I realize this is another recap that took me forever to write – but this trip had a ‘first time for everything‘ moment.
For the Thanksgiving long weekend I ventured to Turks & Caicos, specifically Providenciales, with my mom and her bestie.
If you’d like to see how much this trip cost, you can click here. However, as you read this post, you’ll quickly find out about the other costs that unfortunately came up.
Saturday, October 11th
We flew with Air Canada from Toronto to Montreal to Providenciales.
I liked Montreal airport a lot!
They had so many comfy seats and good snacks to buy. A quick tip, if you don’t want to spend a fortune on liquor in Turks, just stock up at Montreal (or whichever airport) you are flying from. Turks and Caicos allows 2 liters of wine per person to be brought in, and those bottles are $20.00 at YUL. They are much more in Turks. Take advantage.
Please listen to me – PAY FOR THAT FAST TRACK TCI. If you are reading this, it is totally worth the money, click here if you want to use it yourself. When you land they will take you into their own special line to bypass all security, and it will save you so much time. The airport in Providenciales is small and can get super busy!! This is worth the money, I am so happy we paid for it. Between landing and being outside was under 10 minutes.
I also splurged a little (I mean yeah, I’m in Turks!) and booked us a fancy-pants car with Fast Track TCI to drive us from the airport to the AirBnB. Even got lucky to be upgraded to a 2025 Cadillac. So awesome. Felt like a super star, even if it was just for a quick drive.
We arrived at our AirBnB in the Grace Bay Beach area in no time.
The link to that is here.
This spot was perfect for the three of us. There were 1.5 bathrooms, a laundry, and a nice outdoor sitting area. Also, the air conditioning was WORKING because outside was really hot. I did like that the host had a bunch of towels and also anything you could possibly need for the beach; chairs, bug spray, sunscreen etc. Super clutch.
Oh, and the best part? Under five minutes to walk to the beautiful Grace Bay Beach.
Naturally, we dropped our bags and walked over to Grace Bay Beach immediately to catch the sunset.
It was perfect.
However, it was DUMB hot and the mosquitoes will eat you. Make sure you bring repellent and sunscreen, lots of it.
About another 17-20 minutes walk away was a large grocery store named Graceway Gourmet. We decided to hit up the grocery store to stock up in the AirBnB, so we didn’t spend all our money in going out to eat.
The groceries are still very expensive, the only place I have seen them cost more was Nassau in the Bahamas. Crazy. But water, juice, sandwiches, fruit ….. the goods. Got em.
I would suggest also making this walk only in the evening, although the mosquitoes will destroy your whole body, at least the heat will only half-kill you at night. So hot.
While we were walking back from the grocery store we saw a cool looking Mexican food spot, and we decided this could be a good choice for dinner on our first night.
The name of it was Skull Rock Cantina.
I thought the food was just OK, but the drinks and the staff were great. If you are really hungry and in the area, this would suffice.
Sunday, October 12th
Today we woke up, made some sandwiches, packed our cooler with water and walked over to enjoy our first full day at the beach.
Grace Bay Beach is voted #1 pretty much every year for best beach, I can confirm it is very nice. It would not be #1 for the ones I’ve seen, but nonetheless, a beautiful beach.
It is vast and it was super quiet because we were there during low-season.
One thing that was super annoying and ridiculous was there were no umbrellas or chairs for rent ANYWHERE. Yes, we brought the little chairs to sit on from the AirBnB, but I like to lay down in the shade. There is no damn shade, the resorts are empty but won’t let you pay to use their stuff either.
We found an area where (allegedly) there is a dude who yells at people and he shows up after 1pm to rent chairs. No idea, we didn’t actually see him for long.
The waves at the beach were pretty powerful today and everyone seemed to be losing their sunglasses in the water. The wave would hit them and bam, no more sunglasses. We had a running joke with other tourists on the beach for everyone to keep an eye out for sunglasses washing ashore.
After a while, my mom’s sunglasses were victim to this. Gone into the Grace Bay Beach abyss. Hoping they would wash up while we were sitting there.
At one point I saw a dark shadow in the waves and thought it might be her sunglasses, so I went running into the water. But see, I am a really big person so waves hitting me isn’t as hardcore as someone, lets say, shorter, lighter and 30-years-older than me. Like, my mom.
Yeah she came running in for those glasses and BAM! Wave hit her and flipped her over. She scraped her knee and also pulled a muscle in her thigh pretty badly.
A group of tourists from the States were sitting near us and they came to help me get my mom back to our chairs on the beach. However, she was not doing well with the pain and it was easily 43 degrees Celsius outside. Not ideal conditions for someone of her age and being in pain.
I had to bite the bullet and call an ambulance to the beach to come get her. They arrived pretty fast and I went into the ambulance with her.
Again, the lovely people sitting near us helped my mom’s friend pack up all the gear we brought and helped her carry it. Also, some nearby gentlemen on the beach even helped carry the stretcher in the sand, that my mom was on, all the way to the ambulance. I’m eternally grateful for the kindness of the strangers sitting near us on that beach and their willingness to help.
My mom and I rode the 25-30 minutes to the ambulance with the paramedics. As we they put her in a wheelchair, we entered the hospital and immediately the lady at the front goes – yeah that’ll be$400 USD.
Fucking. Hell. FOUR HUNDREED AMERICAN DOLLARS?? That was the cost of just the ride in the ambulance and for the doctor to see her, it would be additional costs if any testing or other procedures would be done. Yep, handed over my American Express and kept it moving.
Make sure you ALWAYS travel with travel health insurance folks. If you are reading this, let this be a lesson to never travel broke and never travel without travel health insurance. Because even if you do have the insurance, it isn’t direct billing in another country. You have to pay that ASAP and then get reimbursed when you get back to your country. Rough day.
We waited about 90 minutes to be seen by a doctor, he was lovely. He said my mom just had to wrap the muscle and make sure to get a tetanus shot when she got back to Canada for the scrape. We were lucky, no additional payments to be made for the care and we were good to go back to the AirBnB.
Hopped in a taxi and got back to our nice and air conditioned condo. Had my mom elevate her leg, that was the best we could do.
We were fortunate that earlier in the day an acquaintance had stopped by with some homemade curry goat and rice. Hallelujah. It was divine eating that and not having to go back outside after such a stressful day.
Monday, October 13th
Being that my mom was unable to hobble around to the beach today (plus it was raining) – I decided to walk over to eat. Eating will always be a mandatory on vacation for me, rain or shine. I will find something to eat.
I walked over to a nearby spot called The Patty Place.
Make sure you get the shrimp patty with coco bread. These things were the size of my head. Also, they have a lot of ice cream choices, make sure to indulge in that.
After eating, I took a little stroll by myself on Grace Bay Beach. Figured I’d check if my mom’s sunglasses magically had appeared, they had not.
It was stinking hot after the rain so I moseyed on back to the AirBnB and watched the Blue Jays in the playoffs instead.
Spent the rest of the day just relaxing, writing some blog posts and checking on my mom to see she was OK.
We had dinner reservations for our final night at the famous Coco Bistro. People said this was one of the best restaurants on the island, so we had to go there.
Thankfully this was only a 10-minute-walk from our AirBnB, so my mom was able to do the walk!! Yay.
This place is beautiful, pricy, but damn beautiful.
We got the lobster spring rolls as our starter, yummy. Along with that, we got some tequila shots, yes, also as part of our starters. If you’re in pain, tequila usually will do the trick. I loved that they had chilled tequila shots as well, this makes everything more delicious….until you check your bill and see each shot was $22.00 USD. But. YOLO. I’d do it again
For our mains my mom got pasta, her bestie got a seafood curry and I got the lobster. All three dishes were delicious, you would not go amiss choosing any of them.
I also got their coconut pie as my dessert, perfect ending.
Listen, this place will cost you, but you’re here for a good time not a long time. You should splurge. The food and ambiance was perfect, and the staff was really nice too.
Tuesday, October 14th
Today was the day we flew home to Toronto.
In the morning we went to get some croissants at a place called Tribe. Like a little breakfast you know? Something light.
While my mom finished packing, her bestie and I went for one last swim on Grace Bay. The water today, of course, was perfect. The waves were non-existent. Just our luck right?
Got back to the AirBnB, took a shower, finished packing and went to the airport to fly home.
I don’t know if I would return to Turks & Caicos. Nothing against it, just wasn’t my favourite place. Maybe because of everything that happened with my mom, it left an unhappy feeling in my mind? But it was just OK. Grace Bay Beach is beautiful, do not get me wrong, but I didn’t feel that ‘aweeeeeee’ like I did when I saw Anse Source d’Argent in Seychelles or West Bay Beach in Roatan. That doesn’t mean it isn’t gorgeous, it really is. Maybe I have become a beach snob.
Moral of the story – don’t travel broke.
- Mirna