If you have stumbled upon my blog lately, then you know that we just got back from a beautiful cruise on the Carnival Breeze. One of the places we stopped was the Grand Turk, and it was a fantastic experience! There were so many awesome things about this place that both myself and the kids loved! If you are looking for some great vacation ideas for your family this year, you may want to consider making Grand Turks one of your stops! Here is why you should visit the Grand Turk with kids.
About the Grand Turk
The Grand Turk is an island off the Atlantic ocean on the island of Turks and Caicos. The entire island is only a few miles in each direction, but is home to over 3,000 people! The Grand Turks are most known for their beautiful beaches, and the wild horses and donkeys who call this place home!
This island has terrific windmills and salt ponds from the once-booming sea salt industry and has a fantastic lighthouse that is worth the view. While this island city is tiny, with only a few restaurants and places to go on the entire island, this is still a great port to visit.
Highlights from our trip
While there were so many different excursions to go on, this is also a great place to go to relax. When we first got off the boat, we were greeted by a beautiful beach to our left. This beach can get super crowded, especially if there is more than one ship in port. There is also a quiet beach to the right of the dock but we found there were a lot of rocks which wasn’t a good choice for our young family.
This stunning beach had clear water, and there were even free chairs to sit in! You will more than likely have locals asking to get you a chair and umbrella for a fee. Just remember that the chairs in this area are free.
If you head just ten minutes down the beach, you will find a less crowded place, but with a lot more to see! We walked past the area with the free chairs but felt it was a good compromise to have a little less people around us.
What should you do with your kids here?
One of the best things you can do here is have a beach day. When I plan excursions for my family, I think about how easily accessible the excursion is, cost, and if its age-appropriate for my young kids. For all of those reasons we decided to stay right next to the port and I am so glad we did. It was so incredibly easy to find a place on the beach. We were able to rent snorkel gear from a local who was sitting right there on the beach. When my kids got tired we were able to run to Margaritaville for a snack and a dip in their giant pool! Overall this was as easy as it gets and so incredibly beautiful.
I can not put into words how stunning the water is in Grand Turk! For that reason alone a beach day is a perfect choice when visiting with your kids.
While there are a ton of excursions through the cruise line, we found that having a beach day was the best fit for our family. If you are looking for something to do in Grand Turk with kids besides spending your day at the beach, consider taking your family on a tour of the island! You’ll learn all about the history as well as see the sights here too! One must-do, while you are here, is to head to Grand Turk Lighthouse! If you are looking for something more on the adventure side, you can swim with stingrays or dolphins at this location too!
There is a full Margaritaville dining location here and we decided to visit! There is so much to do there besides eat, a huge pool, lots of fun music, and a cute shop. I do want to mention that as the day goes on it does have a ‘party’ type atmosphere around the pool. Luckily the pool was big so we were able to find a quieter area in the back.
There are also a bunch of local shops with people selling everything from shirts to handmade bags. Grand Turk with kids wouldnt be the same if we didnt have a cute souvenir to bring home.
The Grand Turks is one of the best places to visit with your kids for a cheap and fun vacation as a family. This was a place that we were surprised to enjoy and would love to come back again one day. We loved that our Carnival cruise on the Breeze brought us here and we hope to come back on our next cruise!
