I don’t know why or how I decided on celebrating my birthday in Turks and Caicos, but it was hands down one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made. I was never a woman who thought about their bachelorette party, bridal shower, or anything else that brides look forward to, but I’d made it a point to celebrate my birthday somewhere tropical since I was 23. I figured why not merge my birthday with my bachelorette party and double the reasons to celebrate? I had NO plan together, and not a single detail figured out when we came across a flight deal. It started with two of us booking a flight, me texting a few others saying “hey this is the plan”, and everyone else jumping on board. Once our flights were booked, I was completely on the outside of all of the planning. I sent a few private homes in our group chat and they took it from there, which was a huge weight off my shoulders. My sister Christian, and best friend Anais took control of coordinating with everyone attending, taking deposits, providing information and making plans – a job I am not jealous of. Had I not had a bachelorette trip, I wouldn’t have missed it, but I’m so happy that we did. I will forever look back at the time we spent and smile because it was that much of a good time.

Lodging

We ended up staying at Beaches Turks and Caicos, which was definitely the best choice for our group. We had a large party (originally 12) and that was difficult to accommodate in a single home, even the larger ones. Booking a single home also meant we would’ve been responsible for our own meals & groceries while in the house, as well as transportation to get out for dinner or activities. Beaches is a huge resort with four different villages styled all completely different. We never got around to even seeing the entire resort because it’s that large with so much to do for everyone. You can tell the resort expects a lot of families, since it has an onsite water park and children shows each night, but we were pretty unbothered as adults and didn’t run into very many kids. We had three rooms that were fairly close to one another. I didn’t see inside any of the other rooms, but ours definitely weren’t the nicest. They were a bit outdated, which was fine because we hardly spent any time with them. Also, the housekeeping was not the best. They’d make the beds, replace the towels and leave everything else as is. There was a rug in our room that needed to be thrown out. It was so worn and filthy. They also left a plate of food in our room for two days! Maybe they thought we still had plans to eat it? However, the staff was amazing.

There were so many places to eat and the food was actually very good, which isn’t always the case at all inclusive resorts. The alcohol was top notch as well, which was a pleasant surprise. I’ve been to a few all inclusive resorts that don’t serve the best quality, or serve watered down alcohol to cut costs. Overall, I’d rate the resort 4 stars and would recommend it for your stay. Then again, I have no other resort in Turks and Caicos to compare it to, so do your research. As for us, it was beautiful, accommodating and got the job done.

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Transportation

The resort sets up shuttles from and to the airport. You have to provide them with your flight information prior to your arrival. We had a really kind and helpful gentleman named Adrian pick us up from the airport and take us to the hotel. During the car ride he told us exactly where we should go that evening. He gave us a business card and when we told him we’d need to be able to get to the fish fry in an hour and a half, he offered to take us to all of the spots he suggested for $15 a person. We gladly agreed. He drove us to three different places, walked us inside, then waited for us in the van. He even snapped photos and boomerangs for us! He was sweet, down to earth, and we felt super safe. I would without a doubt recommend Adrian for anyone needing a driver during their time in Providenciales. His contact number is (649) 243-0282.

Striped Crop Top | Striped Shorts 

Itinerary

Thursday

By the time we got situated at the airport and checked in at the hotel, it was closer to 5 pm so we’d pretty much missed out on any time we would’ve had to explore the resort or grab dinner. Once we got into our rooms, we dropped our bags and hit the ground running. I had requested all the girls wear rust and they all looked so amazing in that color! We took a few shots before heading out to our first stop of the evening, the infamous Fish Fry. We got there around 7:30 which seemed to be the perfect time. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but everyone, even the locals, said it was a must. It’s a huge lot filled with food, drink and even jewelry vendors where you can walk around and taste different dishes. The food definitely wasn’t cheap, so expect “food truck” pricing. I paid about $25 for jerk lobster, and $8 for mac and cheese. Once all of us ate and grabbed another drink, we found our way to the stage. There was a DJ and a host who was entertaining the crowd. She asked who was celebrating a birthday, which was me of course and so she calls us up on stage. If you saw our Instastories, once we made our way up there, our true colors really showed. We’re a wild bunch so our time on stage was short lived, but we continued to have fun in the crowd. The music kept going, they had some traditional Turks performers come out in costume and the crowd really loved that. We left there and went to Danny Buoys, a sports bar with a huge patio space. They had a DJ inside and karaoke outside, which was perfect for us. So many of the people from the Fish Fry came over after leaving and recognized us from the stage. They were sending shot after shot! Of course, I couldn’t say no. I easily had 10 shots during my time there. We did a few karaoke songs and literally got standing ovations from the crowd. We may or may not have ended up on a few tables. Around midnight, Adrian took us to a club called Versace that one of the locals recommended. It was a whole in the wall night club which wasn’t the problem, because the music was good. I had been up for almost 24 hours and had had about two dozen drinks, so we didn’t stay long. We got back to the hotel and I saved my own life by chugging a bottle of water with Pedialyte and taking a BC powder. We had an amazing first night.

Friday

I was woken up Friday morning to my sister and best friend Anais trying to sneak around the room to put up a birthday banner and penis confetti LOL! Surprisingly, I didn’t feel terrible. Not good, but functional. We went down to breakfast and started with mimosas and penis straws, then to the beach to spend the day. I struggled until noon guys.

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Walking down to the beach was the first time I’d seen it, since we arrived so late the night before and it instantly made me feel better. Turks and Caicos has the most stunning beach I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes, by far. It truly feels like paradise. We spent our whole day at the beach on the resort, having drink after drink, eating jerk chicken pizza from an on-site pizza parlor, and getting in and out of the water. It was exactly the day I needed after the night I had.

That night, the girls planned a private dinner in a cabana by the beach and I asked them all to wear a shade of “nude”. The set up was stunning. The cabana was draped and had the perfect lighting. We brought our own speaker and set our own vibe. My sister made a game where each of the girls had gifted me a pair of panties. I had to unwrap each pair and guess who gifted me what. If I got it right, the person who got me the panties took a shot. If I got it wrong, I took a shot. I didn’t get any of them right! The game was so much more tough than it sounds. As we waited for our food, the girls asked that I went around the table and talk about how I knew everyone. That’s when it got emotional. Once everyone had a chance to speak about the relationship that we have, I don’t think anyone had a dry eye at the table. It was truly a transparent and heartfelt moment between all of us where each of them expressed how I’d inspired them, encouraged them, been an amazing friend to them, and not a single one of us could hold back tears. In that moment, I felt so freakin’ grateful to not just be celebrating finding my forever with Nate, not just the last year of my 20’s in paradise, but to have a strong group of women who genuinely care for me and took the time and money out to celebrate me. We ended dinner with a toast, then turned our cabana up with our own portable speaker we brought to set the vibe. Even the waiters were clapping and egging us on. The service was great, the food was okay, but the “Happy Birthday to a Bad B*tch” cake was hands down my favorite. We ended up staying at the resort that evening after dinner and went to the night club there, which was actually very pretty and had a great DJ.

Saturday

We got an early start this morning because the mornings in Turks are truly the best part of the day. It was a very laid back trip. All of us came and went as we pleased. Some of us had breakfast, some of us worked out, some of us went straight to the beach. Regardless of our plans, as soon as the sun starts shining, you’re going to want to be out in it. We spent out morning at the beach and had to be ready for our boat tour at 1 pm. I didn’t have many requests for this trip, except for making sure we were on a boat on the water. We did a half day boat ride with Island Vibes Tours and had a helllll of a time. They were prompt, the men were so nice and let us act a fool on their boat. They made some rum punch and had us all hanging off the pole on the boat by the second cup. There’s a sand bar in the middle of the ocean that you can walk on when the tide is low that I was hoping we’d be able to dock by, but the tide was too high. We parked at the shore close by and got off the boat to play around. The boat ride included sandwiches, fruit, rum punch and fresh conch ceviche that was the best I’d ever had. I know that they were so ready for us to get off that boat LOL! We didn’t need anything else to drink, but we found our way to the pool for more shots afterward until the sun set. That night we made dinner reservations on the resort at a steakhouse that came recommended by one of the staff called Sopadillas. A few of us almost didn’t make it! They had a surf and turf special that almost all of us ordered, and the food was truly phenomenal. It made me regret not trying more resort restaurants out, because it was that good. We had more wine at the bar and went back upstairs to get our lives and suitcases together so we could enjoy the next morning before we had to be gone.

Sunday

Our time in Turks came and went faster than we hoped, so I was up early that morning since Nate had scheduled a birthday massage for me. I grabbed breakfast, then I met all of the girls at the pool where we relaxed until it was time to pack our things and hop on the shuttle to make it back to the airport. All of us agreed that we could’ve easily spent at least one more day there doing nothing at the pool or on the beach. Before you go, make sure you eat at Jerk Shack, which is a shack in the sand off of the beach that serves amazing jerk chicken and fish. I had $1000 in cash just in case we’d need it and came home with $920. All of my money was spent the first night at the Fish Fry, or paying Adrian. If you stay on the resort, you won’t need to spend much, if anything at all. To be clear, Turks is not an inexpensive island to visit. The flights and nightly hotel rates are pretty pricey, which is why going with an all inclusive hotel option would be a good idea. The island is SO stunning it’s worth every penny.

Had we had another day on the island, we definitely would have explored the resort a little more and checked out recommendations that I’d gotten from others. Next time I’ll make sure that we make time to have a drink at The Gansevoort, and enjoy a bonfire one evening. I also would’ve loved to try Mr. Grouper’s and Da Conch Shack. Before I could even make it home I was already asking Nate when we could go again. Let me know if you have any other questions about visiting Turks and Caicos in the comments and I’ll be sure and get them answered!

Other Items I Packed But Didn’t Get to Wear: