My boyfriend and I recently found ourselves blessed with an opportunity to travel from Florida to the Turks and Caicos Islands to stay at the beautiful Blue Haven Resort. This was not our typical vacation, as we are much more the rustic and thrifty type of travelers, but we were lucky enough to know the management at Blue Haven and be offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to stay at their luxury and all-inclusive resort.
When we arrived at Blue Haven we received a warm welcome from hotel staff including the General Manager, Nabil. The hospitality throughout our entire stay was impeccable and we enjoyed the food, drinks, and water sports that the resort has to offer. Although, I must say we most enjoyed the tranquility and privacy of the resort during our stay.
Day 1:
Our short, sunny flight from Miami lasted just over an hour and we were able to see several island chains beneath us surrounded in bright blue water during our flight, including the Bahamas. When we landed in the small airport in Provo, we got through immigration quite quickly and were on our way to explore paradise.
Our view from the cabin on American Airlines We flew round trip for $224 each!
We arrived at Blue Haven around 6pm and spent the evening exploring our penthouse suite and enjoying a bottle of complimentary wine on our balcony as the sun set over Mangrove Cay. We also saw a sea turtle swimming in the channel beneath our balcony minutes after arriving! A light rain started around dinner time, so we stayed local and exercised our all-inclusive benefits at Salt Bar & Grille. The food was delicious and probably our favorite of the trip.
Day 2:
We woke early to the sound of ocean breeze, excited to embrace the day. We caught the sunrise off our private deck and witnessed an osprey carrying breakfast to its nest. I cannot express how peaceful the mornings are in TCI. Every day we felt like we were the first ones to rise and enjoyed the tranquility the island has to offer.
As of late, we’ve been pretty obsessed with bike riding in downtown Tampa and thought we would take the beach cruisers at Blue Haven for a spin. We took off towards Grace Bay and stumbled upon a few great beaches along the way.
“Construction Beach” – a small private beach behind a construction area at the northern tip of Leeward.
Princess Alexandra National Park
This is us on Grace Bay Beach! We prefer the smaller, more private beaches such as “Construction” and Princess Alexandra to the larger, popular ones but still had to check it out.
Later in the day we opted for a 1/2 day snorkel tour through Caicos Dream Tours that included a trip to Iguana Island, fresh conch salad and sliding off the top of the tour boat into the middle of the ocean. I didn’t get a ton of great iguana photos, but the trip to the island is definitely worthwhile and they are everywhere! We got to snorkel just past the barrier reef and were amazed and the different species of fish and coral we could see. The tour even dropped several guests off at different hotels along the beach as we made our way back to the drop-off point. How cool! Did I mention we did all this while sipping free rum punch?
Day 3:
Another morning of catching the sunrise was a must and again we were captivated by the stillness of the mornings on the island. We decided to explore the beaches of Long Bay by bicycle and pedaled for a few short miles before being greeted with the amazing views of the beach. Long Bay differs from Grace Bay in that it is much lighter in color due to staying shallow for almost as far as the eye can see. Locals say this is the most popular spot for kite surfers on a windy day.
Early morning adventure to Long Bay
We journeyed back to Blue Haven for breakfast at Fire & Ice, where I enjoyed the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict (and a mimosa). We had to fuel ourselves up before spending a few hours riding jetskis around the ocean! It was a pretty windy day once we got out there, but we had a blast filling our faces with salt water and racing across the bright blue water for a couple of hours.
Smoked Salmon Benedict from Fire & Ice
Burgers & Mimosas on the private beach at Blue Haven
Day 4:
(I’m never coming home…)
Okay, I wish that was the case. Instead, we made the most of our last day on the island and awoke early to catch the sunrise and pedal off to a drop-in yoga class at Beach Enclave Long Bay. We arrived a little early and thought we may have gotten the information wrong as the retreat looked a bit deserted. Come to find out, this location is brand new and was still undergoing minor renovations at the time and the class was technically not open to the public yet.
Luckily for us, we were greeted by a kind instructor, Anika, who let us join her for the 7:30am session. It ended up being just the three of us on a private deck overlooking the ocean and there was not a noise out of place the entire time. So peaceful. Anika led an intense session that had us questioning our flexibility and strength. In the end, it was a challenging and awarding experience that we were in awe to be a part of.
Feeling relaxed, we pedaled our way back to Blue Haven and decided to take the kayaks out for a spin through Mangrove Cay. BEST DECISION EVER. Through the crystal clear ocean water, we saw several baby lemon sharks, tons of spotted puffer fish and many more sea turtles! We were grateful for another day of sunny weather as we quickly packed up the penthouse and took a cool shower to rinse off the days saltwater adventures.
When we arrived at the airport, we learned the power was out and the entire place was running on generators. The rooms were pretty hot, even with the doors open and the breeze rolling in. Unfortunately for us, we had spent all of our cash and they were not accepting credit card due to the power outage. We stared with our chins practically dragging on the floor at all the travelers enjoying a crisp lager while we fanned ourselves and willed for our plane to arrive. The island is pretty cash-free aside from tipping, but we definitely wished we would have come more prepared.
January 2019
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