Showing posts with label Vacations. Show all posts

How we spent our summer vacation: Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

in on Saturday, September 1, 2012


I'm wondering if I should post this or not. Why? Because we are having doubts about returning. And we've always loved it here. So let me tell you about it......

Providenciales, Provo for short, has always been one of our favorite Caribbean islands. It's small, 38 square miles, and is the most developed island in the Turks and Caicos chain. We've been going there for about 20 years. It's convenient for us in South Florida, taking only 70 minutes by plane from Miami.
 


Up until the 60's, Providenciales was inhabited by less than 500 people. There were no cars and few roads. In 1966, a group of men secured an agreement with the government granting them thousands of acres of Providenciales land in exchange for roads and an airstrip. Infrastructure was slowly added to the island as more developers arrived. In 1984 Club Med built a resort on the then-deserted Grace Bay beach. This sparked a truly amazing surge of development which continues to this day.

We love staying on the 12-mile Grace Bay beach; it's been referred to by Conde Nast as the “world’s best beach” and is the location for a number of lovely hotels and condominium resorts. But to be honest, we're thinking the Grace Bay area of Provo is completely over-developed. How can the island's fairly recent (by comparison) infrastructure keep up? Who is buying all these condos? Perhaps Europeans as Provo draws a  large number of European tourists, although it seems to us rather a lot of rooms are vacant. And, there are lots of bargains to be had for hotel rooms, especially in the summer. So they must be hurting somewhat. In the winter, all bets are off. Just for fun, I'm going to watch to see if we are emailed "deals" on hotel rooms this December. So, the building continues....even on the relatively undeveloped northwest point of the island,  an Aman hotel, Amanyara, opened up a couple years ago.

The island itself is not terribly attractive, made up of rugged hills and ridges, covered with prickly pear cactus and scrub. The main draw is the beaches anyway; absolutely gorgeous white sand and clear, turquoise water. My kids are divers and spend half of every day under water; the other half, they go snorkeling. There's every imaginable water sport available. And for golfers, there's a golf course on the island at the Provo Golf Club.

Because we're foodies, I'm pleased to report there are some excellent restaurants on Provo. However, while the hotel rooms are air conditioned, the restaurants are not. And in the summer, it's HOT. One hopes for some nice ocean breezes. There are all kinds of restaurants to choose from. You will find pizza joints as well as fine dining and there are a couple well stocked grocery stores for those who want to save money and eat in.

Here are the best of the best as far as we're concerned (not in any particular order):


     Grace's Cottage
     O'Soleil
                                                     
     Coyoba ( Divine lobster)
 
     Caicos Cafe, an old favorite     (Which has just been sold; we don't know if it will remain a restaurant.)


     Coco Bistro


     Anacaona at Grace Bay Club     (The best food and look at the fun way the waiter delivered our champagne!
     The last photo on the right is an infinity bar.)  

       Da Conch Shack (Fun, fun, fun. And the conch is fresh and delicious.
       That's my lovely daughter!) 
                     
     Amanyara (Divine. What else is there to say?)

As I mentioned, we like to stay on Grace Bay, mainly for the beach. And while there are many hotels on this island, here are three we love and a fourth for dreaming (and honeymoons):

Grace Bay Club $$$$

The Palms $$$$

The Sands $$

And of course,

Amanyara $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.......................

As you know, water sports were not possible for me what with the cast on my arm. But we did find a plastic cast cover so I could at least take a dip. It couldn't go under water, but I could cool off. (No, my ortho guy does NOT do waterproof casts, if you can imagine a Florida doctor not doing waterproof casts!) So I walked, did a lot of sitting on the beach under a tiki hut and we ALL did a lot of reading. Here are just a few well worth your attention:

Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain (He's always entertaining!)
But Beautiful: A book about Jazz by Geoff Dyer (If you enjoy jazz, you'll love this!)
The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark (Thanks for the recommendation, James of Man of the 50's.
Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins
A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel
Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the
Modern Woman by Sam Wasson (For movie-lovers)
Stettin Station by David Downing
One More Theory About Happiness: A Memoir by Paul Guest
Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel by Truman Capote (No wonder his old friends were all mad at  him!)

The sand on the Grace Bay beach is firm and easy to walk on, so I walked miles every morning. We all got lovely tans, albeit mine, on my left arm, looks a bit peculiar now that the cast is off. (Yes, the cast is off. I now have a brace for 3 weeks.) The weather was perfect: hot and sunny. Very little rain.  Doesn't this sound marvelous?

So why are we thinking we might not return?

1. The dive group we have always used, Big Blue, has decided to only do charters. The price is exorbitant of course, but there are enough celebrities and well to do visiting these islands to warrant it. We can't afford it. There are, of course, other dive groups, but the kids were very disappointed with them this year. The right dive shop is really important. Big Blue was fabulous. What a disappointment.

2. The price of dining out has gone through the roof. A dinner for three was easily $300, with tax and tip. We saved money by eating in for breakfast and lunch and I suppose you could do the same for dinner (many with small children did)....but where's the fun in that?

3. The overrun from all the development is killing the reefs. This is not a particularly environmentally-friendly island either. I hope they are trying, but I don't see the situation improving too much. I don't want to think about what is dumped in the ocean and they burn garbage and trash (including plastic) on one end of the island...you can see the smoke.

4. Crime. A problem here. The first night, someone siphoned half a tank of our gas. Then, while talking to our many old friends on the island we discovered: robberies at several hotels (there is one man, whose name everyone knows, who has formed a gang and they are the main perpetrators); one of our favorite chefs was shot three times (and survived) during a robbery; another was hit with a gun butt and needed 11 stitches. Know what? We don't need this. There are other islands that don't have these problems, or at least not to this extent. It makes all of us sad, but there it is. 

I hope my review hasn't been a total downer, I really didn't want it to be; with caution, we were perfectly safe and if the diving issues do not concern you... which was one of our main complaints, please look into Provo for a vacation. It's child-friendly, we've always loved it and will always have fond memories of our years there. It's been fascinating to watch this island develop.

If you want more general info about Provo, check this NY Times aritcle... http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/caribbean-and-bermuda/turks-and-caicos/providenciales/overview.html

Note: not one of us brought a camera! So we used a little Kodak. As a result, I don't have food photos and in the end, used lots that were online at restaurant and hotel sites.
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in on Wednesday, August 8, 2012



Island time, here we come.


Be back the end of the month.....
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French Polynesian Adventure III: Moorea

in on Saturday, June 23, 2012


For Part One of this series, check HERE.
For Part Two of this series, check HERE

For once, we didn't need to return to Tahiti to get to Moorea. There was a direct flight from Huahine to Moorea. The trip took less than half an hour.

Moorea

Moorea, the sister island to Tahiti, is perhaps the most popular tourist destination in French Polynesia, after Tahiti. It's pronounced MOE-oh-ray-ah. Occupying an area of about 50 square miles, Moorea is located roughly 10 nautical miles west of Tahiti and you can see each island from the other easily. Many Tahitians have holiday homes on Moorea and hop over in their boats or take the 30-minute ferry. It's home to about 16,000 people. Surrounded by a well developed coral reef and lagoon system, Moorea is a 1.2 million year old volcanic island with freshwater streams that flow year-round.





From above, the shape of the island vaguely resembles a heart, with its two nearly symmetrical bays opening to the north side of the island: Cook's (or Paopao) Bay and Opunohu Bay. Moorea has no urban center, but rather the island is home to a series of small villages, such as Paopao and Haapiti, that line its shores. It's easy to visit them during a circle-island tour, which we did on our own. More about that later.

Compared to the other islands we visited, we found Moorea touristy and crowded. And here, we had our first run-in with cruise ships. The only other island where cruise ships were an annoyance was Bora Bora. 

We found the hotel situation here appalling. Remember, it's been several years since we visited so I can only speak about conditions as we found them then. We stayed at the Sheraton, now a Hilton, and if the recent photos on their site of the inside of the bungalows are indicative of the improvements since we left,  kudos to them. When we were there, the Sheraton/Hilton was the best choice; some friends from Huahine called us when they arrived on Moorea, were unhappy with their hotel and transferred to ours. I don't know if they considered it an improvement or not. 
(To be fair, if you're interested in the hotel as it now is, you might like to check Here. There is a lovely virtual tour if you click on "take a tour of our hotel" and choose virtual tour. I can't speak to the service and food however.)

And we did love our over-water bungalow.


Messy, aren't we? :) It wasn't glamorous (they appear to be very much improved now) but it was comfortable and we did have an underwater viewing panel in the floor. The nicest thing about our room was the location. 




You can see waves in the distance in the photo...that's the outer reef. It was shallow right out to the edge of the reef.  Which made for divine snorkeling. The bungalows, however, did not afford the privacy we found on Huahine. There was a cute bar on the dock, which was fun in the evenings.



So what was our objection? The food and service. One can only hope Hilton has improved the situation. We ate breakfast there each morning, a buffet, thank heaven, which is difficult to screw up too badly!




And lunch outside around the pool (which was a nightmare I hope never to repeat). This photo looks so calm. It wasn't. It was a madhouse, the food took forever and was terrible when it came.




We ate dinner our first night at the hotel; it took over 2 hours before the meal was put in front of us and it was barely edible. We never ate there again. 

The problem was, we went to 3 other restaurants and were disappointed with two of them. There was one small advantage though: we were able to get free transportation, courtesy of the restaurant, something quite common here. Rather a lengthy procedure though as everyone was coming and going at different times and from different locations. 
I remember one restaurant had some entertainment: an American couple with a guitar singing 70's songs. We couldn't believe it. All the way to French Polynesia to hear American 70's music! The other restaurant was some sort of mixture of cuisines. I don't think they knew what they wanted to be and they failed at everything. We didn't even write down the name of either restaurant, knowing full well we would never suggest anyone go there. But both were recommended by all the respected travel guides. The list of fine restaurants was pretty skimpy when we were there. Doubtless dining on Moorea has improved. One hopes.

However, there was one place we went that was great fun. It was called La Bateau Restaurant, located at Linareva near Haapiti. We had read about it in a tour book. It was on the other side of the island so we had to take a cab and pay for it to wait for us. It was a houseboat.  Because it was a real boat, in the water, it gently swayed during our meal. The decor was a hoot. A lot of wood and a multitude of Tahitian decorations. The menu was on a large chalkboard and the food quite good. The evening was a lot of fun; I wish my photos were better. And finally, a poor photo of me on the right....rather blurry too. That's my daughter on the left.




One rather interesting fact: the Polynesian islands don't have a lot of natural wildlife, aside from birds and of course, marine creatures. Why? The answer lies within the origins of the islands themselves. Volcanic in nature, these islands literally sprang up in the middle of nowhere, far from any surrounding land masses. The only mammals on the islands today are those that were brought over by the human navigators who populated these islands.
With its eight mountain ridges, Moorea also boasts some of the most stunning panoramas in the South Pacific. Mount Mouaputa: elevation 2723 ft; Mount Rotui: elevation 2949 ft; Mount Tohiea 3960 ft.: Mount Mouaroa (also called Bali Hai) 2,887 feet.



In the photo above is a view taken from Cook's Bay with Mount Mouaputa (left), Mount Mouaroa, aka Mt Bali Hai (center), Mount Rotui (right).

One day we decided to rent a car because Moorea is an easy island to explore that way. The one coastal road is just 37 mi long and the best part of a day is needed to travel the road and stop off at the villages, bays, little churches, and cafés along the way and to travel into the interior to the Belvedere lookout and the marae (ancient temples). 
We stopped to snorkel at a public beach. You won't find too many tracks of endless white sands on Moorea;  the top resorts have man-made beaches. There are actually only 2 recognized public beaches on Moorea: one is Temae and the other Faimano beach. This photo is Temae beach.


 On our tour, we saw several lovely old churches. Our favorite was the first catholic Church on the island, located near Haapiti. It faces the ocean with Mont Rotui behind it. 



We stopped and had lunch at a very funky and ramshackle restaurant on the beach. We had read about it someplace. The owner was a piece of work. The food was excellent, but even if it wasn't the owner made the trip worth while. Unfortunately, neither of us can remember the name! We aren't much help, are we?
(I'm in all three photos here.)



Then we drove to Belvedere point. It is the island's highest point accessible by car. From the summit (720 feet ) there are commanding views of Opunohu and Cook's bays, Mt. Rotui, surrounding peaks, and the valleys below. On the way we saw pineapple plantations and ancient marae.



Tracy tells me the diving was wonderful, but so far, it's been a pleasure at every island. The snorkeling was actually as good as the diving on this island.
I must confess Moorea was not a favorite with either of us. There was no Polynesian charm and way too many people. We'd skip this one another time. Although there certainly was more to do if you're a tourist.

Next stop? Bora Bora.
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Paris: Simply Irresistible

in on Monday, May 28, 2012


Anita at Castles, Crowns and Cottages is having a party. She's not only tres chic but a hostess extraordinaire. You'll love her parties....they are enchanting and imaginative. You won't want to miss this one, so go on over today and see who's invited and what fun you'll have with just a click or two. We're all going to Paris. And here's Anita's adorable button:


Isn't she talented? Such a happy drawing!

What could I possibly contribute that would be interesting to all of you AND Anita's stellar list of guests? Photos taken on our last trip to Paris, of course. Brought to you by four of us who think Paris is irresistible: daughter Tracy, son David, granddaughter Kensy and me. (Kensy's parents were not with us.)



Amusez-vous!


My granddaughter Kensy on arrival in Paris.
Simply irresistible!

Our funky hotel on the West Bank

Sacre Coeur: Ooo la la....those stairs!

Arc de Triomphe

So irresistible: Tuileries

Now where else would we lunch, my dears?

Musée du Louvre

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

So charming: Jardin des Tuileries


Quel plaisir!


My favorite: Musée d'Orsay

The Obelisk at  Place de la Concorde

The irresistible Seine and Pont Royal 


Hope you had almost as much fun as we did!
Paris IS irresistible.....au revoir!

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French Polynesian Adventure II: Huahine

in on Monday, May 21, 2012



To read Part One of this series, check HERE.

As with so many inter-island flights, we had to return to Tahiti to fly to Huahine. Isn't it amazing how much more time we seem to spend in airports than on the flight itself? But Tahiti is the hub of French Polynesia, so back we went.

As I'm sure you've noticed this trip was more a watersport-oriented than a food-oriented vacation. We're both foodies, no question, but we didn't often have a choice about where we ate. So many of the islands we visited had no outside restaurants, just the resort. And when we did have choices on a couple islands, we always chose funky and unusual rather than ordinary, although I doubt you could call ANY restaurant in these islands ordinary.  :)

Huahine

The flight to Huahine was about half an hour. Upon our arrival, we were surprised to find our trip was not quite over. It appears there's no road to our hotel, so we were driven to the village of Fare to wait for a small shuttle boat for the 10 minute trip to Te Tiare Beach Resort.  The reception building is built on a large dock over the lagoon and it also holds the lobby, restaurant and bar.

It's kind of a fun arrival as it's traditional at Te Tiare for someone to blow a conch horn to welcome the arrival of guests at the reception building.

Huahine's two islands, Huahine Nui (big Huahine) and Huahine Iti (little Huahine) are joined by a small bridge and are enclosed within a protective ring of coral.



Huahine is pronounced Wa-ee-nee by the French and Who-a-hee-nay by everyone else.
This island is one of the three most important Polynesian archaeological sites. Ancient chiefs built Maraes (a communal or sacred place which serves religious and social purposes) which have been restored and are fascinating to visit with an informed guide. We took a tour there which I will tell you about later. It was rather like an outdoor museum. Known as the Garden Isle, Huahine is one of the last places in the Society Islands to be touched by tourism. France did not annex Huahine more than 50 years after Tahiti and the 5500 residents are very independent.

My daughter and I were both enchanted the minute we landed. Even after we had visited all the islands, we both agreed Huahine was our favorite. A difficult feeling to describe and there were probably many reasons for it. For one thing, by this time we were well into "island time", an expression often used in our family to describe the laid back pace and pleasure one finds on most small islands in the Caribbean (and now I include French Polynesia).  And of course another big plus was we had an over water bungalow here. I mean c'mon. Who isn't going to love this?


We didn't have a fish-viewing glass panel in the floor, but the bungalow was very comfortable and we had a huge L-shaped deck, half of it under the shade of a thatched roof. There were privacy screens so your neighbors couldn't see you. Luggage and anything else you needed was brought by bicycle out onto the dock.


 I was in heaven because after Tracy left for her dives each day, I would just drop off the side of the bungalow into the water and snorkel to my heart's content.


As far as the diving was concerned, Tracy loved it. Huahine is still fairly unknown as a dive destination, so the waters are not overrun by humans. A barrier reef surrounds the island and she saw rays, sharks, turtles as well as a variety of fish and coral. Quoting my daughter: "I remember one really exquisite dive where you could see all the shelves going deeper and deeper into the sea, the water was so clear."

On Huahine we met and made friends with several couples we saw intermittently throughout the rest of our trip. It turns out many honeymooners board a sailboat at some point during their trip, see some of the other islands and then we would run into them later on another island or at an airport making a transfer. This socializing with other guests made Huahine much more fun for both of us, even though we were still the only unattached women. And finally, here, not everyone was on a honeymoon. Still, we saw very few children. I imagine this is rather an expensive vacation to include entire families. There were lots of Americans and British here, so everyone was comfortable with language.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention: when we arrived at each island, we were greeted and given a shell lei. There were floral leis for sale on each island as well. We both still have our collections of shell leis as they hold so many memories. I hang my collection over a folding screen in the bedroom, but have worn some of them on a couple occasions.



There was some shopping in the reception area, not much. We both loved a jewelry store that carried the most lovely sea urchin spine necklaces. We both bought several.



 We took time out from diving and snorkeling one afternoon to take a tour and learn something of the island's history. We took a boat back over to Fare and picked up a tour guide. Fare is Huahine's main village. There's not a lot to do, but that's part of its charm. The guide took us around the huge network of restored ancient royal sites, the Maeva archeological village. The royal village of Maeva, is considered to be one of the most important archaeological areas in all of Oceania. Traditionally, Maeva was the seat of royal power for all of Huahine. Mata'ire'a Hill - located just above the village of Maeva, is home to more than 200 stone structures, including maraes, agricultural terraces, house foundations, fortification walls and burial platforms.



We were taken next to a vanilla bean plantation. I was fascinated and amazed to discover that it takes between 18 months and three years from planting a cutting of the vine till the plant produces flowers. They bloom and die within a few hours unless they are pollinated by hand. The beans (which are actually seed-pods) must stay on the vine for nine months before being harvested. No wonder vanilla beans are so expensive. Of course, we brought some home with us. Mine came in a sweet little bamboo cylinder.

And to cap off the afternoon,  near the village of Faie, on the opposite coast from Fare, we were taken to see Huahine's sacred eels. These freshwater eels measure three to five ft. in length and jump out of the water to be hand-fed by locals who stop by with cans of mackerel. No, I didn't do it. Ick. The eels are considered sacred because of local mythology; the legend states that the first eel to crawl across the mountain married a beautiful maiden from Mataiea, Tahiti -- and that present day inhabitants descended from the unlikely couple. Mainly they were gross, but you couldn't help but be fascinated.


 Another afternoon, we got someone to take us in a boat to a black pearl farm. It was out on stilts in the water. You can see it in the background on the right in the photo.

Black pearls mean the marine cultured pearls produced from the black lip pearl oyster shell and as a result, there are lots of oyster shells used in decoration all throughout the islands. Baby oysters are called spat. The pearl farmer collects the spats on artifical collectors in the lagoon.   They are reared on underwater lines for more than three years  when they reach maturity. We each bought one. They weren't cheap...as I recall we paid well over $100 for each of them.


Te Tiare had a really cute bar, which seems to be common around these islands, and the food was excellent. In fact, I can't say enough about what wonderful friendly service we were given at Te Tiare.

There was yet another South Seas Island review here and I only mention it because the women wore coconut halves as bras. Tracy was intrigued, asked one of the dancers about it later and she sent her to a guy on the beach who made one for her. Trust me when I tell you it was most uncomfortable to wear. :) I believe Tracy still has it someplace. If you look closely, you can see a woman wearing one in the photo below. After looking at the video at the end of the post, it appears they don't wear them anymore. Smart move. If  you look closely in the background of the photo below, you can see the male dancers. Aside from some sort of wrap around their waists, they wore an arrangement of fresh palm fronds tied just below their knees, so the fronds hung down to their ankles. (Sorry the photo is so dark.)  

We were both really sad to leave Huahine, wished we had planned to stay longer, but our next stop was Moorea, which we were both looking forward to.


Amazingly (doesn't everything eventually find its' way to YouTube??) I found some videos of the Polynesian dancers and drummers in Huahine, taken at our resort. The palm fronds on the skirts are real as are the leis. 
Enjoy!









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