You guys, this island is expensive. I just want to throw that out there from the start. If you are looking for a budget friendly beach vacation spot, don’t come here. BUT if you have a bit more disposable income and want to see the most beautiful beach in the Caribbean, have personal interactions with locals on a daily basis, enjoy conch (that huge shell you can supposedly hear the ocean with? There’s a fish in it called a conch!), and can find a cheap flight — Go!

I was going to Florida to visit my grandma in Fort Lauderdale so I was already close to these beautiful beaches, so I figured, why not? I actually asked one of my girlfriends I met on Instagram (Valerie of Let’s Regale) to go. Yes, I met someone on Instagram, but that is for a later blog post. Stay tuned. And she was an immediate YES! Next time someone asks you to go on a random vacation, almost always say yes.

My flight from Fort Lauderdale to PLS was $49 and the flight back to Denver was about $189. Airfare for both trips overall was around $350 and for all of that, it felt like a steal so I was all about it. I have an email subscription to Scott’s Cheap Flights that sends me dirt cheap flights all the time. If you haven’t heard of it, get on it!

So I got in a couple hours before Val but the customs line was really long. T & C is a hot destination around spring break time and March in general. We didn’t really do a lot of research before going, both of us were really busy and didn’t have a chance so we made a couple rookie mistakes.

Number 1: Rent a Car. It’s hard and WAY to expensive to get around in Turks — the first night we went to a restaurant, a bar and then home (probably a total of 3-4 miles) in cabs and it was about $60. One day with a car and it would have paid for itself.

Number 2: Stay somewhere close to a grocery store/food options. We stayed at an Airbnb a few blocks from the #1 beach : Grace Bay Beach. They actually had a ‘butler’ on premise that would drive us across the street to the beach, stop for groceries, and go to one little coffee shop. I wish we were a little bit closer to some of the restaurants and bars, although we only went to a bar one night because one vodka & soda was $15. I KNOW.

Number 3: Book your adventures when you first get there. Things fill up fast this time of year so we got in on a snorkeling adventure our second day there. It was a little too choppy to do as much snorkeling as we would have hoped, but we stopped by a couple different beaches and had an awesome time on the boat.

Number 4: Get off the main island. If we had one more day, I would have loved to take a ferry to one of the other islands. It’s pretty crazy how much is inhabited on the other islands but how beautiful every inch is! They said it was only about a 30 minute ferry ride and fairly cheap to get over.

Number 5: Leave the country as friendly as the locals. They smile, they are happy, and they just want to make you as happy as they can. When you go home, try to bring some of their positivity and love back.

Here’s a link to the Airbnb we stayed at and a couple of our favorite restaurants/bars.

Crust Cafe (coffee and breakfast)

Mango Reef (fish)

Sand Bar (cute lounge, great music, good cocktails)

Bugaloos (live music and good conch)

Weekend Travels: The Beautiful Beaches of Turks & Caicos