Thinking about Grand Turk. Need advice

Hi

Thinking about traveling to Grand Turk middle of July and staying at Osprey and diving with Oasis. Grand Turk was always an expensive trip but with 6 days of diving, I think i may be able to pull this off for a little over 2 grand so considering it. i did want to know a few things.

I've heard Grand Turk is great to visit during Jan-Mar. How will the summer be? What type of visibility and life (small or big). Do you ever see shoals of fish?

My friend and I do not splurge. We barely drink on vacations and get by on average meals (e.g. Belize, we stuck to street food and local restaurants and managed daily bills of 15 bucks each). Do you think a budget of around 40 dollars a day per person on food is manageable?

Also, is there any beach near Osprey? What else can we do in Grand Turk after every dive?

Thanks

Anyone?

Never been there - have dove from Provo.

What else can we do in Grand Turk after every dive?

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Grand Turk Turks and Caicos Tourist Board - Grand Turk Activities

It's the cruise port so IDK how that affects prices.
Not that Provo was cheap either - one of the the top 3 most expensive places we've dove - the other two being Grand Cayman and Maui.

We went to Grand Turk for a week in July about 6 years ago. Stayed at Osprey and dove with Blue Waters. It was hot, but with all the diving time the sun felt real good between dives. Beautiful wall and shallow reef diving. Lots of fish and great viz. Cruise port is on the far south end of the island and not near Osprey. Never saw any of the cruisers except the afternoon we went to the cruise village to shop and eat at Margaritaville. Oasis is the operation that services the cruisers, but they have a separate location down by the cruise village and didn't mix you with them, when we were there. Restaurants are a bit limited. Food at the Osprey was OK. The restaurants aren't fancy, but not cheap like Belize or Mexico. We didn't see any street vendors. Osprey has kitchenettes and you can go to the grocery store and fix meals in to save $$. The Osprey is on the beach, small but nice. Beaches all along the west side of the island. Not much else to do. There is a lighthouse on the north end that you can visit and a small museum in town.

I posted a trip report a recently on this forum. Did you read it?
Not been to G.T. in summer.
$40/day is possible. Get a room at Osprey with a kitchen. Take oatmeal and salt in your luggage - breakfast covered.
Walk to the grocery with a backpack each and load it up. Cook in the room. Skip milk.. its $8+/gallon. Make your own lunch.
You can eat dinner out each night and keep your $40/person/day budget this way, if you avoid drinking or limit it and watch what you order.
Beer is pricey. $5 with dinner for a beer, $24 for a 12 pack at the liquor store. Wine at the liquor store was the best deal for drinking in the room at less than $20/bottle for some decent tasting options. No corkscrew in the room. Bring one if you want one.

You need bottled water. Nearby grocery has it at $2.65/gallon. Bring your own chocolate and snack bars as they are pricey on the island.

Been there 2 times. never saw shoals of fish. Small schools of maybe 20 was the largest group.

Bring cash, at least $200/person. The groceries do not take cards nor do the taxi's nor do some restaurants. There is an ATM on the island. I did not use it but I would expect there are fees for using it.
Taxi prices are usually per person. $10 each to the hotel, for example.

There is a very small grocery near O.Beach. Its good for water, ice cream and oatmeal if you run out.
Longer walk to the larger grocery but not too bad. Best deal was swiss cheese blocks.
Overall, grocery pricing is about double what we have at home with some exceptions.

I did a week in July on Grand Turk . It was great . Healthy reef , great wall . I agree with kc re grocerys etc.
It is a quiet Island , very quiet , except when the massive cruise ships come in .
I would go back in a minute . enjoy

There is a water station that is $1 for a gallon, just make sure to buy the 1G jugs, they are the ones with the snap on lids, the screw cap containers are not quite a gallon and you'll waste some of the water.

We're hoping to be able to do Grand Turk around Sept this year. It's been on our short list for awhile now and after going to Bonaire the last 3 years which makes about 8 trips there, it's time to try someplace we haven't been. I copied/pasted my notes so far from a few months ago when it was too cold to do anything else. We bring alot of food with us, only eat out in the evening if it is reasonable ($20 or less for 2) which we have found in Bonaire and Cozumel.

The only problem is, that I check Orbitz and we can get airfare and room for 11 nites in Cozumel for about $800 pp, while at this time PLS is about $700pp just for airfare and you still need to get from Provo to GT which is about another $200pp. So, while money is an object, we really want to do GT and if a/f comes do we'll jump on it. On the other hand, we enjoy and have a good routine in Cozumel.


25 Jan At this point looks like an Atrium Room at the Osprey ($90 nite), South #1 room at Crabtree $220 nite), or Jungle Room at Manta House ($160 ? nite).
Diving with Oasis can be done for $80 for 2 am dives.
Make a day trip to Salt Cay or ? Cay
Check air fare on Tues at 3pm.

Look at mid Sept, has the least and less chance of wind, warmest temps and just before rainy season.

There is a FANTASTIC wall dive directly out in front of Bohio called the Black Forest. It is closest to the resort (200 yards) and the best dive. Often there was a very slight current along the wall, parallel to the shore. The current was strong enough that you should plan to head against the current at the start of the dive.
The Providenciales airport was an INSANE ASYLUM on the weekend. If you can avoid flying through there on the weekend, then avoid it. There is no air conditioning there were and a billion people crammed into the holding area.

Try visiting John's on West Road, next to the shopping area where the Local beer is cheap $3 and specials are available daily like 2 local beers for $5 bucks,the best price on island.Daily sea food served while you relax on the beach and you are serve ice cold local beers or local tasty rum punch.Also available free beach chairs

PLS on the weekend, crazy, but everyone makes their plane. Sometimes with only 8 minutes to spare..*Cough*

Personally I found Salt Cay to be better, with Provo even better (west Caicos / French cay). I took a lot more GoPro footage in SC and Provo, have not even bothered to look at the GT footage. Maybe because SC was our 2nd dive trip?

We didn't have a bad time in GT but I don't think we would ever go back IMO.


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Ray and Pam,

You will be hard pressed to both eat out for $20 or less on Grant Turk. Its more in the $30-35 range for two people at the minimum.