On our wish list for a while has been a family vacation to the Caribbean. Having a baby and a pre-teen means we needed a wide range of activities and the ability to be super flexible with our day-to-day agenda. So after lots of research and recommendations from several friends, we planned to take a 6 day trip to Providenciales, Turks & Caicos. Our first international trip as a family of four did not disappoint!
We chose the Turks and Caicos islands because of it’s close proximity to the US. Though this did mean we needed passports for all four of us, which added to the overall expense of the trip, the trade off was that the island was closer than traveling to the US Virgin Islands and meant a shorter flight for our, at the time, 7-month-old. It was his first time flying and we didn’t want to push our luck too much!
While traveling with kids will leave you feeling like you need a vacation before you even start your vacation, both of the boys were troopers. We thoroughly enjoyed our time on Providenciales, the largest of the four Turks & Caicos islands. We rented a private villa through VRBO and were really pleased with the proximity to one of the most beautiful beaches on the island…Sapodilla Bay (just across the street – literally a 30 second walk) and the views from the villa itself, which overlooked the absolutely gorgeous shallow turquoise waters of Chalk Sound. We loved having our own place and the convenience of having a pool meant that when Weston was down for his naps, we could still lounge in the sun, play in the pool, kayak (two of us at a time while the other stayed back with Weston), etc. It really was the perfect set up. We were also walking distance to a restaurant (Las Brisas, which ended up being our favorite) which was amazing on the first and last night since we found we wanted to stick closer to the house on those evenings.
The size of the island made it so easy to get around (though it was definitely an adventure getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road!), and we had such a great time exploring the different parts of the island each day. While we didn’t do anything too wild and extreme (as opposed to our much more adventurous trip to Arizona last summer), we felt it was such a great combination of play, explore, and relax. Below are some of our favorite things we did and places we ate, as well as a link to our Villa, which we would highly recommend.
- Rental house: Villa Serene via VRBO (Though I think you can rent directly via Island Escapes)
- Rental car: Avis
- Snorkeling at Smith’s Reef
- Snorkeling at Bight Reef
- Boogaloos (dinner)
- Las Brisas (I believe they serve all day)
- Turkberry (Frozen yogurt in Grace Bay – delicious!)
- Da Conch Shack (Our second favorite restaurant)
- Graceway IGA for groceries
Below are some of our favorite images from the week…iPhone photos at the bottom!
And some of our favorite iPhone snaps from the week…
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