Family Resorts Done Well: Kids Clubs, Villas and Calm for Parents
Kids club hours, questions about staff, pool safety and villa layouts: how to choose a family resort that works for children and parents.
21.78° N · 72.26° W · Turks and Caicos Islands
Turks and Caicos
Families and beach lovers who want flawless sand, calm water and short, simple transfers.
Local time
Turks and Caicos is a group of low limestone islands at the southeastern end of the Lucayan archipelago, beyond the Bahamas, known for sand so fine and pale that it feels like flour underfoot. Most visitors stay on Providenciales, where Grace Bay curves for several kilometres along a lagoon kept calm by a barrier reef. The water is exceptionally clear, its colours running from pale aquamarine at the shore to deep blue beyond the reef.
It is an easy place to travel as a family: short transfers, shallow water, beach villas and resorts with kids clubs and full kitchens. Couples look to the smaller cays, several of them home to a single resort and reached by boat across the turquoise shallows. Beyond the beaches you can kayak through mangroves, snorkel on the reef or explore the caves and quiet coves of Middle Caicos.
When to go
The year in the Turks and Caicos
December to April is the high season: dry, sunny and breezy, with air around 27 to 29 °C and a sea that some find refreshingly cool at about 25 °C. May to July is warmer and still good, with lighter winds. August to October is the heart of the Atlantic hurricane season, hot and humid, and many visitors avoid it. November brings the first dry, settled weeks again.
Typical long term values, indicative. Weather in any single year can differ.
Where to stay
Resort styles here
Grace Bay on Providenciales holds most of the resorts, from low-rise beach hotels to residence-style suites with kitchens, all within a few steps of the sand. Long Bay, on the southeast shore, is quieter and popular with kitesurfers, while the villas around Chalk Sound and Taylor Bay look over shallow, sheltered water. For privacy, the cays to the northeast have single-resort islands, and North and Middle Caicos offer a handful of remote villas and small lodges.
Getting there
From Europe you usually change once, most often in the United States, with around 13 hours of travel to Providenciales. The airport is ten to twenty minutes by car from Grace Bay, and boats take you on to the cays.
Guides that mention the Turks and Caicos
Read before you go
