Luxury hotels in Providenciales

Providenciales guide

Providenciales: Grace Bay and the Turks and Caicos reefs

One of the world's most celebrated beaches, a long barrier reef and sandbars by boat.

Grace Bay, on Providenciales, regularly appears among the world's best beaches: miles of white sand and calm turquoise water protected by a barrier reef. It is the most cited reason to visit Turks and Caicos.

Take a boat to the sandbars and cays, snorkel at Smith's Reef or Bight Reef, and in winter look out for humpback whales passing through the channels. Chalk Sound's blue lagoon is best seen by kayak, and December to April is the driest season.

Iguana Island and the cays by boat

A boat trip among the cays off Providenciales is one of the most cited experiences in Turks and Caicos: Little Water Cay, known as Iguana Island, protects the endemic rock iguana, viewed from boardwalks, and Half Moon Bay has sandbars and shallow turquoise water.

Trips often include snorkelling on the reef and diving for conch, served as ceviche on the beach. Conch is the national dish, and the Da Conch Shack and the Thursday Fish Fry at Bight Park are local institutions.

Diving the wall and the whales of Salt Cay

Turks and Caicos sit on the edge of a vast underwater wall that drops thousands of metres, and wall diving off Providenciales, West Caicos and Grand Turk is among the most cited experiences for divers, with sharks, eagle rays and turtles.

From January to April, humpback whales migrate through the Turks Island Passage, and Salt Cay, a tiny island with a salt-raking heritage, is one of the best places to see or even snorkel with them under strict rules. Short flights link the islands.