We stayed Sunday December 7th through Sunday the 14th with a family of six (five adults and one 8-year old). Leaving a lengthy review below for all those who are doing research!
Before I get into it, I highly encourage you to write down the names of every service worker who you enjoyed. I didn’t find out until day 3 that there’s an incentive program for staff who are specifically recognized either through the app, on Google, or Trip Advisor. I wish this had been made more known, because we had excellent service from about 90% of the staff we interacted with. 9% was neutral, and only 1% was “bad” (more like off putting). We likely interacted with close to 300 staff during the week, so I’m not concerned at all about that 10%. I’ve worked in hospitality for over 13 years, and would consider their service far above par.
Overall I highly recommend Beaches Turks and Caicos. Although it is absolutely geared towards families with children, our mostly-adult group had a blast. We stayed in two rooms in the French Village, and if I were to return, this is likely the area I would choose to stay again. This time of year was so beautiful with all the Christmas lights. It basically stayed at 80-84 the entire trip, with only 1-2 days having about 10 minutes worth of rain.
Before I get into all the food/activities/amenities, please remember that spending time relaxing and doing nothing is one of the best parts of vacation. The rooms, courtyards, and restaurants are great to sit back and enjoy.
Airport and customs was super easy. I’ve flown internationally multiple times and found PLS to be one of the fastest experiences, both entering and exiting the country. The shuttle ride to the resort was quick, and check in was relatively smooth. You can’t check in til 3pm at the earliest, and we did have to wait an additional ~half hour or so until our room was ready. You can leave your bags at the front and go enjoy the resort. We went and got a bite to eat and sat by one of the pool areas while we waited.
Room was comfortable. The only gripe I have with the rooms was the pillows being uncomfortable and our bathroom fan not working. But honestly, you’re here to enjoy everywhere else. Room is just basecamp, so we really weren’t concerned about either. Mini fridge is stocked full of sodas and juices, with the option to get certain wines and beers stocked as well. Room service comes 2-3 times a day. There was one point, and only one that I know of, that room service showed up at like 7-7:30 at night. It caught me completely off guard, and have never experienced room service that late at night. We put our do not disturb sign out in the mornings and evenings, that way towels and mini fridge could get restocked during the afternoon while we were out.
Pools 💦
First I want to touch on towels and chairs, because that was something I read a lot of concerns about. We almost never had an issue finding a towel, and we proactively looked for towels before heading down to the beach at each of the towel locations (there’s 2 at almost every pool area). I think there was maybe one occasion where we couldn’t get a towel, and we had plenty of time to air dry on our walk back. I found a chair at every water feature - pools, waterpark, and ocean - with zero issue. Every time I was on the beach we managed to find a covered chair as well.
French Village is hands down the best pool from my experience. Italian was always packed and full of kids so we didn’t go into that one at all. Italian also has some of the most traffic because it’s one of the main entrances to the beach. Caribbean has an adult only hot tub overlooking the beach, which we LOVED. We went into Caribbean pool once while waiting for our pizza at Napoli’s and enjoyed the swim up bar. Key West is very private and we only walked through the area once. French Village at night time was always so empty, and we loved getting to enjoy some of the open air theater shows from the hot tub. I thought the water temps were perfect everywhere we went, but I’m used to swimming in 68 degree spring water back home.
Water park 🛝
We had an 8-year old in our party so we spent quite a bit at the waterpark. Lazy River is great, but it can be quite busy. However we had zero issue getting a tube every time we went down to the area. Sometimes you’d have to pull one off the river or look along the path but there was always plenty. If you truly want to float and not be bothered you’re better off bringing your own floatie from home or one of the MANY that get left at the resort, and going down to the beach than the lazy river. Plenty of fun slides and areas for all ages.
Beach / Activities 🏝️🌊
Loved the beach, minus some of the people trying to sell you on hair braiding and activities. We entered in through the Caribbean area to avoid most of them. There was man in particular who actually upset us - and tried pressuring us into giving him the fish we caught on our deep sea fishing excursion. He was pretty pushy and had to be told no 3-4 times.
Found a chair every time. We had red flags one day and yellow flags two days. We went out earlier in the day (between 9:30-11ish) to check and based our plans around the flags. I will say if you want to do any of the activities that require lessons (or have the ability to do them solo, like with the hobies) - do so early in your stay so you can have more flexibility later on.
We did several of the activities - glass bottom boat tour, kayak rental, hobie sailing, and family photo shoots. The glass bottom tour was too full, and I would recommend the clear kayaks instead. We also booked a private deep sea fishing and snorkeling excursion at the Caribbean Village. We got to keep several of the fish and brought them back to eat at Schooners. Chef Chris did a phenomenal job, and came out multiple times to talk to us. Absolutely fantastic meal and service. The snorkeling was hands down the best part of the entire trip. Our captain took us out to the coral reef and we were able to snorkel for about a half hour, and even helped us take some underwater photos. We also did the family photos for “free” — however it’s $22 per photo and they are not edited. You’re almost better off bringing a high quality phone, a selfie stick, and doing them yourself (or heck pay another guest to come grab photos lol).
One of my favorite activities was the silent disco/silent headphone dance party. I’ve done these in the past, and I had an absolute ball. 10/10 recommend if you enjoy dancing. I do wish they offered more of these earlier in the evening. We went to one of the ones that started around 8-9ish, however there’s another offered way past our bedtimes 😅
Restaurants 🍴🍽️
I would consider myself a foodie. I spent several hours reviewing every restaurant and its menu, and created an in depth ranking sheet with all the meals I wanted to try. I got about 80% of my list done. I’m just going to highlight some of my favorites.
Le Petit Chateau - Absolutely my FAVORITE spot in the entire resort. I tried about 60% of the menu between two visits, with our table sharing our dishes. Hands down the best customer service here from Shakeem. He is truly a star, and his hospitality set the bar incredibly high the first night of our stay. We spent our last dinner meal here, and thoroughly enjoyed Hayon’s service. Chef Ailon came out and spoke with us, and I was so touched by the conversation we had. He is literally a French chef, and I am so grateful we got the chance to meet him.
Reflections - I actually did not have any of the buffets on my list, however Reflections definitely had the best buffet. Part of our crew went here 4-5 times between breakfast and dinner. The omelette bar was 10/10.
Napoli’s - I’m going to be dreaming about the Anglio pizza for weeks. It was so good.
Schooners - We did breakfast and dinner here. Dinner was phenomenal, and Chef Chris absolutely killed it with our fish from our deep sea trip.
Breakfast really was not anything standout at any of the spots with the exception of Reflections omelet bar. All of the menus and buffets were pretty compostable. You’re better off saving room for lunch and dinner in my opinion, however I’m not a big breakfast person to begin with 😂
Sapodilla’s was recommended to us multiple times, and I think that’s ultimately why we were so disappointed with the experience there. The food was great, however the customer service was the 1% borderline bad/off putting.
I loved Soy and Kimonos. Food was fantastic. I don’t recommend Kimonos on days you have low energy/had too much to drink the night before (or earlier in the day lol). Your chef needs you to be ready to have fun - and one of the folks in our party was too hungover to enjoy the experience 🥲
Service Shoutouts 🙌🙌
The following folks (and several that I missed) deserve a shoutout:
Shakeem - La Petit Chateau - hands down the best service of the entire week.
Susan - Dino’s - great service
Stanley - Dino’s - great service
Anika - Giuseppe’s - great service
Nasha - Reflections - a close second on best service. My mom added her on Facebook and is trying to convince her to take a trip to the Midwest in the future.
Susan - Jerk Truck - great service
Chef Chris - Schooners - absolutely phenomenal. Chris did a fantastic job cooking our fish and I loved the personal touches at our table.
Claude - Schooners - great service
Rosemarie - Schooners - great service
Genier - Caribbean Village / went out of his way to open door for us!!!
Garnet - Caribbean Village / walked with us to get us to the right restaurant along his route.
Happy / Chef - Arizona’s - Happy had great service, the the Chef was kind enough to serve us nacho cheese during dinner service when it’s not typically offered.
Odane - Arizona’s - Odane was one of our favorites. The 8-year old in our party was mesmerized by him bringing multiple drinks on his head to the table throughout the night.
Berthonise- Sky - great service
Mannasee- Napoli’s / Caribbean Pool - great service
Anderson / Prophet - Aqua rentals - great service
Joseph - Photos - great service
Hayon- Petit Chateau - loved Hayon!!! So friendly and full of smiles.
Ailan- Petit Chateau Chef!!! - this was hands down the best way to end our stay here. Chef Ailan has true love for his work, and I was overjoyed to have met him.
Jumar- gosh I hope I got his name right. Jumar was one of the first and last folks we interacted with when arriving and departing. He was so friendly and helpful.
So folks - that’s it! If you’re still here - kudos to you for reading my novel. Happy to answer any questions you may have 😊
