By Amanda Hodey
My family and I (husband, two girls ages 8 & 11) have now traveled to Beaches Turks & Caicos (BTC) five times from the UK. Originally, we only flew out for 1 week from London with our 15-month old daughter, then visited again when she was 23-months old to take advantage of her still being free to take on holiday! We have added on other cities to the trip but love returning to this resort. Below I’m sharing our Beaches Turks & Caicos review for your next family adventure!
Flights and Travel
I would not recommend traveling to Turks & Caicos for only 1-week from the UK, as the flight is 11 ½ hours via Antigua. Thankfully, there are now two flights each week with British Airways from Gatwick on Thursdays and Sundays. You can now easily do 10 and 11-night holidays instead if you don’t want to do 14-nights. We have, however, done 17-nights on our 4th visit to reach our ‘free week’ after 70 paid nights with Sandals and Beaches.
All four of us still love it, so much so I have literally just booked again for a week next August after we are done with a 10-night fly-drive round Florida’s Gulf coast and the Keys. It’s ideal to add onto the end of a Florida-based holiday, as there are direct flights from Fort Lauderdale and Miami. We have previously done Disney, Miami, then BTC, which was an amazing holiday!
Our Experience
It is worth booking during the UK 2-4-1 sale period (March-April) to obtain the best prices, especially when you have to go during the school holidays.
We have only ever left the resort once for an excursion (we come here to have fun and relax!). It was the Mermaid Submarine Tour when our girls were 3 and 6. Needless to say they were spellbound!
We renewed our wedding vows at the resort for our 10th anniversary in 2014 with Shanrika as our planner. We did pay extra for the colors I wanted, bouquet, and 4pm time-slot. Otherwise, it would have been 9am. As my girls and I had our hair done at the salon, 9am was not an option!
My husband and I use the spa every time we go, as the therapists are so good. Now that we are Emerald Level members, we receive a free couples’ massage each time we go!
Food and Drinks
We love 20 out of the 21 restaurants we have been to (we don’t like Indian food, unfortunately). We very rarely have to wait longer than 20 minutes to be seated if it’s busy. If it’s too busy, we just choose another restaurant – remember there are 21 of them! There is a great variety of food, even for fussy kids. We have a rule for the girls on holiday that they need to try a new food every day. It works amazingly!
The swim-up bars are loved by all, as are the choice of pools and the water park.
Staff and Accommodations
The staff is amazing – some do have bad days, but don’t we all! Just remember – you’re on laid-back Caribbean time. Say please and thank you. Manners go a long way, as does a smile.
We’ve stayed in all 4 villages, preferring the more central Caribbean and Italian Village locations, but none are a long way to walk around. I have booked Key West again for next year, though to mix it up a little, I requested the Western side which is next to the IV.
So?
Hopefully our Beaches Turks & Caicos review conveys how much we love this resort. We definitely can’t wait to go back next summer and then look forward to visiting Beaches Barbados as well!
