A perfect Caribbean day on Providenciales in Turks & Caicos

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks & Caicos – Sometimes, the most magical places are the most simple ones.

All it took were a few picnic tables set in the sand overlooking the ocean – okay, I’ll admit a little rum punch, too – to transform today into the most perfect day on Providenciales, the most developed island in the chain known as Turks & Caicos.

Lunch at Da Conch Shack and Rum Bar on Blue Hills Beach was nothing short of marvelous. Conch fritters, conch salad, fish tacos, cracked conch, conch stew – it was all so tasty.

The meal was one of the many highlights of my first full day on the island. The morning was a busy one. I played a speedy round on the island’s only course, Provo Golf Club, a tough but fun track just minutes from where I’m staying, the luxury condos of Ocean Club Resorts West on the famous Grace Bay Beach. The bottom photo is of the par-3 17th hole, featuring a peninsula green jutting into a water hazard.

Following golf, our group toured the world’s first Conch Farm – where I learned how ugly and slimy these snails really are. Our next stop was a unique geological anomaly called “the hole,” a deep sink hole that drops several stories to a pool of water.

Dessert at Da Conch Shack wasn’t what I expected. I went to the beach to learn how to remove the snail from the shell (see photo below).

Following island tradition, I was offered a piece of the mollusk to eat – the conch’s, shall we say, reproductive organ. Yum. Kind of like the worm in the tequila bottle but worse. Even that salty, chewy, nasty piece of meat couldn’t ruin my mojo.

Back at the resort, a spa treatment relieved any tension that the rum punch didn’t. Tonight’s dinner will be at the Cabana Bar & Grille, another scenic oceanfront restaurant at the original Ocean Club Resort development.

Many people I talked to before the trip hadn’t heard of Turks & Caicos. I can say, without a doubt, that they’re missing out on a little slice of Caribbean heaven.

For reservations and information please contact Ocean Club Resorts U.S. Reservations directly at (800) 457-8787 or visit www.oceanclubresorts.com.