D.C. Area Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
XP anyone been to turks and caicos?
random post i know, but we are trying to figure out some travel plans this year and we want to do a beach vacation where did you stay? what did you do? if you have been to other islands, how does it compare? begining to explore this for a vacation in May and curious what the wise nesties think. jamaica is also a possibility but have heard mixed reviews.
Re: XP anyone been to turks and caicos?
my old roommate went and stayed at club med with girlfriends, they had a really good time. i think they mostly stayed at the resort, beached, and took trapeze lessons. she actually ended up working for club med (teaching snowboarding and trapeze) for several years.
we aren't big beach vaca people* but i do want to get to san juan and other parts of puerto rico.
*really mr. cheeky is the non-beach person. i'd quite happily spend a week on the beach drinking umbrella cocktails. especially if there's some kind of shaded cabana and cabana boy to bring said cocktails.
I really liked the Turks and Caicos. The beaches and water are beautiful. A friends parents had a house there (rough life) so I have no recs on resorts or anything. We laid on the beach, went snorkeling and drank fruity drinks :-)
Other favs include Barbados ( we stayed at Almond Resort Casuarina) and St.Barts/St.Maarten.
I'm DYING to go to Turks & Caicos. My brother and SIL went on their honeymoon and had nothing but amazing things to say about the beaches, restaurants, diving, everything.
They supposedly have some of the best dive spots in the world right off the coast of Providenciales (sp?). I was looking into going there at the end of April with DH, but just couldn't seem to find a place that was within the budget we wanted to spend. We're probably going to end up going to La Romana in the Dominican Republic just because I feel like we'll get more luxury for the $$. We're not huge foodies, and all I want to do is sit on the beach while he goes diving, so it should work for us - but if we had some extra $$ to throw at a vacation, we'd absolutely go to T&C.
DH and I went there for our very first vacation together - nearly 10 years ago. I loved it - the beach is the prettiest I've ever seen, and at that time it was really underdeveloped. There was this amazing hole in the wall cuban restaurant that I still dream of.
We stayed at The Sands at Grace Bay. It was really nice and I still dream of the fish tacos at Hemingways. Yum!
We had a brief stay on Provo before our whale trip. I was pretty underwhelmed. It just wasn't our style, but it certainly has merits. It is very beautiful and the weather is great. I'll give it that. We just thought it was a bit over-commercialized. For example, they have go karts. And mini golf. It wasn't away enough for us, if that makes sense. (Bear in mind that our usually trips involve planes, boats, backs of pickup trucks, etc to get us there.) And man the food was expensive. I remember being truly shocked at how much dinner cost. Overall, I'd say it gets points for being an easy vacation. (And heaven knows there is a place in life for easy vacations!)
Compared to other islands, I'd say it is similar to Aruba. I am personally not a fan for many of the above reasons. Both just strike me as Caribbean versions of Myrtle Beach. It's pretty different from Jamaica. I'm not sure how to describe exactly. Jamaica would be a bit more adventurous, or less if you go to an AI and don't leave. And Jamaica is lusher, like many of the other islands.
That being said, I wouldn't not go there. If it is what you are looking for, you'll love it. In fact, I'm planning a trip with our friends and their 2 yo, and I'm considering renting a house on Provo. It's an easy place to get to and dive and have a toddler. But for the most part, places that attract toddlers tend to scare us.
My favorite islands are St. Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, the BVIs and a few in the Grendadines.
Since you mentioned Jamaica I'll throw in that we've stayed at Couples resorts three times and would go back every year if we could. Couples Negril is our favorite. It's NOT very adventurous - just all-inclusive beach paradise all the time in beautiful weather. And little red flags you post in the sand if you don't want to walk 20 feet to get your own Dirty Banana or Hummingbird or other libation.
They have lots of water and sports activities like snorkeling, scuba (extra $$$), waterskiing, catamaran (booze) cruise to cliff-jumping site, volleyball, pool volleyball, tennis, etc., and lots of activities led by very friendly but never pushy activity directors: cooking classes, dance lessons, cocktail/liquor tastings, games, contests, etc. Sometimes it's a little cheesy but if I know you and W at all I would say you probably wouldn't mind it at all. : )
If you decide to explore the idea of Jamaica more, just let me know and I'll write you a novel and send you some pics. Happy beach trip planning!
I responded to your post on the Travel board a few minutes ago. Basically my response was that we really liked it there and thought Grace Bay Beach was beautiful. We haven't been to other islands, so nothing for us to compare it to. Personally I didn't feel like Grace Bay Beach was commercialized or overly developed, but that's just me.
We stayed at the Veranda which I would call a boutique AI. AI isn't necessary on T&C, but we didn't really want to think, just relax. We did go to another resort one evening for drinks which was fun.
thanks for all the posts! funny that Veranda is on the list of potential places (first Spain, now T&C....where is your next trip so i can just follow that!!!!)
we are saving for a more exotic, longer trip to Argentina for next winter (summer there Malbec! Patagonia! FOOD!) so this is meant to be sipping cocktails on the beach for four or five days and unwinding. our first beach vacation was our honeymoon and we were hooked on the beach vacation.
and I have read/heard mixed things about Jam. (ya mon!).....on one hand i don't want to be tied to a resort only but i am also betting the warnings of it being unsafe are a little overblown (i mean DC is unsafe if you do to the wrong areas)....
dmuppet...shoot me a note!