January 2022

A Caribbean semi-wilderness.

Turks and Caicos has a reputation for being extremely expensive. In my experience, this is true. Celebrities, yachts, mansions and private jets abound. Tourism culture here is defined by consumerism, including insanely expensive restaurants, jetski rentals, parasailing, and fishing charters. Yuck. To put it in perspective, a four-mile taxi ride from the airport is $50 - and that's after negotiating. Jetskis rent for $150 per hour.

Because I'm not a millionaire, we brought a tent and hitchhiked all over. Aside from flights ($80 from Miami), we spent less than $200 in a week.

The vast majority of tourists only visit crowded Providenciales island. We instead went out to North and Middle Caicos for the week to camp on deserted beaches, hike a spectacular stretch of coastline, explore the largest aboveground cave in the Bahamanian island chain, and birdwatch at the numerous lagoons. We also had a heck of a time dealing with the ravenous mosquito population.

I didn't think much of Providenciales. For a British territory, I was expecting it to be pretty nice, like Bermuda or Gibraltar. It's not.

However, the Caicos islands are still pretty undeveloped, and essentially an untouched wilderness for the most part. This is a fascinating destination for the experienced traveller, but a disappointing ripoff for the average tourist. In my opinion.