My parents have decided to haul the entire (22) family to the Turks and Caicos Islands to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They have rented this house for a week. Looks to be a really neat place. Seeing as I haven't had a vacation in two years I'm looking forward to being out of touch for a while.
Have any of you people been there before? Any must see places? Any cool things to do.
I believe that cwh does a lot of business there...maybe he'll chime in.
Hang Out. Drink rum cocktails. On the beach. 
I've been there on a sailing trip, but it's been a while and we were more concerned with finding some supplies to fix a problem with the boat. So, I can't speak to any sights in particular. In general, my suggestion above is darned nice. Spend some time snorkeling too. You might be able to get pointed in the direction of some especially nice sites to dive, but chances are you can just go a little ways out from any beach and see some awesome stuff.
If it's anything like most other places in the Caribbean there's lots of relaxing and nature tours to do, but not much excitement (well, on a few islands it's easy to find the bad kind of excitement 
). But, if you want a chill vacation you can't do better. Bring some books to read on the beach.
Leave your notion of a restaurant at home, and try some local food. It may be on a porch, or in a shack, or a stand, but man you can get some good stuff. Just be sure to leave your watch at home and get on island time. Things will happen eventually, just chill and have a drink.
eat lots of conch fritters. drink. snorkel.
not exactly in that order.
This thread is very relevant to my interests. I look forward to cwh chiming in.
Even if you're a carnivore, try to find some vegetarian roti cooked up by the real rastas. Better than the meat counterpart. Excellent stuff.
Nothing. Nothing at all. And enjoy every single second of it.
Hope you can find some local rum. I heart rum.
You can't not find local rum. I'm a huge fan of Cruzan, distilled in the USVI. Keep in mind that the proportion of rum to other stuff in drinks is reversed in the Caribbean. If a rum and coke is normally 1 part rum : 4 parts coke, an island pour will be 4 parts rum : 1 part coke. Rum is about the cheapest thing you can drink.
Kalik beer is good.
Voodoo juice is possibly the best cocktail EVAR!
alfadriver wrote: Nothing. Nothing at all. And enjoy every single second of it.
Peter from Office Space said: Michael, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything that I thought it could be.
In reply to Salanis:
I lean toward Don Q. I may be partially biased, but the Gran Anejo is so freaking good....
For the Turks and Cacos, I'd even suggest trying something that's barely labled, and somewhat cloudy. It'll burn, but the alcohol will kill anything in it.
And try some with just a table spoon of water, if you can't deal with neat.
Reminds me that we missed the Taste of Rum festival in San Juan last weekend. sigh
(rum and coke is also called Cuba Libre in some places...)
Per Schroeder wrote: eat lots of conch fritters. drink. snorkel. not exactly in that order.
Add yahtzee till 3AM and "try to find best bloody mary by trying them all back-to-back," and I'm in...and jealous.
Oh, and as "Gar," the 80 year old dude I worked with at a golf course in Florida used to say "Don't let your dork hit the sand!" That E36 M3 is no joke man.
The fishing is excellent there.
2nd on the Kalik, its a great beach beer. i will say, skip the conch fritters and head straight for the cant-get-it-in-the-USA cracked conch. i think i've had that for 95% of my meals when in the Bahamas. its just so good! if the conch isn't your thing, snapper or grouper will be top notch.
as for fishing, most of the resort/marina restaurants will let you bring in your catch from you day on the charter, and they'll prepare it for you for dinner that night.
Sorry to disappoint, but I do very little business there, and have not gone there....Yet. Have studied it well, though. Decent government and police. No political crap. Had some problems a year or so ago with a financial scammer that caused international grief, but none of this will affect a casual traveler. Very beautiful island, British heritage, but modern in all ways. I believe high speed internet is widely available. Very friendly people with no animosity towards Americans. Very different from Jamaica. No fancy entertainment palaces, just laid back. I will also chime in on rum. Good stuff that you won't find in the states, often well over 100 proof. Check out a rum shop, like a corner bar for the locals. You will relax.
cwh wrote: ...British heritage...
That explains it all. Former British colonies are always the nicest ones in the islands. Way nicer than the American or French colonies.
Salanis- Beg to differ a bit. MOST of the former UK colonies are quite nice. Exclude the biggest one, Jamaica. Those big all inclusive resorts have 12' high fences with razor ribbon on top. Not there to keep guests in. If you leave the enclave, you will encounter outright hostility. At least I did. FWIW- Go to the CIA site to check on any country for lot's of good info for tourists. They say that TCI has a population of under 50K, probably why I don't get much business there.
+1 on Kalik. Grand Turk has a lot of great diving/snorkeling.
Nothing sounds good to me. I'm planning on turning the phone off and just vegging out some. Fishing is on the list though, my dad loves to fish. Glad to hear it isn't too touristy, I hate those types of places.
The house is sitting on 6 acres on the beach. Supposedly there is a really nice reef just off the beach. There is snorkeling gear available to use as well as a couple of glass bottomed kayaks.
Toyman01 wrote: Nothing sounds good to me. I'm planning on turning the phone off and just vegging out some. Fishing is on the list though, my dad loves to fish. Glad to hear it isn't too touristy, I hate those types of places. The house is sitting on 6 acres on the beach. Supposedly there is a really nice reef just off the beach. There is snorkeling gear available to use as well as a couple of glass bottomed kayaks.
That's the way to do it, IMO. We go to a spot in the BVI as often as money and time permit (i.e. RARELY,) get a place that's less than 5 minutes from a private beach. Snorkel (alone) till the boats start coming in, get lunch and bloody marys, take a nap, repeat.
Speaking of "turning the phone off," yeah. Do that. I never had to worry about it, but I heard horror stories of $500+ phone bills.
I've wanted to go fishing every time, but it never fit in the budget to do the guided thing, and I didn't want to try to fight with getting my fishing rod on the plane. We saw tons of Tarpon last time we were down.
Turning the phone off because I've been on call 24/7/365 for 7 years except for one week two years ago. Every time the damn thing rings on a weekend I cringe.
cwh wrote: Salanis- Beg to differ a bit. MOST of the former UK colonies are quite nice. Exclude the biggest one, Jamaica. Those big all inclusive resorts have 12' high fences with razor ribbon on top. Not there to keep guests in. If you leave the enclave, you will encounter outright hostility. At least I did.
Yep that's one of those places where it's easy to find the bad kind of excitement.
Ever used the cheat codes in GTA3 to make everybody go nuts and shoot at each other? There are real places like that in Jamaica 
A BIG tip on phone calls in the islands. Get a Magic Jack for your laptop and put a US phone number on it. Presto- free calls to the US!! A number of my clients do that in Trinidad and Barbados. It's weird to see caller ID from the Keys and hear the island accent on the other end. Yes, you can receive calls as well.
Nice house! Now that's how you celebrate 50 years together!! Congrats to your folks!!
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