in the low-80s and it got down into the low-70s every night. Hot enough to enjoy the beach but not hot enough to sweat. Another plus about visiting during October/early November is that it’s their off season. Once school is in session, there’s a lull in tourism until the Thanksgiving holiday.
Getting There
The down side to visiting during the off season is that flights are a bit limited. But other than that, it’s relatively easy to get to the Turks and Caicos, especially from the East Coast. We flew JetBlue from D.C. (DCA) to Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos (PLS). The DCA to FLL flight is around 2.5 hours and FLL to PLS is 1.5 hours.
Upon arrival at the Turks and Caicos airport, you’ll have to go through customs. It was a pretty painless process. There was a bit of a line since a few flights landed around the same time as ours, but nothing too crazy. There’s no Uber or Lyft in the Turks and Caicos. However, it was very easy to spot the legitimate taxi drivers. We ended up sharing a larger passenger van with two other couples who were being dropped off at a resort near ours. Ocean Club Resorts has two properties, both are no more than 20 minutes from the airport, but there are also plenty of Exceptional Villas available to stay with. We stayed at Ocean Club West.
Ocean Club Resorts – The Rooms
Ocean Club West is a beautiful property situated right on Grace Bay Beach. You’ll notice in the photos below that the property is comprised of different three-story buildings, no high-rises, which I love! Ocean Club West offers a variety of types of rooms depending on the size of your party from studio suites all the way up to three-bedroom condo style apartments. We stayed in a two-bedroom condo on the first floor in a building located directly on the beach. The condo-type set up is PERFECT for a longer stay! Our condo had a fully equipped kitchen, dining area, large living space, washer and dryer, two bedrooms, two full baths, one half-bath, and an enormous screened in patio (with a door that locked).
Having a full kitchen was really nice. Although we didn’t cook while we were there, we did snag fruit and snacks at the grocery store down the street to munch on during the week. We were only there for three nights, but if we would have been staying longer, I definitely would have picked up more breakfast and lunch items from the store to have on hand at the condo. As a side note, the grocery store, Grace Bay Gourmet, is a full-service, top notch grocery store located within walking distance of Ocean Club West!
Another thing I loved about our setup was the patio. We were so close to the beach that we could hear the ocean at nighttime and in the morning and had our own sandy path to the beach.
The decor in our condo was as described on Ocean Club Resorts’ website – updated Caribbean. Overall, we were very impressed with our room at Ocean Club West and I appreciate how Ocean Club Resorts offers different types of rooms depending on the size of your party.
Ocean Club Resorts – The Property
The Beach //
Like I mentioned above, the property is situated right on Grace Bay Beach. Our walk to the beach every day took less than five minutes. The water was an incredible Caribbean blue and the sand was soft and white. Ocean Club Resorts offers complimentary beach chairs, tables, and umbrellas. Since we were there during the off season, we had no trouble at all snagging a pair of chairs everyday.
There’s also complimentary beach towel service located right as you walk onto the beach, which was so convenient! We grabbed fresh towels on our way out to the beach everyday.
Solana //
Solana is the on-site restaurant at Ocean Club West. It’s located a few steps from the beach. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and operate as a full bar throughout the day and evening. It was so convenient having this spot right on-site. We ate lunch and dinner here and snagged drinks at the bar throughout our trip. More on the food below!
Aside from the food, the staff at Solana was so nice! We encountered the same staff each day during our stay and from our first day there, they remembered Michael and I and were so friendly throughout our entire stay!
The Pools //
The pools on-site are really beautiful! There are numerous pools all intertwined with one another. You can see more of what I mean in the photos below. The winding design of the pools allows for a bit more privacy while laying poolside, which I really loved.
Another great feature about the pool area is that there are a few very nice grills located poolside. Like I mentioned, the rooms are equipped with full kitchens so if you wanted to prepare dinner one night at the resort, you could easily pop out poolside to throw a few items on the grill!
Bikes //
Ocean Club Resorts offers free bikes to use during your stay. We took advantage of the bikes one morning and rode around the area near Ocean Club West. The bikes are especially great if you’re wanting to speed up the process of walking to grab coffee or lunch during the day.
The Gym //
There is a gym on site. It’s larger than your typical hotel gym, but not huge. With that said, there was never more than one other person in the gym each morning during our stay. It is equipped with cardio machines, weight machines, free weights, a TRX area, medicine balls, and a barre.
Where to Eat
The food in the Turks and Caicos was outstanding! We used Google Maps as our main source to do a bit of research on what restaurants were located near Ocean Club West. All of the spots listed below are within easy walking distance of the resort.
Breakfast //
Retreat Kitchen is a five minute walk from Ocean Club West. It’s the cutest vegetarian breakfast and lunch spot, and even has a sister yoga studio next door, Retreat Yoga. Michael and I shared a smoothie bowl and a gluten free muffin along with iced coffees. Their iced coffee is outstanding. The space is beautiful and the staff was really friendly. We loved this spot so much that we visited it twice during our stay! (See photos below).
Another adorable and delicious coffee shop! Lemon2Go is a bit farther of a walk from Ocean Club West (about 20 minutes), but it was nice to get in a morning walk, especially with the cooler temps earlier in the day. Lemon2Go is a coffee shop and a flower/gift shop all in one! Basically my dream shop! It is beautiful! I was sad that we only had one morning to visit this little spot. The iced coffees were delicious along with their blueberry muffin. They have a great patio and are located in the midst of the downtown area. It was nice to sit outside and people watch as everyone strolled along the streets either heading for coffee like us or into the office for the day.
Lunch //
Solana is located on-site at Ocean Club West. We ate lunch here twice since it was so convenient! Less time away from the beach! Not only is it convenient, the food is really great too! We had the fish tacos, jerk chicken wrap, and Solana salad with grilled shrimp. The grilled shrimp salad was my favorite! Along with great food, Solana also serves great drinks! I indulged in a couple of piña coladas during our stay, and they were fantastic!
Turks Kebab was a find, y’all! We discovered it on Google Maps. As a side note, we use Google Maps a lot when we’re traveling to find restaurants. Our criteria – 4 stars or above and LOTS of reviews. This spot hit those two marks and is in walking distance from Ocean Club West. It’s definitely off the beaten path, but trust me on this one! It’s a Turkish and Greek spot. We had the hummus, falafel salad, and chicken gyro. All of the food was delicious!
Dinner //
Again, Solana is located on-site at Ocean Club West. We had dinner here on our first night as we had just gotten our barings and wanted something easy. I had read that Solana offers a great sushi menu so I was excited to try it out! The sushi did not disappoint! It was so fresh and yummy!
If you visit the Turks and Caicos you MUST go to Coco Bistro! This place is magical. Michael and I happened to be visiting the Turks and Caicos over my birthday. We decided to go to Coco Bistro to celebrate that night. The atmosphere is incredible and the food is even better! The entire restaurant, including the bar, is outside. Tables are scattered among towering palm trees and tropical plants and there are string lights hanging above all the tables illuminating the entire space. It is absolutely gorgeous!
It’s a large restaurant, but reservations are still recommended. We didn’t have reservations and had to wait a bit. There’s a large bar and lounge area so we ordered a round of drinks and only ended up waiting for about 20 minutes. I have no doubt that everything on the menu is superb. We tried out the ahi tuna appetizer, fish tacos, and shrimp curry dish. I’m drooling just thinking about it!
Another great local spot is Kalooki’s. It’s located in the downtown area. I have to say that when we walked into this spot, for some reason, I was underwhelmed. I think it had to do with the fact that it was off-season and there were only a couple of other people in the restaurant. But once we tasted the complimentary pumpkin soup shooters that our waiter graciously brought out, my mind was flipped! Our server was the nicest! Michael went with the jerk chicken and I worked with the server to create a custom pasta dish with shrimp. I scored with my order because the chef accidentally subbed in lobster for my shrimp, and oh my goodness, it was delicious! I’m not a big lobster person, but this lobster was outstanding!
One More Note
I would like to note that dining out in the Turks and Caicos isn’t cheap. While there are some Caribbean islands where you can go off-property of the resorts to find lower prices at restaurants, we didn’t find this to be the case in the Turks and Caicos. The prices at the restaurants we visited, including the coffee shops, were equivalent to D.C. prices. Nothing too crazy, but just something to be aware of when budgeting for your trip!
Getting Around
We were in the Turks and Caicos for four days and three nights. I had heard that it’s nice to rent a car when visiting the islands, however, we opted not to do this and I’m so glad we did. Ocean Club West is walking distance to everything I’ve included in this blog post. We walked everywhere, even to the grocery store. Nothing was more than a 20 minute walk from the resort. So long as you’re a beach person and not wanting to get out and roam around the island, I think you’re perfectly fine not renting a car. If you’d like to find out more about what to do while getting around check out turks and caicos activities because I hear there is a ton of things to do on this beautiful island.
There are taxis that the front desk can easily call if you happen to need a ride to somewhere beyond walking distance.
Travel Tips
Bring Cash // The taxi drivers only accept cash. We also used cash to tip our bellman.
Passport Required // Obvious one here, but you need a passport to visit the Turks and Caicos.
Update Your Phone Plan // There’s WiFi on site, but I like having a working cell phone so that I can use Google Maps to/from the airport, and it was nice to have since we ended up walking everywhere off-property. I have the Verizon Travel Plan, which allows me to use my normal plan plus pay $10/day for everyday that I’m out of the country.
Overall Thoughts
We will be back! To both the Turks and Caicos and Ocean Club Resorts! The people were friendly, the hospitality everywhere we went was outstanding, the food was amazing, our accommodations were top notch, and you can’t beat the Caribbean waters of Grace Bay Beach!
For more on our trip, check out Michael’s blog post recap and his YouTube video of our stay!
If you have any questions about the resort, feel free to email me at [email protected]!
Thank you to Ocean Club Resorts for hosting us during our stay!
