Turks and Caicos with Kids: Six Days That Worked

I took a self-catering flat on Providenciales for nine days in June with a three year old and a seven year old, and the week cost less than half of the resort version once the flights were paid. The six days below are the ones worth repeating, chosen on three things: the walk from the flat, what the day costs, and whether anyone melts down before lunch.

All prices are what I paid, and the taxi figures are for a run from the airport unless the line says otherwise. The flat sat a five minute walk from Grace Bay, which is why two of the six picks are mornings you can reach on foot without a car.

I had no rental car for the first four days and hired one for the last three, and the split worked better than either option alone. Everything below notes how the place is reached, because on a small island the difference between a walk and a taxi decides whether a plan happens or quietly does not.

Grace Bay before breakfast

The water at Grace Bay is waist deep for a hundred metres and the sand is soft enough that nobody argues about shoes. I went down at seven, when the light is flat and the beach belongs to the dog walkers, and was back in the flat by nine for breakfast.

• Free every day, no booking and no gate.
• Take the boogie board, the small waves are the whole point for a three year old.

The reef sits about 60 metres out and the water changes colour there, which gives the older child a target to swim towards. After nine the chairs fill and the vendors arrive, so the free part of the beach is best used before breakfast rather than after it.

Sapodilla Bay for shallow water

Sapodilla sits twenty minutes from Grace Bay and the water stays knee deep for a long way out, which is the difference between watching a child and holding one. There is a small charge to park, the sand is coarser and there is no restaurant, so I take lunch from the flat.

The road in is short and the taxi back to the villa cost about 15 dollars. There is a shaded picnic area behind the sand and a small shop for water and ice, and cars are kept off the shoreline in the late afternoon, which leaves the last hour of light quiet.

Bight Beach and the Thursday fish fry

The Bight has a playground behind the beach, a stretch of shade from the casuarinas and a fish fry that runs on Thursday evenings, with conch, grilled fish and a steel band at picnic tables. The whole thing costs about 15 dollars a head for food.

The children eat early at six, the music starts after, and I walk home along the sand rather than joining the taxi queue. Bring cash, because the card machines give up when the queue forms.

Chalk Sound: an hour that costs nothing

Chalk Sound is a bright shallow lagoon on the south side of the island, and the road along it is free to drive. I stopped for an hour, watched the iguanas on the rocks and skipped the paid kayak rental, which the older child would not have used anyway.

It pairs well with Sapodilla, five minutes apart, so the two fit into one slow afternoon. The iguanas are used to people and will take bread from a hand, which is the only wildlife encounter of the week that needed no booking and no guide.

A half-day boat from Blue Hills

Snorkel trips leave Blue Hills in the morning and run about three hours for 75 dollars an adult, children half price. The boat stops on a reef shallow enough for the seven year old to stand on, and the crew hand out noodles and fins that fit small faces, which is where most trips fail children.

Ask at booking whether the boat has shade over the back deck. Ours did, and the return leg in the afternoon sun needed it. The crew ran a rope in the shallow water for the smaller child to hold, and the trip came back twenty minutes early, which turned out to be the reason I could still eat at a table instead of at the counter.

Middle Caicos: the long taxi, the empty beach

Mudjin Harbour is an hour from the airport by road plus a short walk down to the beach, and it is the only place on the trip where I had sand to myself in June. The walk down is steep with steps in one section, so a child needs a hand both ways.

I booked a driver for the day at around 140 dollars, split with another family, and it replaced a beach day rather than adding to the schedule. I left at nine and was back by four, with a stop for lunch on the way that cost 30 dollars in total, and the children slept through the drive home.

The week at a glance

If the week only holds four of these, keep the two beach mornings, the Thursday fish fry and the boat, because they cover weather, budget and the one thing the children still talk about. Everything else can flex around the flights.