Big John
Contributor
I just returned from a trip to Beaches Turks and Caicos, an all inclusive resort from the sandals family of resorts. I will break this up into the land and sea components. This was a family vacation and I would highly recommend this vacation for a family or those tolerant of lots of kids running around.
On the land side Beaches is an all inclusive destination with 16 restaurants and Sesame Street themed children's programs. The staff was incredibly friendly, the childcare options plentiful and the service was great. My oldest daughter is 11 and we basically did not see her from the third day on. I was up and moving by the time she woke up and in bed by the time she returned from the pre-teen activities. She was well supervised and presented many activities to enjoy with her peer group during the day. My younger daughters used the drop in approach to child care, if there was an activity that drew their interest we would drop them off and pick them up later at a centralized location.
There are several pools on the property, but only the pool at the Italian Village is heated which causes some competition for chairs during the day. If you have not selected a chair before 8am you may be out of luck. I have an early riser so our first activity in the mornings was to go pick out our chairs for the day. This was really the only annoyance I faced the entire stay.
The food is plentiful and ranges from a Japanese Steakhouse to burgers and fries, buffets and everything in between. With 16 restaurants there were only a few waits for dinner and reservations were only needed in the steakhouse and one of the adults only restaurants. The bars are located throughout the property and are well stocked with almost any liquor you can think of.
I can't say enough about the staff, our middle daughter suffered through a bout of tummy trouble while we were there, on one occasion while I was diving and my wife was taking another daughter to an activity she started throwing up. When my wife returned the housekeeping staff not only had cleaned the room but helped my daughter get cleaned up and back into bed with an assortment of drinks not normally found in the fridge.
The grounds are separated into three villages; the Caribbean Village is the oldest part of the resort, the French Village is fairly new and the Italian Village was opened in January. I loop of the resort is a good 15-20 minute walk. A water park was opened on the last full day of our visit.
On the Water side, SCUBA is included for up to two tanks a day and is divided into three boats dedicated to diving. On arrival you must sign the medical wavers and have a doctor's note if you answer yes to any of the questions. If you have a logged dive within 3 months you are cleared to dive without a skills check. The check is simple if you have not been recently; gear set up, giant stride, neutral buoyancy and mask clear. A refresher is required if you have been out of the water for a while.
On most days the diving will be in Grace Bay, where the resort is located, and within sight of the resort. If the wind conditions preclude diving the close sites the boats are moved to the other side of the island, a short cab ride away, and diving is at Northwest Point or on the neighboring island West Caicos. The boat ride is about 45 minutes, but well worth it. West Caicos was spaired the ravages of the fall's hurricanes and was my favorite diving of the trip along with the North Wall on Northwest Point. The diving is wall diving with Open water divers limited to 60 feet and Advanced divers to 100 on guided dives, there is a way to buddy dive but all the sites were new to me so I stayed with that option.
There is plenty of sealife along with coral and sponges to keep divers occupied at whichever level. The dive staff excelled, whether pointing out interesting features or answering questions on the SI. Each had a little different style and you soon found one you tended to want to be paired with. I had the best times with Dani, Carrie, Mark and Marco. To their credit I returned a better diver than when I left.
I was able to get some fairly good dive pictures and they can be found here: .
[URL="I just returned from a trip to Beaches Turks and Caicos, an all inclusive resort from the sandals family of resorts. I will break this up into the land and sea components. This was a family vacation and I would highly recommend this vacation for a family or those tolerant of lots of kids running around. On the land side Beaches is an all inclusive destination with 16 restaurants and Sesame Street themed children's programs. The staff was incredibly friendly, the childcare options plentiful and the service was great. My oldest daughter is 11 and we basically did not see her from the third day on. I was up and moving by the time she woke up and in bed by the time she returned from the pre-teen activities. She was well supervised and presented many activities to enjoy with her peer group during the day. My younger daughters used the drop in approach to child care, if there was an activity that drew their interest we would drop them off and pick them up later at a centralized location. There are several pools on the property, but only the pool at the Italian Village is heated which causes some competition for chairs during the day. If you have not selected a chair before 8am you may be out of luck. I have an early riser so our first activity in the mornings was to go pick out our chairs for the day. This was really the only annoyance I faced the entire stay. The food is plentiful and ranges from a Japanese Steakhouse to burgers and fries, buffets and everything in between. With 16 restaurants there were only a few waits for dinner and reservations were only needed in the steakhouse and one of the adults only restaurants. The bars are located throughout the property and are well stocked with almost any liquor you can think of. I can't say enough about the staff, our middle daughter suffered through a bout of tummy trouble while we were there, on one occasion while I was diving and my wife was taking another daughter to an activity she started throwing up. When my wife returned the housekeeping staff not only had cleaned the room but helped my daughter get cleaned up and back into bed with an assortment of drinks not normally found in the fridge. The grounds are separated into three villages; the Caribbean Village is the oldest part of the resort, the French Village is fairly new and the Italian Village was opened in January. I loop of the resort is a good 15-20 minute walk. A water park was opened on the last full day of our visit. On the Water side, SCUBA is included for up to two tanks a day and is divided into three boats dedicated to diving. On arrival you must sign the medical wavers and have a doctor's note if you answer yes to any of the questions. If you have a logged dive within 3 months you are cleared to dive without a skills check. The check is simple if you have not been recently; gear set up, giant stride, neutral buoyancy and mask clear. A refresher is required if you have been out of the water for a while. On most days the diving will be in Grace Bay, where the resort is located, and within sight of the resort. If the wind conditions preclude diving the close sites the boats are moved to the other side of the island, a short cab ride away, and diving is at Northwest Point or on the neighboring island West Caicos. The boat ride is about 45 minutes, but well worth it. West Caicos was spaired the ravages of the fall's hurricanes and was my favorite diving of the trip along with the North Wall on Northwest Point. The diving is wall diving with Open water divers limited to 60 feet and Advanced divers to 100 on guided dives, there is a way to buddy dive but all the sites were new to me so I stayed with that option. There is plenty of sealife along with coral and sponges to keep divers occupied at whichever level. The dive staff excelled, whether pointing out interesting features or answering questions on the SI. Each had a little different style and you soon found one you tended to want to be paired with. I had the best times with Dani, Carrie, Mark and Marco. To their credit I returned a better diver than when I left. I was able to get some fairly good dive pictures and they can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018929&id=1428644302&l=47be1e13fb
and here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019106&id=1428644302&l=f3b563fe6d
On the land side Beaches is an all inclusive destination with 16 restaurants and Sesame Street themed children's programs. The staff was incredibly friendly, the childcare options plentiful and the service was great. My oldest daughter is 11 and we basically did not see her from the third day on. I was up and moving by the time she woke up and in bed by the time she returned from the pre-teen activities. She was well supervised and presented many activities to enjoy with her peer group during the day. My younger daughters used the drop in approach to child care, if there was an activity that drew their interest we would drop them off and pick them up later at a centralized location.
There are several pools on the property, but only the pool at the Italian Village is heated which causes some competition for chairs during the day. If you have not selected a chair before 8am you may be out of luck. I have an early riser so our first activity in the mornings was to go pick out our chairs for the day. This was really the only annoyance I faced the entire stay.
The food is plentiful and ranges from a Japanese Steakhouse to burgers and fries, buffets and everything in between. With 16 restaurants there were only a few waits for dinner and reservations were only needed in the steakhouse and one of the adults only restaurants. The bars are located throughout the property and are well stocked with almost any liquor you can think of.
I can't say enough about the staff, our middle daughter suffered through a bout of tummy trouble while we were there, on one occasion while I was diving and my wife was taking another daughter to an activity she started throwing up. When my wife returned the housekeeping staff not only had cleaned the room but helped my daughter get cleaned up and back into bed with an assortment of drinks not normally found in the fridge.
The grounds are separated into three villages; the Caribbean Village is the oldest part of the resort, the French Village is fairly new and the Italian Village was opened in January. I loop of the resort is a good 15-20 minute walk. A water park was opened on the last full day of our visit.
On the Water side, SCUBA is included for up to two tanks a day and is divided into three boats dedicated to diving. On arrival you must sign the medical wavers and have a doctor's note if you answer yes to any of the questions. If you have a logged dive within 3 months you are cleared to dive without a skills check. The check is simple if you have not been recently; gear set up, giant stride, neutral buoyancy and mask clear. A refresher is required if you have been out of the water for a while.
On most days the diving will be in Grace Bay, where the resort is located, and within sight of the resort. If the wind conditions preclude diving the close sites the boats are moved to the other side of the island, a short cab ride away, and diving is at Northwest Point or on the neighboring island West Caicos. The boat ride is about 45 minutes, but well worth it. West Caicos was spaired the ravages of the fall's hurricanes and was my favorite diving of the trip along with the North Wall on Northwest Point. The diving is wall diving with Open water divers limited to 60 feet and Advanced divers to 100 on guided dives, there is a way to buddy dive but all the sites were new to me so I stayed with that option.
There is plenty of sealife along with coral and sponges to keep divers occupied at whichever level. The dive staff excelled, whether pointing out interesting features or answering questions on the SI. Each had a little different style and you soon found one you tended to want to be paired with. I had the best times with Dani, Carrie, Mark and Marco. To their credit I returned a better diver than when I left.
I was able to get some fairly good dive pictures and they can be found here: .
[URL="I just returned from a trip to Beaches Turks and Caicos, an all inclusive resort from the sandals family of resorts. I will break this up into the land and sea components. This was a family vacation and I would highly recommend this vacation for a family or those tolerant of lots of kids running around. On the land side Beaches is an all inclusive destination with 16 restaurants and Sesame Street themed children's programs. The staff was incredibly friendly, the childcare options plentiful and the service was great. My oldest daughter is 11 and we basically did not see her from the third day on. I was up and moving by the time she woke up and in bed by the time she returned from the pre-teen activities. She was well supervised and presented many activities to enjoy with her peer group during the day. My younger daughters used the drop in approach to child care, if there was an activity that drew their interest we would drop them off and pick them up later at a centralized location. There are several pools on the property, but only the pool at the Italian Village is heated which causes some competition for chairs during the day. If you have not selected a chair before 8am you may be out of luck. I have an early riser so our first activity in the mornings was to go pick out our chairs for the day. This was really the only annoyance I faced the entire stay. The food is plentiful and ranges from a Japanese Steakhouse to burgers and fries, buffets and everything in between. With 16 restaurants there were only a few waits for dinner and reservations were only needed in the steakhouse and one of the adults only restaurants. The bars are located throughout the property and are well stocked with almost any liquor you can think of. I can't say enough about the staff, our middle daughter suffered through a bout of tummy trouble while we were there, on one occasion while I was diving and my wife was taking another daughter to an activity she started throwing up. When my wife returned the housekeeping staff not only had cleaned the room but helped my daughter get cleaned up and back into bed with an assortment of drinks not normally found in the fridge. The grounds are separated into three villages; the Caribbean Village is the oldest part of the resort, the French Village is fairly new and the Italian Village was opened in January. I loop of the resort is a good 15-20 minute walk. A water park was opened on the last full day of our visit. On the Water side, SCUBA is included for up to two tanks a day and is divided into three boats dedicated to diving. On arrival you must sign the medical wavers and have a doctor's note if you answer yes to any of the questions. If you have a logged dive within 3 months you are cleared to dive without a skills check. The check is simple if you have not been recently; gear set up, giant stride, neutral buoyancy and mask clear. A refresher is required if you have been out of the water for a while. On most days the diving will be in Grace Bay, where the resort is located, and within sight of the resort. If the wind conditions preclude diving the close sites the boats are moved to the other side of the island, a short cab ride away, and diving is at Northwest Point or on the neighboring island West Caicos. The boat ride is about 45 minutes, but well worth it. West Caicos was spaired the ravages of the fall's hurricanes and was my favorite diving of the trip along with the North Wall on Northwest Point. The diving is wall diving with Open water divers limited to 60 feet and Advanced divers to 100 on guided dives, there is a way to buddy dive but all the sites were new to me so I stayed with that option. There is plenty of sealife along with coral and sponges to keep divers occupied at whichever level. The dive staff excelled, whether pointing out interesting features or answering questions on the SI. Each had a little different style and you soon found one you tended to want to be paired with. I had the best times with Dani, Carrie, Mark and Marco. To their credit I returned a better diver than when I left. I was able to get some fairly good dive pictures and they can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018929&id=1428644302&l=47be1e13fb
and here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019106&id=1428644302&l=f3b563fe6d
