The best Turks and Caicos Islands route for Yacht Charter
The Turks and Caicos Islands are very popular yachting destinations. It is a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean, and northern West Indies. The Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana in The Bahamas island chain, northeast of Cuba and north of the island of Hispaniola.
Providenciales
Your starting point is on an island in the northwest Caicos Islands, part of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Providenciales is the largest island in the population and the third-largest in the area. Island has an International Airport. The main attraction is world-class diving due to the coral reef surrounding the island.
Island is close to a common migration route for the humpback whale. The western half of Providenciales is mostly barren wilderness, home to the island’s natural attraction, Chalk Sound National Park. Park is studded with countless mushroom-like tiny islets and turquoise all around it.
Provo is the most tourist-oriented and developed with many resorts and an 18-hole golf course.
French Cay
Your yacht will be heading the next day to French Cay. Which is a very small low-lying island and the only island in the Turks and Caicos from which no other island can be seen.
French Cay is known to be one of the best places to see sharks. Grey reef sharks are the most common variety, yet nurse, hammerhead, bull, lemon, and tiger sharks can be spotted.
A day spent in French Cay is not a day soon forgotten, whether you decide to take a quiet walk around the island or dive into the shallow depths.
Salt Cay
Your next stop is the second-largest island in the Turks Islands group.
Salt Cay’s name is derived from the island’s long history with seas salt production. Salt Cay is truly an example of an ”island time forgot”. Donkeys, the ancestors of which used to pull carts, now roam freely all over the island.
Recent campaigns have succeeded in getting Salt Cay nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage site, which would make it the only such site in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The best beach on the island is found in North Bay, much of the coastline offers a clean sandy bottom and pristine beach, few coral heads can be found in the water. North Bay beach is also the largest measuring 2.8 kilometers in length.
Grand Turk
After that, you go to Grand Turk. It is the historical center of the Turks and Caicos and is the second most populated island in the country after Providenciales.
Several important historical events have taken place around this small island, including being the likely spot of Columbus’s first landfall in the New World, and the first dry land American astronaut John Glenn stepped foot on after orbiting Earth in 1962.
Parrot Cay
The next day you go to Parrot Cay. An island in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Parrot Cay is a private island with a spectacular beach and secluded luxury COMO Parrot Cay Resort. Exploring the island’s exquisite natural environment is a great way to spend some time. Birdwatching is excellent.
Parrot Cay has had interesting ownership, passing between plantation owners, a Greek sea sponge exporter, an Austrian count, and others. COMO, a Singaporean hotel group, currently owns the Parrot Cay Resort.
Dellis Cay
Your next destination is Dellis Cay, a private island in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Island sits south of Parrot Cay and north of Pine Cay. Dellis Cay is known for its large collection of island shells that can be found along its shoreline.
The island got its name from the Dellis family who lived on the island and earned their living sponge farming in the 1950s. Unfortunately, the island is marred by uncompleted structures on its western beach.
This resort scheme was part of the 2008 luxury Mandarin Oriental Dellis Cay project and the future of development on the island is unsure.
Pine Cay
Another stop on another privately-owned island occupied by 36 homeowners and a small exclusive resort The Meridian Club in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Meridian Club was awarded the Caribbean‘s Leading Private Island Resort 2019 by the World Travel Awards.
Pine Cay was the site of the first tourist development on the Turks and Caicos. Pine Cay is less than a mile wide and two miles long. The main feature of the cay is its spectacular two-mile-long north coast beach, which definitely ranks as one of the top beaches.
Pine Cay is named after the small forest of endemic Caicos Pines that surrounds the interior freshwater ponds.
Water and Little Water Cay
Then you will be heading to Little Water Cay and larger Water Cay is a thin two-mile-long island found in the string of cays between Providenciales and North Caicos. Water Cay is a private island, yet is uninhabited and completely undeveloped.
The ocean here is generally quite calm, and the ocean water is a vibrant turquoise. Much of the coastline is framed by low white limestone cliffs. Due to Water Cay’s close proximity to Providenciales, the island’s beach is a very popular boat cruise destination.
The channel between Water Cay and Little Water Cay, Donna Cut, is now the site of the popular Half Moon Bay Beach and its lagoon counterpart.
Providenciales
In the last days visit our recommended ideas.
Northwest Point National Park, Chalk Sound National Park, Cheshire Hall Plantation, Sapodilla Bay Hill rock carvings, National Museum site, The Hole naturally formed limestone sinkhole, West Harbour Bluff, … Or just have fun with watersports in nearby cays.
