Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

Grand Turk is an island just past the Bahamas near Cuba and Hispaniola. It’s relatively small and pretty difficult to get lost. Because of the size and relatively easy navigation, renting a car without worrying about navigation is a definite possibility but it isn’t a place you can walk if you plan to sight see.

Grand Turk is a port city with both an airport and a cruise ports. Cruise ships docket almost the southernmost part of the island. The port has nice places to shop, eat, a beach and even many water excursions leave from the cruise port. However, if you choose to see the sights, you must have a vehicle to leave that area. The place to see if in Grand Turk is front street and also the national museum is near there. Other than that, there really isn’t much to do if you plan to stay dry, the island is mostly a hot spot for water sports.

Governor’s Beach and Sun Ray beach (the cruise ship beach) are gorgeous! without a doubt. Both are free and Governor’s Beach has free parking. Words cannot describe how absolutely breathtaking the water is in Grand Turk. One feature that struck me is that about a yard out from the island there is a HUGE drop off and the ocean is incomprehensibly deep. Imagine, the cruise ship is able to dock right on the beach. That also brings me to a word of caution: There are no lifeguards on the beaches.

Disabled access notes- there is a lot of cobblestone and sand all over the island. This makes adventuring out whether walking or in a wheelchair close to impossible for most disabled people. This is even true of the cruise port. I rained the day we went and the walkways were visibly uneven; I could see water collecting in the low spots. On either side of the pier where cruise ships dock, there’s beach. Sun Ray beach (the cruise ship beach) is absolutely free which is awesome HOWEVER, the sand was extremely hard to walk on. It’s not compacted like some islands/countries/ beaches you may have experienced. Also, the beach has quite a slope to it. The most practical to get around is definitely to rent a vehicle.

Transportation options- walk around the port, pay a taxi to take you around the island, pay for a ride share/ bus situation, rent several different types of vehicles. Any of these choices are perfectly safe; I had absolutely no apprehensions around any of the people or areas in Grand Turk.

There are limited free wifi spots on Grand Turk in the cruise ports. A couple places I found access were outside of jewelry stores. My suggestion is to always be careful when using free wifi. The most important is never to do anything that requires a password or that contains sensitive information like accessing your bank while on free wifi in or outside the U.S.; you never know if the hotspot has been set up to phish. Margaritaville’s have free swimming pools and advertise free wifi but I have found in some countries they require purchase. The Margritaville in Grand Turk is awesome! It’s very close to the cruise ship. I highly suggest hanging there for free all day. 
What I did- My husband and I have been only been to Grand Turk once (in 2019). My favorite thing to do the first time I visit a place is to see historic sites. So we visited a few different historic sites, including Front Street and the Lighthouse. We also looked around cruise port; if you fly in, you generally won’t be able to access cruise ports because they check for ship keys for added security. It’s not one of my favorite cruise ports but we found some great deals on souvenirs. We visited Governor’s Beach and Sun Ray beach; parking is free. There are beach vendors that sell local food and a few souvenirs. There are coral reefs off the island that you have to see to believe.

Take with you- Take cash. Grand Turk is small so follow my advice about downloading a good map before you go; it’ll be useful and is really easy to follow. Be sure to wear whatever shoes make you comfortable. I’m most comfortable in sandals not sneakers/ trainers. ALWAYS wear sunscreen. I also always take a cheap poncho because you never know when it might rain in the Caribbean. We were wearing ponchos the day we went and still got soaked. I even wore sneakers because they were recommended. It was gross.

Special note for Grand Turk: You could probably skip everything and hang out at Margaritaville all day. That’s absolutely no shade at the island, it’s beautiful. I’m not even a big fan of Margaritavilles. But this one is great (if you can take loud music or if you’re like me, bring ear plugs or noise canceling headphones). You can even spend a little to rent a small enclosure or an umbrella space with a cooler.