“It takes work to have a good time” is one of my favorite sayings. As part of my entrepreneurial journey I travel a lot and it takes a lot of work. Packing the family for a vacation in itself is job. Business travel? All work. Even a day at the beach back home, packing beach chairs, finding parking, cleaning sand out of the car… Good times, but “some assembly required”.
When my daughter and I were invited to visit Beaches Turks and Caicos new Key West Luxury Village for their Grand Opening I was pumped. An all-inclusive resort for families in a tropical paradise seemed like no work and all fun. Well it was and it wasn’t, but more on that later.
When we arrived at the resort and were guided to a comfortable lounge area and asked to fill out some paperwork. Then we were offered fruit punch, with rum for me, and virgin for Maddie, I knew all the work was worth it. This was a welcome respite after a long day of travel. Yes, the getting there was a good bit of work for us. Waking up with Maddie before dawn two days in a row (yes, two days), driving to the airport, connecting in Miami and then waiting in line at Customs, but once we arrived, the work ended.
As soon as the forms were filled out, we met Marva at the desk who quickly took my credit card info and then personally walked us to our room and showed us around. Our suite was spacious and had some things I’d never experienced in a hotel, a completely free mini bar with wine and soft drinks. There was also an X-Box game console, a nice touch.
We deserved some relaxation. To get to this point, we had to get Maddie a new passport as hers had expired just a few days prior. You can get a passport in less than a week if you have to. There are expedited offices around the US. So the day before we left we woke up at 5:00AM, drove two and half hours, got to the office at 8:30 AM and had her new passport by noon.
After getting settled in our room, we were ready for dinner. We lucked into what turned out to be our favorite restaurant at the resort, Barefoot by the Sea. As the name implies you can eat barefoot as the tables are set on the sand by the ocean. I had a nice fish dinner and Maddie had her favorite...BBQ Ribs.
The dining at just about all of the restaurants is very kid friendly (and adult friendly as well). We hit Schooners for more seafood, Arizona for tex-mex and more ribs for Maddie. Bobby D’s was perfect for lunch, right in the water park. We also made reservations for Kimono’s (the only restaurant that requires them), for a hibachi dinner where they cook the meal right at your table…dinner and a show! There are more restaurants to choose from, so many that you can have lunch and dinner someplace new every day.
During the day, we didn’t have to work hard to have a good time. When we wanted to go sailing, we went to the beach shack and the staff got our boat ready and off we sailed. If you are not an experienced sailor, they’ll be happy to take you out. Sailing off the beach in Grace Bay is beautiful and gives a great view of the beach and the resorts that ring the sand.
It was also remarkably easy for me to go scuba diving. Beaches Turk & Caicos is one of the few resorts where scuba is included. If you are a certified diver you can go on one dive trip a day at no additional charge. If you are not certified, they’ll train you and take you diving as well. And the dive spot was a 10 minute boat ride right from the resort. Just enough time to get your gear in shape. In our 35 minute dive we saw the biggest lobster I’ve ever seen, several barracuda and a lone reef shark patrolling the area.
While I was diving, Maddie was at the kids club. They went snorkeling off the beach and she made a couple of fast friends. I was able to dive guilt-free. The kids clubs are well thought out and nicely done. There are several areas and different groups for different ages. Activities range from snorkeling to ping pong to X-Box and everything in between.
There are some activities and excursions that are not included with your stay. We did two of these, a trip to Little Water Cay, also known as Iquana Island, and a snorkeling adventure on the “Kitty Kat” catamaran. The trip to Iguana Island was fascinating as we learned about the ecology of the plants and animals. It made me feel much better about pulling Maddie from school for a few days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enSZjxi1bbU&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enSZjxi1bbU&feature=youtu.be
The trip on the Kitty Kat was the highlight of our stay. The snorkeling and island visit were fun, but the best part for Maddie was simply jumping from the side of the boat into the sparkling ocean. A bit like when you give your kid a present and all they play with is the box it came in. But hey, fun is fun.
Speaking of fun, we both enjoyed the water park. It was big enough for some thrills, yet small enough that I thought nothing of letting Maddie run off with a friend for a few hours while I caught up on some reading.
In case you haven’t been able to tell, Beaches Turks and Caicos is a large resort, with four distinct villages, Key West being the newest. What I found particularly appealing about Key West was that it was a bit separate from the rest of the resort, a bit more genteel. While guests from the various areas flocked to the main pool in the Italian Village, the only guests at the small Key West pools where the ones staying there.
With all the work we went through to get there, the property turned out to be virtually no work at all, and all play. For our busy over-scheduled lives, being able to not think, not worry and not stress is a huge gift, and worth all the work it takes to receive it.
