Islands in Brief

The TCI topography is pretty prosaic -- all the islands are low lying, with sandy soil and a low scrub cover -- but each island has its own unique look and feel. North Caicos, the so-called garden island, has a rural landscape rimmed by blue-green seas. Middle Caicos has soft emerald cliffs overlooking rocky coves, beaches fringed by casuarina trees, and the occasional cotton or sisal plant left over from plantation days. Grand Turk, Salt Cay, and South Caicos are low-key charmers that hold quaint architectural remnants of the islands' colonial past, while much in Provo (Providenciales) is as bright and shiny as a new penny. All have stupendously lovely soft-sand beaches lapped by pellucid azure seas.

In an interesting twist, the boom that hit Provo has drawn people to tourist-industry jobs away from their homes -- and traditional livelihoods -- on the other islands. In Middle Caicos in particular, you'll see homes abandoned to the underbrush, and once-thriving communities reduced nearly to ghost towns. To ensure that the traditional cultures and way of life on the islands aren't lost forever, the Turks & Caicos National Trust has made it its mission to "safeguard the natural, historical and cultural heritage of the Turks & Caicos Islands." To find out more about the National Trust's latest projects, go to the website www.nationaltrust.tc.

The Caicos Islands

Providenciales -- The gorgeous 19km (12-mile) beach and pristine coastline of 98-sq.-km (38-sq.-mile) Providenciales (Provo) were a tourist development waiting to happen. In the early 1980s, hotel megaliths such as Club Med poured money into increasingly popular low-rise eco-conscious resorts. Now Provo's tourist infrastructure far surpasses anything on Grand Turk, the TCI seat of government. This is where the action is, literally, with the bulk of the country's lodging, dining, tours, activities, and entertainment. Still, don't expect a bustling metropolis: Provo remains much sleepier than most other Caribbean islands -- and that's a big part of its charm. One of the larger islands of the Turks & Caicos, Provo is green but arid, with miles of scrubland covering the island's low, undulating hills. Provo is the main destination for most people visiting the TCI.

Caicos Cays -- Also called the Leeward Cays, these gorgeous little islands were once the haven of pirates. Many are now uninhabited except by day-trippers beachcombing and snorkeling the shallows, while others are private islands with secluded resorts -- the latest being the multimillion-dollar development of Dellis Cay, including a Mandarin Oriental hotel. Little Water Cay is a National Trust nature reserve that is home to the endangered rock iguana.

North Caicos -- TCI Premier Michael Misick calls North Caicos, his birthplace, "a tiger awakening." The projected site of the second big TCI boom (they're breaking ground as we go to print) still has a sleepy rural landscape. Roads that were dusty and potholed have been paved over, a deepwater harbor is being built to accommodate freight-bearing ships, and the airport is getting a new terminal. But the beaches remain lovely and untrammeled, and lodgings and restaurants are still few and far between. Locals say this sparsely populated, 106-sq.-km (41-sq.-mile) island is what Provo looked like before the boom.

Middle Caicos -- Middle Caicos is the largest island in the Turks & Caicos (125 sq. km/48 sq. miles), and has a remarkably varied landscape. Soft green slopes overlook beautiful Mudjin Harbor. Along the rise is Crossing Place Trail, a narrow 18th-century path so named because it leads to a place where people once crossed a sandbar at low tide to reach North Caicos. A massive aboveground limestone cave system was used by Lucayan Indians some 600 years ago. At Bambarra Beach the sunlit aquamarine waters stretch long into the horizon. A new causeway now links Middle to North Caicos.

South Caicos -- This still-sleepy fishing community of some 1,200 people and 21 sq. km (8 sq. miles) is hearing faint rumblings of tourist development. Because the South Caicos tourist infrastructure is still in its infancy, this guide addresses the region only peripherally. But clearly, with its excellent diving and bonefishing opportunities and historic Bermudan-style architecture, "Big South" is an up-and-coming spot.

East Caicos -- This unspoiled, largely uninhabited 47-sq.-km (18-sq.-mile) island was once used for large sisal and cotton plantations. Now it's largely swampland and savanna.

West Caicos -- This lovely uninhabited 29-sq.-km (11-sq.-mile) island (with a 202-hectare/500-acre nature preserve) is the home of a new five-star Ritz-Carlton resort, with a 100-slip marina, villas, town houses, cottages, private homes, and the Molasses Reef Hotel. West Caicos is the site of some of the islands' best scuba diving.

The Turks Islands

Grand Turk -- People who only visit Provo miss out on experiencing the country's rich heritage. On the enchanting island of Grand Turk, just 11*3km (7*2 miles), this includes a 150-year-old lighthouse, colorful 19th-century Bermudian architecture, abandoned salinas where the business of salt-raking was conducted from the late 17th century until the 1960s, and a first-rate museum housed in the Guinep House, believed to be around 180 years old. The laid-back, small-town atmosphere of Cockburn Town belies the fact that this Grand Turk village is the capital of the TCI. The diving here along the continental shelf wall is stupendous, the main draw for most visitors. That is, until 2006, when Carnival Cruise Lines opened a theme-park-style cruise terminal at the southwest end of the island to welcome the arrival of their 2,000-passenger ships 2 to 3 days a week. Still, Grand Turk's tourist infrastructure remains relatively undeveloped, with just a scattering of inns and hotels. A new Conch Farm, a sister project to Provo's Conch Farm, has opened on the island's east coast. The island is also home to feral donkeys and horses, the latter reputedly descended from Spanish mustangs shipwrecked here in the 16th century. Among the uninhabited cays in the Grand Turk Cays Land and Sea National Park is Gibbs Cay, where you can swim in the shallow water with stingrays.

Salt Cay -- Salt Cay (pop. 60) is the kind of place where you can paste salvaged flip-flops onto your neighbor's boat while he's away, and everyone (including your neighbor) thinks it's a hoot. It's the kind of place where a hermit crab race is the talk of the town. It's also the kind of place where people come from around the world to partake in world-class watersports activities (snorkeling, diving, whale-watching), swim in the luminescent green sea, and comb the secluded beaches for flotsam and jetsam. Salt Cay is admittedly small (6.5 sq. km/2 1/2 sq. miles) and missing many of the basic accouterments of 21st-century civilization (no ATMs, just a handful of cars), but it is a place of haunting beauty and enormous heart.