Turks and Caicos

Turks and Caicos Holiday

This beautiful British Crown Colony of 40 islands and cays is truly a place where you can still "get away from it all".

Breathtaking turquoise waters, powdery soft white sand, snorkelling and diving as good as anywhere in the world, a friendly welcome and virtually no crime are just a few of the things that make these isands so special.

One of the last undiscovered treasures of the tropics.

Locked inside one of the world's most spectacular coral reefs, the Turks and Caicos lie at the very end of the Bahamas chain, remote and essentially undiscovered. Ruins of old plantations, mysterious caves and wooden bungalows, shabby but quaint with age, are as easy to find as the gold-and-white sand beaches which stretch around the islands. According to local legend, the Turks were named for a cactus with red blossoms that resembled a Turkish fez, while the Caicos Islands probably derived their name from cayo, the Spanish word for small island. This idyllic string of dots in the Caribbean is sometimes referred to as the last frontier.

About 13,000 people live on just eight of the 30 or so islands and cays, nearly half on Providenciales (which everyone shortens to Provo). Their main language is English, although some islanders still speak Creole, a legacy of their many years of trading with Haiti. The bulk of that trade was once in salt, known as "white gold" to the local inhabitants. Three other lucrative economies have now taken over: fishing, offshore banking and tourism.