I spent the first two weeks of May on a solo trip to Royal West Indies Resort (RWI) on Grace Bay beach in Providenciales (Provo), Turks and Caicos Islands. This was my 15th visit since 2002 and the first time going for more than a week. I feel like RWI is my home away from home. I know all the staff at the resort and the waiters and bartenders at Pelican Bay Restaurant on the resort grounds.
In the early 2000’s, RWI was only half-built, and it was the location of the Mango Reef restaurant at that time. There was little else along Grace Bay. Club Med (the first resort on Grace Bay), Ocean Clubs were there, and Beaches was being built. If you walked east past Club Med, there was a nude beach. You could walk west from RWI to Smith’s Reef and see very few people. Provo had not yet been discovered by the masses.
Fast forward to COVID. I was able to get to Grace Bay in November of 2020. Club Med was closed at the time, and RWI had like 10 umbrellas set up. I basically had the beach to myself. It was like the old days. This was my first trip post-COVID, and I have never seen Grace Bay so crowded and so much construction going on all over Provo. To me, it was kind of sad, but most of the locals I talked to were happy with the ‘progress.’ Grace Bay is still beautiful, and RWI is still a nice place to stay. Even after going to Provo 15 times – but who’s counting – I still take a ridiculous number of photos; here are a few. Can you ever have too many photos of Grace Bay?
Leave a Reply