Rwhiting
Contributor
Just got back from a great 1st trip to Provo. Travel on U.S. Air through Charlotte was uneventful. We rented a car from Avis, and while the full sized Rodeo was expensive, we were glad for the better ride it afforded on the rough island roads (which was most of them).
Diving:
Caicos Adventures is a great dive op, as many on this board have posted. Everyone on the crew - Andy, Clair, Ollie, Richard and Lil - could not have been more helpful, professional and fun to dive with. The boat is spacious, well equipped (full sized head!) and very comfortable - all very important on the 45 - 60 minute runs to West Caicos and French Cay. We dove primarily on W. Caicos, with one day to French Cay and one dive on the channel off W. Caicos. Dive profiles were all fairly similar drop down to reef at 40 feet, swim over to the wall, go down to 70 90 feet, swim along the wall, then circle back to the boat. While the vis was not spectacular, it was still typically 60 - 80 ft (except the channel dive - very murky below 20 ft. depth, but we did see an eagle ray and some of the biggest groupers of the trip). Reefs and walls are very healthy, and big fish action abundant - reef and nurse sharks on almost every dive. Small stuff was there too cleaner and Harlequin shrimp (spotted on a purple tipped anemone), drums, arrow crabs etc. My 17 year old son did the 2-tank resort course a very special experience to share his first dives with him. He did 49 and 55 minutes on the first 2 tanks of his life! I am a proud poppa, and Ive got a new dive buddy! Andy and Clair were wonderful doing the pool work and actual dives with him. I did my Nitrox certification course with Andy, who again was very patient with an old dog learning some new (and rather mathematically involved) tricks. Fifi's Yorkie Poochie accompanied us on every trip
Accommodations:
We rented the top floor of a villa called Crystal Sands, on Sapodilla Bay on the south side of the island. Highly recommended - right on a fabulous beach, newly built, beautifully furnished and landscaped, reasonably priced. Some of these rentals that look great online can be dumps when you get there - this is not the case here. We loved the privacy and space the south side location offered, and its only 10-15 minutes from the dive boat dock, IGA grocery store, Turtle Cove and Grace Bay restaurants.
Restaurants:
I kind of divide the places to eat into 2 categories the resort areas have more elegant ambience, but you pay for the privilege. Then there are the local eateries, with more authentic Caribbean cuisine and much lower prices. In the first category:
Aqua ***/$$$ - expensive, but we were able to save money by asking for the lunch menu even at 6:00. Very good, nice Turtle Cove marina view.
Hemingways - **/$$$ - decent food, great Grace Bay views
Caicos Café - ***/$$$ - best food preparation of the expensive restaurants outstanding Caicos shrimp (grilled), grilled snapper, veggies with each that had a delicious spicy sauce but the tab was $140 for 3 of us (only ordered 1 beer with dinner too).
Tiki Hut - **/$$ - we went for the Wed Chicken and Rib special good food, nice Turtle Cove view.
Shark Bite **/$$ - Had a great lunch there try the grouper sandwich done jerk style yum! Lunch prices were reasonable.
In the hole-in-the-wall category:
Hole In The Wall - ***/$ - Outstanding jerk chicken and curried conch, accompanied by tasty beans and rice. Entries $10 or less.
Smokies - ***/$ - Local hangout in Blue Hills area great fresh seafood again, entries less than half the price of Grace Bay, but very well prepared.
Bugaloos - ***/$ - All conch, all the time literally brought from the ocean to your plate - very nice!
Misc.
The island itself is not particularly attractive, but the powdery white sand beaches, incredible water colors, and the diving are among the best in the Caribbean.
Bring bug spray and anti-itch stuff. Especially early evening and anywhere that theres not a beach breeze blowing, you can get eaten up.
There are a lot of feral dogs on the island very sad, but the local SPCA is very active, and you can even adopt an animal if you want to help.
The trip turned out to be everything my non-diving wife and I wanted picture perfect beaches and total relaxation for her and lots of first rate diving for me. If anyone wants details like individual sites, dive log info etc., please feel free to PM me. Thanks again to all the great advice I got from this board.
Rich
Diving:
Caicos Adventures is a great dive op, as many on this board have posted. Everyone on the crew - Andy, Clair, Ollie, Richard and Lil - could not have been more helpful, professional and fun to dive with. The boat is spacious, well equipped (full sized head!) and very comfortable - all very important on the 45 - 60 minute runs to West Caicos and French Cay. We dove primarily on W. Caicos, with one day to French Cay and one dive on the channel off W. Caicos. Dive profiles were all fairly similar drop down to reef at 40 feet, swim over to the wall, go down to 70 90 feet, swim along the wall, then circle back to the boat. While the vis was not spectacular, it was still typically 60 - 80 ft (except the channel dive - very murky below 20 ft. depth, but we did see an eagle ray and some of the biggest groupers of the trip). Reefs and walls are very healthy, and big fish action abundant - reef and nurse sharks on almost every dive. Small stuff was there too cleaner and Harlequin shrimp (spotted on a purple tipped anemone), drums, arrow crabs etc. My 17 year old son did the 2-tank resort course a very special experience to share his first dives with him. He did 49 and 55 minutes on the first 2 tanks of his life! I am a proud poppa, and Ive got a new dive buddy! Andy and Clair were wonderful doing the pool work and actual dives with him. I did my Nitrox certification course with Andy, who again was very patient with an old dog learning some new (and rather mathematically involved) tricks. Fifi's Yorkie Poochie accompanied us on every trip
Accommodations:
We rented the top floor of a villa called Crystal Sands, on Sapodilla Bay on the south side of the island. Highly recommended - right on a fabulous beach, newly built, beautifully furnished and landscaped, reasonably priced. Some of these rentals that look great online can be dumps when you get there - this is not the case here. We loved the privacy and space the south side location offered, and its only 10-15 minutes from the dive boat dock, IGA grocery store, Turtle Cove and Grace Bay restaurants.
Restaurants:
I kind of divide the places to eat into 2 categories the resort areas have more elegant ambience, but you pay for the privilege. Then there are the local eateries, with more authentic Caribbean cuisine and much lower prices. In the first category:
Aqua ***/$$$ - expensive, but we were able to save money by asking for the lunch menu even at 6:00. Very good, nice Turtle Cove marina view.
Hemingways - **/$$$ - decent food, great Grace Bay views
Caicos Café - ***/$$$ - best food preparation of the expensive restaurants outstanding Caicos shrimp (grilled), grilled snapper, veggies with each that had a delicious spicy sauce but the tab was $140 for 3 of us (only ordered 1 beer with dinner too).
Tiki Hut - **/$$ - we went for the Wed Chicken and Rib special good food, nice Turtle Cove view.
Shark Bite **/$$ - Had a great lunch there try the grouper sandwich done jerk style yum! Lunch prices were reasonable.
In the hole-in-the-wall category:
Hole In The Wall - ***/$ - Outstanding jerk chicken and curried conch, accompanied by tasty beans and rice. Entries $10 or less.
Smokies - ***/$ - Local hangout in Blue Hills area great fresh seafood again, entries less than half the price of Grace Bay, but very well prepared.
Bugaloos - ***/$ - All conch, all the time literally brought from the ocean to your plate - very nice!
Misc.
The island itself is not particularly attractive, but the powdery white sand beaches, incredible water colors, and the diving are among the best in the Caribbean.
Bring bug spray and anti-itch stuff. Especially early evening and anywhere that theres not a beach breeze blowing, you can get eaten up.
There are a lot of feral dogs on the island very sad, but the local SPCA is very active, and you can even adopt an animal if you want to help.
The trip turned out to be everything my non-diving wife and I wanted picture perfect beaches and total relaxation for her and lots of first rate diving for me. If anyone wants details like individual sites, dive log info etc., please feel free to PM me. Thanks again to all the great advice I got from this board.
Rich
