Destination Review: Grand Turk

Our cruise leading up to Grand Turk had been amazing. We had kept busy but still relaxed. I knew our last stop in Grand Turk would be nothing but a chill day at the beach. And I could not wait.

It's unreal how close the ship docks to the shore. There's a massive drop off that allows for that to happen. From the ship you see the light, teal blue water and then there's a line of buoys and on the other side of that line it's extremely dark blue. It's so crazy!

Anyway, I don't know anything about our timeframe while we were on shore in Grand Turk. I know that we stayed off the ship close to as long as possible. Everything in between is a total time warp. We laid out on the loungers that are provided for cruisers, we snorkeled (if you go out to the buoy line where the drop off is, there are some large and colorful fish out there! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from snorkeling.), and we laid out some more. We knew we wanted to find a place called Jack's Shack and get a snack there, but first Scott and I wanted to find the Conch Graveyard I had heard about.

To get to the conch graveyard, you would turn right off of the pier and follow the beach along the shore. Apparently the "graveyard" is made up of hundreds of conch shells that have had the meat pulled out by restaurants and then they dump the shells in this location. You are not allowed to take living things back on board the ship, but since the shells are empty, it's ok to take one. At least, that's what I had read, and when we went through security later on, there was not issue. So we walked down and while I was picking out a shell to bring home Scott walked further down the shoreline. I didn't go down that way, but he said it was pretty neat over there. There were a few people, but not many at all. Maybe next time...

When Scott came back, we went back to Darby and Marc and the four of us gathered our stuff and walked the little ways down the beach to get to Jack's Shack. It's about half a mile, just a little less, down the beach from the pier. It's a bit far to walk in sand, but I will say, I personally think it's worth it. If you're up for a walk along the beach, make the trip down to Jack's Shack. There were only a few people sitting outside at the tables, and the beach in front of the restaurant was empty. It could have been the time of day that we were there, but I'd walk down that way first thing the next time we are in Grand Turk. Before settling on the beach we got a table on the deck and ordered some drinks and conch fritters. In all my cruises to the caribbean I had never tried these before. They were so yummy! I think we ended up getting a second order because the four of us scarfed them down pretty fast.

After our snack Darby and I went into the water for a little bit. There are some lounge chairs on the beach in front of Jack's Shack. They are free to paying customers. We pulled a couple down to the edge of the water and relaxed some more.

Too soon we decided we should head back so that we could do a little shopping before we got back on the ship. We didn't have long to shop, and in my opinion the shopping area was a bit over priced, but it did have some neat stuff.

We will definitely go back to Grand Turk some time. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I know there are excursions you can book, but I'd be just fine doing the exact same thing we did during this visit. :)