The Turks and Caicos Islands are made up of eight main islands and a host of tiny cays situated about 575 miles southeast of Miami and 100 miles north of Haiti. The two separate groups are both scrub-covered limestone outcrops that are no more than 250ft above sea level, and in many places are close enough to sea level to form salt ponds and mangrove swamps.
The Turks and Caicos Islands have the third largest coral reef system and some of the best tropical beaches in the world, making it a premier beach, diving and snorkelling destination.
The best known and most developed of the Caicos islands is Providenciales, more commonly known as “Provo”, which covers an area of 38 miles. It is surrounded by white sandy beaches and iridescent, intensely turquoise waters that appear almost surreal. Grace Bay is Provo’s most famous beach which stretches for an incredible 12 miles and is where most of the water sporting activities take place. You can take your pick from world-class diving, snorkeling, water-skiing, deep-sea fishing and bone-fishing, and, if you’re lucky you may even spot “Jo Jo” the bottlenose dolphin that frequents the waters here.
Inland, there’s not much to see other than low-lying scrubby vegetation and, particularly in the Turks Islands, large expanses of salinas, from which Bermudian settlers and traders harvested salt during the islands’ early development.