Beautiful white sugar sand plus clear water in a beautiful shade of blue make Turks and Caicos a popular vacation destination. When reading about the island we have always been intrigued, but yet it was a place we had not visited until now. What made us choose Turks and Caicos for this trip?? I was under the influence of a Facebook group of mamas who travel! Several travelers in that group recommended the Beaches resorts…not only for the beautiful beaches and all inclusive nature, but also for a special kiddie perk that is near and dear to our family!
For those of you not familiar with Beaches Resorts they are group of all-inclusive resorts for families and couples in the Caribbean. It was founded in 1997 as part of Sandals Resorts International. Sandals is a parent company to five resort brands across seven countries. There currently three Beaches resorts: two in Jamaica and one in Turks & Caicos.
You might be curious about the kiddie perk we mentioned above that led to us choosing Beaches Turks & Caicos for this vacation. The main driver for heading to Beaches is that Rosie absolutely LOVES Sesame Street. We are not talking just a little bit. Our angel is Elmo’s biggest fan and has been since she first saw Elmo’s World. We have been to a few other places to see the Sesame Street Characters, including Sesame Place (an amusement park outside of Philly) and Sea World Orlando (which has a new Sesame Street themed section). Once we learned that the Beaches resorts have a Sesame Street relationship we were sold! The resort has Sesame Street shows, meet and greets, activites, etc… and any Sesame loving child can get their fill of Sesame Street here.
Since we live in a place that has winter, we typically take a trip in January/February to someplace warm to escape the snow. Our trip to Turks and Caicos was was in February and it was VERRRRY cold when we left! It’s the best feeling to be boarding a flight to somewhere warm 🙂 We stayed in a hotel at the airport due to an early morning flight. Plus, that gets the trip going a day early! The morning flight paid off and we made it to Turks and Caicos around 10:30 am.
We love the prep and planning for a trip almost as much as the trip itself. This has paid off numerous times with ways to figure out how to make our travel easier and how to best travel with our little one. In preparations for this trip, we read several “vacation nightmare” stories about the wait times and lines at the Turks and Caicos airport. One travel hack we read about is the Fast Track TCI Service. This company can be hired to assist you in using a shorter line for customs and immigration, as well as booking travel to and from your hotel. You can visit their website here. We used their service to traverse immigration quickly. It was TOTALLY worth it! We flew past the long lines. This would be something we would enjoy any time, but it was especially helpful with our toddler in tow. We went ahead and used Beaches transport to get to the hotel since it is included in the cost of the trip.
TCI Desk and Representatives meet you upon arriving at the airport 
Immigration line
The Beaches shuttle pickup is easy to find as they have reps all over outside the airport. However, the line for this was also very long. You wait in line to check-in for the shuttle, and then they assign you to another waiting area for your shuttle. This can be kind of frustrating because they do not explain how they assign the shuttles (it is based on which part of the resort you are staying in). It was a little chaotic waiting to board a shuttle. It appeared to be lacking organization and we felt it took longer than we expected to get going. While none of this was the end of the world, based on the cost of the resort we expected something a little less chaotic. We had contacted Beaches beforehand to see if we could book a private transfer from the airport, but they state that at this location, private transfer is only available for guests in Butler Suites. Looking back on it, we wish we had booked private transport through TCI to avoid this shuttle mess.
After a 30-40 minute wait to board our shuttle, we took a 20 minute van ride to the resort. The van dropped us off at the check-in location for our Beaches hotel. The Beaches TC resort has 4 distinct “Villages”. It is basically 4 hotels with different appearances and room types all at this same resort. We were staying in Key West Village, so our shuttle took us there. Upon exiting the shuttle we were greeted with a cool beverage…Vacation had begun! We enjoyed our cocktails while waiting to get checked in. After about a 10-15 minute wait we were checked in and a Beaches representative escorted us to our room.
When we arrived at our room, the Beaches rep gave us a quick tour. We chose a 1 Bedroom Concierge Suite. How does one choose a room at this giant resort? A little bit of online reading and a lot of guessing! We ended up with this room because there was a separate location for Rosie to sleep (she goes to bed uber early like many toddlers) and our favorite and deciding feature was the washer/dryer that this room promised! That’s right, there is a washer and dryer in the room! Some people wouldn’t dream of doing laundry on vacation but with a newly potty-trained toddler the ability to wash clothes is almost priceless!
This room was really like a small 1 bedroom/1 bathroom condo. It had a small front porch, a living room with couch (that converted to a bed), dining area, kitchen with a full size stocked fridge (water, soft drinks, wine, juice, beer, and liquor of choice), a small closet area, a large bathroom, a master bedroom, washer and dryer, large oversized bath towels, and lastly a small back porch with a table and chairs. Our room was one of our favorite things about the resort!
As far as toddler needs, there was a crib provided that we requested, and the room also had a high chair in it. The resort has strollers available for rent…and this was a need since we didn’t bring a stroller. The size of the resort is large, so having the stroller was amazingly useful when bringing a small toddler from place to place. In addition, having available outdoor space adjacent to accommodations is an absolute must when our toddler is napping. Neither one of us likes to be forced to sit in a dark room during nap time. We love to have additional room space and most importantly, outdoor space to sit and read or enjoy the sunshine while Rosie gets her rest.
Our Front door
The beach peeking out between the houses in front of ours 
Front porch furniture
Fridge with water coke products and juices 
Provided dish soap and Purell! 
Full Size Fridge and Stove
Toiletries provided 
Plenty of towels 
Things we loved: beautiful room, spacious set up, washer and dryer, two outdoor seating areas, comfortable beds, oversized bath towels for a hotel, fridge with drinks stocked daily, ceiling fans in the rooms, plentiful TV channels, nice location close to beach, TCI assistance through the airport.
Things we didn’t love: Beaches shuttle/wait times, TC airport is very small and crowded, and thats about it. Just to recap, the Turks and Caicos airport is really small and it can get backed up very quickly.
Stay tuned for a more in-depth review of the restaurants, pools, Sesame Street activities, and beaches, etc…
For information about TCI Fast Track at the airport click here.
For more information about booking a vacation at Beaches Turks and Caicos, click here.
Lux Travel for Families 
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