Turks and Caicos Islands

Grace Bay and the Art of Doing Nothing

Grace Bay Beach is a serious contender for the finest stretch of sand in the entire Caribbean — powder-white, bone-dry underfoot, and lapped by water so absurdly turquoise it looks digitally enhanced. The beach runs for twelve unbroken kilometres along the north shore of Providenciales, lined with low-rise resorts and punctuated by excellent beach bars where frozen rum cocktails arrive before you've even settled into your lounger. The pace here is gloriously unhurried, and most visitors discover within hours that the correct thing to do is absolutely nothing at all.

Walls, Wrecks and Humpback Whales

Below the surface, Turks and Caicos is world-class. The Columbus Passage between the Turks and Caicos Banks is a deep-water channel that concentrates extraordinary marine life, humpback whales pass through in numbers between January and April, and the vertical reef walls here plunge hundreds of metres into blue nothingness. Salt Cay and Grand Turk offer some of the most accessible wall diving anywhere, with the reef beginning just metres from shore and the wall dropping away almost immediately. Dive operators across the islands are well-equipped and experienced with visitors of all levels.

Grand Turk and the Islands Beyond Provo

Most visitors land on Providenciales and stay there, which means the rest of the archipelago remains refreshingly undiscovered. Grand Turk, the capital island, has a colonial streetscape of Bermudian-style buildings, a surprisingly good national museum, and a front street that runs directly alongside the reef. North Caicos and Middle Caicos offer flamingo ponds, cave systems and local family restaurants that feel a world away from Provo's resort corridor. Getting between islands requires small planes or ferry connections, which only adds to the sense of genuine escape.