Things to know about Beaches Turks & Caicos before you book

Where is Beaches Turks & Caicos located?

What is included at Beaches resorts?

When they say everything is included at Beaches, they mean it. During our stay at Beaches Turks & Caicos, we didn’t get our wallets out a single time. The kids ate too much ice cream and drank too much soda; we snorkeled daily, ate at a new restaurant for every meal and visited the water park — and it was all included in the nightly cost of our room.

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I was happy to see that Beaches Turks & Caicos had a coffee shop and patisserie that opened at 6 a.m. so I could have my morning coffee as soon as I woke up.

Another convenient inclusion at the resort was the complimentary childcare for kids from age 0 to 17. There are several child care facilities for different age groups, and private child care services are available for an additional fee.

I was also surprised to find that Beaches offers both motorized and nonmotorized water sports and access to a 45,000-square-foot water park.

The resort also has a video game lounge, arcade, sports courts, yard and beach games, and several themed parties and activities each week. Learning that we could party with “Sesame Street” characters without paying an additional fee was almost too much for my kid-at-heart brain to process.

Like many resorts, Beaches has a 24-hour fitness center with cardio and strength equipment. You can also attend free daily fitness classes like Zumba, tabata and aqua fitness. Private training sessions are available for an additional fee.

The only activities that require an additional fee are spa treatments, private dinners, off-site excursions and certain “Sesame Street” character activities like sunrise yoga, room decorations for birthdays and anniversaries, character breakfasts, and — my personal favorite — the “Night Night, Sleep Tight” where a character tucks your child in before bed. You can also book a free 20-minute photo session, though you do have to pay to purchase the photos.

Beaches Turks & Caicos has two Red Lane Spa locations in different sections of the resort. Both locations are full-service, offering massages, facials, body scrubs, manicures and pedicures, but one outlet is only for adults while the other also offers treatments for kids, teens and families.

Kids and teens can have nail treatments and facials, and family packages include things like a “Dad and Dudes” spa day with a pedicure and massage and a “Queen Bee and Her Honeybee” spa day with a foot bath, massage and scrub or mask.

Beaches has a no-tipping policy

There are several room types and levels of service

Each of the resort’s themed villages has several room types to choose from. When you make your reservation, you can choose which village you’d like your room in and whether you prefer a ground-floor walkout room or a balcony room.

There are plenty of water activities at Beaches Turks & Caicos

For PADI-certified scuba divers, Beaches offers daily scuba excursions for no additional fee (equipment included). If you aren’t certified but are interested in trying out scuba diving, you can get certified and dive, all in one day, for a fee of $140.

My family is not certified, but the resort also offers snorkeling excursions for no additional fee. After getting outfitted with fins, masks, snorkels and life jackets, we took a short boat ride to a large coral reef teeming with marine life.

You can also borrow snorkeling equipment and walk to the nearby Princess Alexandra National Park for your own snorkeling excursion right offshore. Other complimentary water sports include kayaking, paddleboarding, windsurfing, waterskiing, snuba and glass-bottom boat rides.

There is daily — and nightly — entertainment

There is never a dull moment at Beaches. The resort is large enough that you can enjoy quiet, relaxing moments alone or with your family, but if you want fun and excitement, you don’t have to look far.

In addition to daytime activities like poolside games (my youngest and I won the piggyback-ride race), beach volleyball, and arts and crafts like tie-dyeing T-shirts, there is nightly entertainment for guests of all ages.

On the first night of our visit, for example, there was a stage show with “Sesame Street” characters in the early evening, followed by a beach party with live music and dancers (and lots of audience participation). On the second night, we attended a street party with dinner, a “Sesame Street” character parade, local vendors, dancers and games for kids.

During our stay, we also attended a family dive-in movie night (which does involve a pool!), but there were plenty of other activities to choose from as well, like a kids talent show, a silent disco, family bingo and more.

The resort also has late-night activities like a nightclub and live music for older kids who want to spend time with tweens and teens their own age. There are also several adults-only activities like a casino night, karaoke and a dance club.

Beaches has camps for kids of all ages

Beaches Turks & Caicos has six child care programs:

• Infants — ages 0 to 2
• Toddlers — ages 3 to 4
• Navigators — ages 5 to 7
• Adventurers — ages 8 to 10
• Tweens — ages 11 to 14
• Teens — ages 15 to 17

There are two kids club locations, but within those locations the activities are divided by age group. All activities are supervised by staffers and nannies certified by the International Nanny Association and International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards.

Beaches prioritizes accessibility

Beaches Turks & Caicos takes accessibility a step further than wheelchair-accessible guest rooms, pools and public areas. Only two of the restaurants are not wheelchair-accessible (one is on the second floor of a building, and the other is in a sandy beach location). The resort will also work with guests to accommodate dietary restrictions and allergies, so that all guests can enjoy Beaches’ variety of dining experiences.

Beaches has both standard wheelchairs and beach wheelchairs available for guest use (a refundable deposit is required), and motorized scooters are available to rent through the resort.

You can make most dining and activity reservations upon arrival

At Beaches Turks & Caicos, most restaurants and activities do not require advance reservations (meaning you don’t have to make a reservation before arriving at the property). You can even visit the majority of the restaurants on a walk-up basis. And for the restaurants that do require reservations, you can usually make them at the front desk when you check in or anytime during your visit.

Beaches Turks & Caicos has 21 restaurants with every type of cuisine, from seafood and pizza to Caribbean-inspired meals and even British pub fare. Of these, only the Kimonos hibachi grill requires reservations.

The same is true for most of the resort activities. The excursions you need to book ahead of time (which you can do upon arrival) are things like snorkeling, scuba diving and glass-bottom boat rides that leave at a certain time and have a limited capacity. If you are borrowing equipment like snorkels or kayaks to adventure on your own, you don’t need a reservation.

The only things that may book up before you arrive are “Sesame Street” VIP packages (like character breakfasts, nighttime tuck-ins and character yoga), off-resort excursions, private meals and spa treatments. These may be available after you check in, but you can book them ahead of time to guarantee availability.

For most of our meals, we walked up to the restaurant and were seated almost immediately. And this isn’t only true for buffets. The restaurant called Neptunes, for example, serves Mediterranean fare, and we had no trouble getting a quick seaside seat for breakfast.

In addition to sit-down dining and buffets, Beaches Turks & Caicos also has a jerk truck next to the Aqua Center where you can borrow water sports equipment or head out for snorkeling and scuba diving. It’s the perfect spot to fuel up before an afternoon on the water.

There are 5 ‘villages’ … and 1 on the way

Beaches Turks & Caicos is a sprawling resort with five “villages” — French, Caribbean, Italian, Key West and Seaside. Within each village are various accommodations, dining outlets, pools and activities. The good news is that you can easily walk between all of the villages or take advantage of the resort’s complimentary shuttle transportation.

It doesn’t matter so much which village you stay in, but you could strategically choose a room in a village near your preferred pool, the water park, the kids club or the beach. The resort is very walkable, though, so you could also choose your room based on aesthetics. We stayed in the Key West Village and, as a native Floridian, I felt right at home.

During our stay, we could see an all-new village under construction. Neither the theme for this village nor an opening date has been announced.

Regardless of where you stay, I recommend taking a complimentary property tour on your arrival day (or the following morning). Two guided tours are offered each day — one in the morning and one in the afternoon — to help familiarize guests with the property and everything there is to do during their vacation.

You are never far from a pool

Beaches Turks & Caicos has 10 pools and four hot tubs. There are multiple pools in each village, so you never have to go far to cool off. But keep in mind that you aren’t limited to the pool(s) in your village — you can explore them all at your leisure.

The Iguanas Pool in the Caribbean Village has a volleyball net and basketball goal, and the Italian Village pool hosts daily pool games for more active swimmers, while the Cascades Pool in the Caribbean Village is more relaxing with a waterfall hiding a quiet grotto. Several of the pools also have swim-up bars, though even those that don’t are only a short walk away from a cocktail or mocktail.

There is also an adults-only pool in the Key West Village if you are visiting without children (or want to drop them off at the kids club for a bit and have some time to yourselves).

All of the pools had plenty of lounge chairs and umbrellas, but the larger pools also had cabanas available to rent. Cabanas include towels, loungers, a cooler stocked with cold drinks, and butler service if you want to order additional food and drinks.

Beaches has its own water park

In addition to its 10 pools, Beaches Turks & Caicos has a 45,000-square-foot water park called Pirates Island. For my family, it was the perfect size. It was small enough that I felt comfortable letting my older son do the “big kid” slides on his own but large enough to have something for everyone.

If you get hungry while you are at the water park, there are two food trucks — one serving ice cream and another with several variations on the kid-favorite macaroni and cheese.

There are special adults-only areas, too

Though Beaches is a family-friendly brand, there are several adults-only areas around the property.

There is an adults-only pool in a quiet corner of the Key West Village. There are also two adults-only restaurants, one indoor and one outdoor.

The Cricketers Pub, a traditional British pub, becomes an adults-only venue with pool tables and karaoke after 10 p.m. Several of the nighttime entertainment options, including Liquid Night Club and couples game night, are only for the 21-and-older crowd.

The resort is on a famously stunning beach

Thanks to its soft, white sand and clear, calm waters, Grace Bay Beach consistently ranks as one of the world’s top beaches. The large barrier reef that surrounds much of Turks and Caicos not only keeps the large waves at bay, making the beach perfect for young swimmers, but it also supports a thriving and biodiverse marine environment.

Luckily, you don’t have to venture far to observe Grace Bay Beach’s marine life. The boat ride we took to our snorkeling excursion only took three minutes. But, when we walked down to Princess Alexandra National Park, there were smaller collections of coral in shallower water that my kids could stand up in.

I’ve been to several Caribbean beach locations and the snorkeling here was the easiest to access and had the largest (and most beautiful) variety of fish I’ve ever seen.

The beach is lined with beach chairs and umbrellas for use by hotel guests. Cabanas are also available for an additional fee or for guests staying in butler suites.

How to save money on your stay at Beaches

Is Beaches Turks & Caicos worth it?

I enjoyed everything about our stay at Beaches Turks & Caicos. My only regret is that we didn’t stay longer. The resort has so much to do that I feel like we only scratched the surface during our stay (actually, maybe the problem was that we spent all our time snorkeling).