Turks and Caicos

[charby]

Wife really wants to go there this March. Her friend got married there a few years ago and she thinks she needs to go. Anyone been there before? Im trying talking her out of the idea because it just looks like a bunch of resort hotels and a scuba diving destination.

Neither one of us scuba but we have talked about becoming certified in the future. I want to cave/mine dive someday and she wants to spend like 10 minutes in the water looking at fish (least how I understand it) I looked into scuba instruction and neither one of has the time to get it done before March.

I am really trying hard to pitch a Rome/Florence/Venice/Pisa trip or Prague/Budapest trip instead. Her traveling experiences overseas have been staying at a resort hotel complex and mine have been wandering off the beaten path and packing the most minimalist luggage possible. Last time I was overseas (Poland, Germany and Netherlands) my total luggage weighed less than 40 lbs for two weeks traveling.

7 days and six nights will around $2,200 each just for airfare and hotel at Turks and Caicos. We could have a pretty damn good 7 day trip to Europe for 4k.

Hell we could go to Jamaica for $2200 total for 7 days/6 nights but she is worried that we might get abducted or something.

So someone tell me something spectacular about Turks and Caicos so I'll just agree and write the check.

-Charby

[Art Eatman]

Neat place.  Dunno if their law still requires it, but you fly into Caicos, and then to leave you take a local puddle jumper to Grand Turk for the return flight to the States.  Local puddle jumper means 1,000 feet AGL, so you can look at the sharks, and smell the fresh veggies being toted by local passengers.  Sorta informal flight; the copilot yells back, "Hey!  Buckle up your lap strap; Big Daddy's about to leave!"  We taxied past a lot of crunched dopers' planes.

My motel on Caicos was about $100/day.  On the west side of the tiny island, right by the water.  A dive boat's flag was maybe forty feet out, where the bottom drops off vertically to some 2,000 feet.

Coming back, I stayed at a big motel/club deal on Grand Turk.  Miss Turks & Caicos had placed third in the Miss Universe contest, so they were having a helluva party.  I fell in with some Canadians for a while ("The states are a great place to shop, but I wouldn't want to live there.") and a localized "boat tramp" from Fort Liquordale, Florida.

I had a good time.  Didn't meet many local residents, but the ones I met were easy to get along with.

Art

[K Frame]

Several friends have been there and all speak VERY highly of the place.

Very expensive, though.

[charby]

Art

So what is there to do there? good fishing? interesting geography?

or is it one those lay on the beach, eat, and drink vacations?

Charby

[Art Eatman]

I wasn't there long enough to really learn about that.  I went down as a courier for some business folks offshore banking stuff.

Do some Googling.  Any tourist joint has some websites, nowadays.  But I'd imagine the fishing (well, offshore, anyway) oughta be good.  Diving is supposed to be excellent.

Art

[charby]

Art

All I have found so far is that its a expensive diving destination/eat/drink/beach resort area. Sounds kind of boring to me after a day or two since I don't dive yet.

Charby

[Art Eatman]

Yeah, diving seems to be the main deal.  Hard to get a bar conversation to stay interesting if everybody else is a monomaniac about something you don't do...

Art