Inside Beaches Turks & Caicos: A Family's All-Inclusive Adventure

In this episode, travel advisors Ryan and Julie dive into Julie's recent multi-generational family trip to Beaches Turks & Caicos, one of the top family-friendly all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. Highlights include:

• Overview of the massive Beaches Turks & Caicos resort and its five distinct villages
• Benefits of booking butler level service, from personalized attention to hassle-free dining and activities
• Dining experiences across the resort's 19 restaurants
• How the resort caters to different age groups, from toddlers to grandparents
• Tips for making the most of a Beaches vacation with young children
• Insights on the Turks & Caicos location, flights, and arrival experience

Whether you're planning a family getaway or just dreaming of crystal clear waters, this episode provides an insider look at one of the Caribbean's premier all-inclusive resorts. Julie's firsthand account offers valuable advice for anyone considering a Beaches vacation.

#TravelPodcast #BeachesTurksandCaicos #FamilyTravel #AllInclusiveResort #CaribbeanVacation

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Transcript

Ryan: 0:00

Hello and welcome to all things travel. Last month Julie's family took an amazing trip to beaches Turks and Caicos and today she's going to share with us her experience with this family focused resort. Spoiler alert, it involves a butler. Listen in with travel advisors and destination experts Ryan and Julie. I'm your travel professor teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation. And she's a Disney loving, Maryland mom of three, and a specialist in family travel. Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips, or sharing personal stories, it's always all things travel. So, hey julie, how are you doing? Hello. I'm well. Happy Father's Day because thank you. Yep. We're recording on father's day. I appreciate that.

Juile: 0:53

That's true devotion to the

Ryan: 0:55

You know, hey, I felt like I was a father of this podcast with Shane so I wanted to share with one of my babies

Juile: 1:03

Oh God. That's right. That just doesn't sound right.

Ryan: 1:09

Well, I had a good Father's Day my daughter's actually On a trip in the Pacific Northwest and coming home tonight, but I was able to have Weekend getaway with my son in Chicago We went to a Lego convention, so we geeked out there, we had some yummy pizza, we saw some of the good sights. I had a really good Father's Day. How was Steven at your house, Julie?

Juile: 1:34

It was good. He got to go golfing this morning.

Ryan: 1:38

You know, any time there's a Mother's Day or a Father's Day that involves time away from their kids, it seems like that's the way to go, right? Ha

Juile: 1:46

Yeah. On Mother's Day, I'm usually like, I just want to be left alone. Yes, I love you all. I just want you to leave me

Ryan: 1:54

yes,

Juile: 1:54

But anyways, anyways, today's a fun

Ryan: 1:56

made me a parent, now leave. I've been to a sandals resort and actually we just did a site visit at a sandals resort in Nassau. I have visited Beaches Negril when I was, staying at the adjacent sandals resort. I love sandals and beaches resorts. I just think they do a lot of things super right So I am excited about hearing all about this trip julie because i've heard bits and pieces as we've talked But today we're going to get the real breakdown

Juile: 2:33

The real deal. If you missed last week's episode, go back and give it a listen. We do a head to head comparison of cruising versus versus going to an all inclusive resort with our friend and fellow travel agent, Michelle. And if you want to follow along with us, make sure to go to our new Facebook page, All Things Travel Podcast.

Ryan: 2:56

All right, julie. So the first thing that I want to know is kind of give us a Brief overview of Beaches, Turks, and Caicos. What is the resort? What's its personality, if you will?

Juile: 3:06

So Beaches Turks and Caicos is known, at least in our industry, as like the top family friendly all inclusive resort. It's located in Turks and Caicos, which makes it pretty unique. There's not a lot of all inclusives in Turks and Caicos. There's a couple that come to mind and they're all family friendly. Turks and Caicos is more of an exotic destination than Mexico or the Dominican. Beaches Turks and Caicos is a huge resort. Huge. There are five mini villages and really you could have spent your entire time in the village that you were staying in if you wanted to. There's 19 restaurants. There's 10 pools. They have the largest water park in the Caribbean. It's 45, 000 square feet, has 11 slides, a lazy river, a surf simulator. Like, this resort on paper has everything.

Ryan: 4:04

I love it. So tell us about your specific trip. Who went? When did you go?

Juile: 4:10

This was a multi generational trip. It was my family of five. So me and my husband and my three kids who were five, three, and one when we traveled. My parents went, my mom and my dad. And I have two brothers. So my middle brother came and then my oldest brother came with his family. So him, his wife and my two nieces. Who are 10 and 7. We chose to go the first week of May this past year, so just a couple weeks ago. And we chose the first week of May because that is right at the end of their peak season. Their peak season ends in April. So May, the prices start to go down a little bit. And if you have ever priced out Beaches, Turks, and Caicos, or thought about traveling there and looked it up, you know that it is not something you do last minute.

Ryan: 5:01

You're hitting that sweet spot between spring break and summer vacation, obviously. Yeah. this multi generational group, with families of different types, why Beaches, Turks, and Caicos, Julie?

Juile: 5:14

Since we were doing a multi generational trip, we had quite a few must haves. We have not done a trip altogether. Ever, like since the kids have been born and all of that. We've never done that. We do have a beach house that we tend to share. But we all kind of go at different times, even there. We're not all there at the same time. We have not done. A family vacation for a very long time. So this was something that was really important to my parents to try to do a big trip with all their kids, all the grandkids, but our must haves were a good beach, our family, we are beach people. And we wanted a good beach. Like I said, we have a beach house and I'm from Maryland. So our beach house is in ocean city, Maryland, which is about a three hour drive, but it's not like a beach. a pretty beach. It's a very fun beach. I love sitting on the beach, but the water is the furthest from turquoise that you could get. Yeah. So we needed to have a good beach. We wanted it to be good for kids of different ages. Since we had a lot of kids at different ages, that was like obviously a big thing for me. I didn't want to take a one year old somewhere that there would be nothing she could do. It needed to be a nonstop flight and not a very long flight and it had to be all inclusive. So Peaches, Turks and Caicos hit all those things. I know when we were looking, I remember we were actually planning it from our beach house a couple of years ago and my dad was throwing out different destinations. And I would say. Okay. Well in Mexico or the Dominican, there's a higher chance of having sargassum or that seaweed at your resort. So the beach can be unpredictable. And he was like, okay, well, forget it. Let's do Turks and Caicos since we're more likely to have that beautiful beach.

Ryan: 7:04

Let's get going on the trip here. Talk to us about getting to Turks and Caicos and the resort.

Juile: 7:11

This was pretty easy. We flew a nonstop flight out of Philly. Our room had butler service, which means that it also comes with a private transfer. That's not the case with every. Butler service room at beaches or sandals resorts, but ours did. My brother's room had shared transfers. So the

Ryan: 7:30

Yeah, and I do want to say that if you're going to beaches or sandals, all of them include transfers, just the private transfer versus the share transfer.

Juile: 7:39

Out of Philly, we flew American Airlines. It was maybe three and a half hours and then we landed at the Providenciales Airport, PLS. The airport is teeny tiny. It's open air. We've never done this before. So this is fun for my kids. You get off the plane on the tarmac. So you go down that big flight of steps. It is hot. As soon as you land, it is so hot. You go into the building, you go through customs. Easy. For the most part only so many planes can land there at 1 time. And I think there was 2 others that landed. So we did have a little bit of a line and there was an option for fast track, but I don't know that that would be worth paying

Ryan: 8:20

okay. All right.

Juile: 8:21

It wasn't that big of an inconvenience. So once you get through, there's kind of people everywhere that work there that guide you to where you're going. So they kind of usher you right out of the airport. And they're like, okay, you're going to beaches. Okay. Do you have a shared or a private? Okay. You have a private, you're going to go wait right here and your private jet will come to you. So it's almost like they're at the resort or nearby. And those people at the airport are calling them to say, Hey, Hey, so and so is ready to be picked up. It was great. I had requested car seats for my kids. I'm not a hundred percent sure what the laws are for that in Turks and Caicos, but obviously the laws in the U S my kids are in car seats and I would just feel more comfortable if they had them. So I, I had called beaches and had them request it and they did get them. That wasn't a problem.

Ryan: 9:08

How far was Beaches from the airport?

Juile: 9:13

20 minutes.

Ryan: 9:14

Okay. So, not bad at all. You get in, you get settled, and you're almost there.

Juile: 9:19

Yeah. And I will say it was really funny. I we had two cars for our private transfer and I was in the car with my two older kids. So they're five and three and Luca, Every time we do a private transfer, the kid falls asleep. But like when we're going to Disney, it's okay. Cause it's a little bit of a longer ride. He is falling asleep and we are like two minutes from the resort. And I'm like, Luca, wake up, Luca.

Ryan: 9:43

Ha ha ha. So, Luca finally wakes up, you get to the resort, What are your first impressions? This is the first time your family is at a beaches sandals type resort and you know they do such a good job of welcoming you from the very first second on the property. Talk to me about your family's first impressions.

Juile: 10:07

I was super impressed. It was absolutely beautiful. It was hot, you step out of the private transfer. So when you're coming from a private transfer, they know that you're booked into a Butler level room. So they're already treating you a little bit like, Oh, your Butler will be right out to greet you. So we wait in the lobby for just a couple of minutes, and then the butler, his name was Alex, he was great, met us and walked us to our room. Our luggage came right with us, not a problem. It was just great, so easy. Right after we finished getting settled into our room, we went straight to the beach because I just needed to see the water and it truly was turquoise.

Ryan: 10:44

the turquoise water that you wanted, not Ocean City, Maryland. It was, it was tropical Turks and Caicos.

Juile: 10:51

absolutely beautiful. We were just like stunned. My kids were squealing. They went completely in the water and all of their clothes. But

Ryan: 11:01

I love that.

Juile: 11:02

they were so excited it was so easy. Our butler made us reservations for dinner and so it was just great. It was just a very. easy experience.

Ryan: 11:11

Love it. Well, I am ready to get into the nitty gritty of the trip. But first, I want to talk about where in the world is All Things Travel, Julie?

Juile: 11:21

Where are we?

Ryan: 11:21

So, a new location that popped up for us this week is Raleigh, North Carolina. Right there is obviously part of that triangle area of North Carolina. Lots of things going on and I love the fact that we have listeners from Raleigh. And as I was looking at things to do in Raleigh, North Carolina, Julie, a place that fits me that I really was attracted to is the Raleigh Market. And let me read a little bit about the Raleigh Market. Located on the historic North Carolina State Fairgrounds, the Raleigh Market is recognized as one of the top 10 flea markets in the United States. Each weekend, indoor and outdoor vendors showcase vintage goods and antiques, collectibles, new items, thrift items, crafts, arts, jewelry, and so much more. Food trucks, farm stands, and fair food ensure that customers don't leave hungry. Does that not sound like a fun way to spend the day?

Juile: 12:20

it sounds perfect. And I've been to Raleigh and it's a lot of fun.

Ryan: 12:24

Awesome. Well, hey, Raleigh, we are so glad that you're listening to All Things Travel. We would love to meet up with you and buy you something from a food truck at the Raleigh Market, maybe some barbecue.

Juile: 12:37

Love it.

Ryan: 12:37

So reach out to either Julia or I on Facebook or via email because I would love to send a little thank you gift to Raleigh for being featured on today's show. Julie, you've talked about butler service and that's the level that you booked at beaches. Folks know from listening at the episodes before there's three levels that you can book at Sandals, you can book luxury, you can book club or concierge, or you can book butler, and the same plays true at beaches. So talk a little bit about your accommodations, and talk a little bit about how you utilize your butler service, and what people would need to know going to Sandals for that.

Juile: 13:48

Okay, so we did not go into booking our room saying we need a room with a butler. We looked for the room that best fit our needs and best fit the location that we wanted on the resort. And it just so happened to also come with a butler. I will say that that butler was an absolute lifesaver on the trip. So absolutely worth it. Don't think I would do it again without a butler. So. Just to backtrack a little bit, we were looking for a two bedroom villa that or a room that would accommodate more of us in one space. They do have townhouses, four bedroom townhouses, things like that, but you have to pay attention to what the bedrooms are like. So I believe there's four bedroom townhouses over in the Key West Village, but each bedroom had a king bed. So that wasn't something that was going to really work. for our family with having the kids with us. The kids would have all been sleeping in like a common space. So even though it sounds great, like, oh, there's four bedrooms and this and that, and we could all be in one, the layout would not have worked. The room we ended up choosing was a two bedroom villa in the Seaside Village. And that is because that is the only two bedroom villa on property. That one bedroom has a king bed and the other bedroom has two double beds. So that worked for us. That way, my family of five had the bedroom with two double beds and then my youngest in a crib and my parents had that king bed. That was in the Seaside Village, which is also where we wanted to be because it's the closest to the beach. I know I sent Ryan and I believe I posted a picture when we were there of how close my brother's room was to the beach. It was like steps. Yeah, it was great. In the Seaside Village, the only other option for rooms other than the two bedroom are one bedrooms. So both of my brother's rooms were one bedroom villas as well. And the villa, the way it's set up as that one bedroom, two bedroom, also means that you have a little bit of a common space, which worked out really well for us. My kids were able to kind of go out there in the morning and play. It was really lovely. We had a full table, we had a sink, we had microwave. It was a really great room. It was a great location. We walked out right to a pool. We were steps from the beach. It was really, really great. It's on the first floor, so we had a, walkout patio. Just the perfect location. You could walk one minute to the beach or, if you're on the beach and you need to go back, it's a one minute walk and you just went through your patio to get into your room. And it was so great.

Ryan: 16:28

How did you utilize your Butler being at that level? You had 1 Butler? Your whole

Juile: 16:34

We had two, we had Alex and we had Skylar and the way it usually worked was like one was there in the morning, one was more there in the evening, and then they covered for each other on their day off. They were wonderful. The resort gives you a phone that goes just to your butler. Like it's pre programmed with a phone number that says my butlers. And that way you can text them, call them if you need something. We didn't need to do that very much because they were always around,

Ryan: 16:59

They kind of anticipate your

Juile: 17:00

by. Absolutely. The best thing that they do, well, I don't know. I don't know if it's the best because they do so many great things. They reserve a spot at the beach, the pool, or the water park for you every single day. So you don't even have to be like, Oh, man, we got to get out and put our towels down like, or find towels. Sometimes at resorts, finding towels is kind of annoying. We didn't even have to go find them. everything was set up. We tended to go for a beach setup because those chairs were harder to come by than the pool chairs and more than likely somebody in our family was going to be at the beach during the day. We might go to the pool for a little bit, but more than likely, we're going to be coming back to the beach. So we would walk a minute from my room down to the steps, go down to the beach and our cabana was always right there. I'll post a picture on the Facebook page of the setup of what it looks like, there's a sign it's reserved for you. All your towels are there a little later on, they'll bring out a cooler that has all your preferred drinks because you've already told them what drinks you prefer. They restock it throughout the day and then. He drops off the cooler and he's like, what are you guys thinking about for lunch? You can have this or this or this.

Ryan: 18:11

So he'll bring you the lunch and that's

Juile: 18:13

He'll bring you lunch wherever you are, whether that is at the beach where you set up for the day, or if you've migrated to a pool, he'll kind of come find you, bring your lunch to you, which is. the best thing when you have little kids to not have to disrupt what you're doing, take everyone's order, mom or dad have to go leave, wait in line, carry all the food back. Like, no, none of that.

Ryan: 18:38

That right there I think is worth it for a family like yours I remember when I had a butler at Sandals the grill everybody who had the same butler was kind of in the same area on the beach so that they could circulate amongst them and every morning there was a woman that would do her workout on the beach and when she was done her bottle of champagne was sitting there waiting for her at her chairs.

Juile: 19:05

Love it.

Ryan: 19:07

And you also utilize the butlers for breakfast, correct?

Juile: 19:10

We did. We ordered room service breakfast every morning that just worked best for us and he would bring it for us and set it all up. Anyone can order room service, but I mean, we didn't even, we didn't even have to call. He would take us to dinner the night before and say, okay. What's everyone having for breakfast tomorrow and just take our order then? So easy. He would have Well, he and she, because there was two. They would have snacks and appetizers in our room throughout the day that they would refresh throughout the day. We'd pop back in after, a little bit at the beach and there would just be plates of food to snack on that was like food that you really couldn't get at like the lunch spots or it was just a little bit of a nicer appetizer. They would bring desserts at night pop out bowls of popcorn, cookies, cupcakes, everything. Kids loved it. Obviously.

Ryan: 20:01

How could they not? How could they not Alex and Skylar bring us cupcakes every day? I mean, come on.

Juile: 20:08

Luca, so he's the three year old literally said to me yesterday, I want to go to Turks and Caicos and find Mr. Alex again. I'm like, how do you remember his name? They left an impression because they're there with you so much throughout your trip. Another great thing that they do for you is they make all your reservations You can do it two different ways. Me being a planner, I had looked at the restaurants beforehand. I knew which ones I wanted to go to. So the first day that we got there, he does your resort orientation in your room gives you a little planner and you write down in your planner what you want to do. And he makes the reservations. Since I knew where I wanted to go, I just wrote them down and he made them. And that was that. My parents, on the other hand, did not know exactly where they wanted to go every night. They weren't sure if they were eating with my brothers or not. So they would just, every day, Hey Alex, tonight we want to go to Sky. Can you get us in? And he would just be like, done. So just, it was just so easy that you could do it either way. He also made spa reservations for us. My family did glass bottom boat tours. We never had to contact anyone. But him,

Ryan: 21:16

It's kind of like, and obviously we talk about all inclusive resorts being relaxing and stress free, but the things that you're talking about. are the pain points, when you're at an all inclusive resort. Where are we going to eat? Do we need a reservation? Hey, we're thinking about this, this excursion. Is it too late to do that? I'm thinking about the spa, you know, where are we going to sit? You know, that stuff that kind of creeps into your relaxation, poof, it's gone.

Juile: 21:44

yeah, the mental relief

Ryan: 21:48

I absolutely love that. So,

Juile: 21:51

well, hold on. I just want to comment on this real quick, because when I say he made reservations for the spa, I woke up one morning. I tried to book a spa appointment for that day. They didn't have anything. We called the Butler phone and I said, Alex, I have a terrible headache. Can you get me in for a massage? And by 11 AM, I was in the spa for a massage. Same with the glass bottom boat. My mom had said she wanted to do the glass bottom boat at the beginning of the week. So he was like, okay, tell me what day and I'll get you in. We told him a day the glass bottom boat then went down for maintenance for all the rest of the days of our trip, except for our last day on Friday. So because we were about low level and he knew we wanted it to go, they were one of the only people to get to go on Friday. Because he was able to get them a slot right away. Just so easy.

Ryan: 22:41

Let's talk in general. How does beaches of Turks and Caicos? Cater to families of all types. I mean, obviously you had the Butler experience, but when you took a look back at the resort as a whole, why is this considered one of the best family friendly all inclusive resorts?

Juile: 23:01

To me, my family was the perfect example of this caters to everyone because we had little kids. We had elementary almost tween, we had adults that were adults only, grandparents, we had a little bit of everything and there was more than enough for each age. More than I could have imagined. My little, little ones, they loved the pool at the Italian village. It was shallow. It was perfect for them. They loved the beach. There was that massive water park is there was stuff there just for them. There was a water playground on a splash pad and Luca thoroughly enjoyed the lazy river.

Ryan: 23:44

As one should, I mean, a lazy river is, the pinnacle of relaxation. Yeah.

Juile: 24:11

quieter. It's literally probably five feet deep. So I didn't really like my kids being in it that much. I preferred them going to a different pool. They liked sailing on the boats. They liked going to the water park. They weren't really on the water playground like my kids, but they were on some of the slides that were for their age range. They were perfect. My kids were a little too scared for those slides, but it was perfect for their ages. Then we had a bunch of adults in our group. And you can either be very adult only at this resort as far as there are some pools, they're gonna be geared more towards adults. They're gonna have, first of all, every single pool has a swim up bar, but Some pools are just going to be quieter than others and geared more towards adults for that reason. There are adult only restaurants. There's a, like a nightclub type thing going on. There's bars that you can go at, go to at night. There are restaurants that are just a little more elevated, that us family friendly people are probably not going to. It really allowed you to find your space in it. I would definitely say between all of us that went with my family, we all had very different vacations. And I think that's what makes it perfect for a multi generational trip.

Ryan: 25:26

I love that. I that right there, that sentiment of we all went together, we all spent time together, but yet we came away with different vacation experiences, that sells it, Julie. Obviously a big thing at all inclusive resorts are dining. What were some of the dining highlights for either your specific family or your group as a whole?

Juile: 25:48

Oh gosh. So I mentioned before that there are 19 restaurants at Turks and Caicos or at Peaches Turks and Caicos. So. Choosing where you want to go ahead of time is definitely recommended. They all have a different cuisine and I went into it knowing which ones we wanted to. And we did kind of make adjustments on the fly, but between all, all the whole family, we ate at the majority of the restaurants. And I remember right, right afterwards being like, Brian, I wasn't super impressed with the food, but now that I think back and I looked back at like the menus, like they were, it was pretty good food. It was better than other all inclusive food I've had. That's for sure. So we ate at the Bombay Club, which was Indian. We had some awesome samosas, some chicken tikka. Delicious. We actually, it was getting like kind of rainy, and that restaurant is outside. So, we covered everything and they helped us get it back to our room. And we ended up eating in our room, but It wasn't a big deal.

Ryan: 26:47

So you're telling me every, every night while I'm watching a movie, my butler could bring me some garlic naan and some samosas?

Juile: 26:56

Absolutely.

Ryan: 26:57

I'm sold.

Juile: 26:58

Mm hmm. Mm

Ryan: 26:59

I'd like garlic naan, samosas, and two old fashions, please.

Juile: 27:03

Yeah, they would do it. They would do it. Our whole group, the only dinner that we did all together was at Kimono's, which is known for their hibachi. My parents had gone. To the kimonos at their sandals vacation and they wanted to do it with everyone here really didn't go as planned. My children were absolutely terrified of the fire and then my youngest was just walking the entire restaurant so Little hectic. Not sure I'd recommend it for little ones, but my nieces and everyone else had a great time. The food was really good.

Ryan: 27:37

It's a solid hibachi experience. Yes.

Juile: 27:40

Yeah, again, yeah. I maybe would have waited to take my kids. We also ate at Arizona's, which was Southwest Cuisine. It was right outside of our room. Now, someone at the resort, I can't remember who it was, told us that that was like the steakhouse. I wouldn't go with that. being a correct answer. They had a T bone steak on the menu and Steven got it. It was good. It was, it was huge. It was like the size of two plates. I had some baby back ribs though, and they were awesome. They had a great kid's meal. I thought that restaurant probably had the best variety. Nearly every restaurant is outside. So it's just beautiful. the first night we ate at schooners, which is their seafood grill. It's like in the center of the restaurant. Absolutely beautiful. We had some scallops. We had some awesome seared tuna there. I did really like that. We ate at Neptune's, which was Mediterranean seafood, and this was on the complete opposite side of the resort for us. So the butler called a little golf cart and they took us on a golf cart over. And to get there, we even went like in an underground tunnel.

Ryan: 28:44

Oh,

Juile: 28:45

on the other side of the resort. That was probably my kids favorite part of the trip

Ryan: 28:49

I mean, how awesome.

Juile: 28:51

Yeah. The food there was pretty good. It was not our favorite, but we're also not really used to Mediterranean seafood. But the great thing about all inclusives is you can try new things. The other thing I really liked is this restaurant was situated really close to a buffet over there. So I didn't think my kids would love anything on the menu. The butler went into the buffet and brought out a plate of food for the kids. So it makes it really easy. The other really awesome thing about having a butler, and Ryan told me this little tip before I went, is that they can bring you takeout from nearly any restaurant on property. We did that twice. We did that from the French restaurant and we did that from Barefoot by the Sea, which is another one of their seafood grills. And it was perfect. Sometimes by the end of the day, we didn't want to have to like rush back, get everyone showered, get everyone dressed, and to just be able to call the butler at like four o'clock and be like, Hey, can you bring us takeout from Barefoot by the Sea? This is what we want. And then they just show up like phenomenal. And they're not showing up with like chicken fingers. They're showing up with coconut shrimp, conch fritters, surf and turf. Whole fancy meals. So love that we ate pretty much everywhere else for lunch. There's a couple of food trucks. We tried all the food trucks. They have a macaroon cheese truck, an ice cream truck, a jerk chicken truck which the jerk chicken tends to have a long line. So we ordered that one from the Butler. He brought it to us at the pool. They have like a really cool fifties themed diner in the water park. We ate there. They have like all night hours. So that's a really good option because. You can kind of always get something there. And then the other big place for lunch was actually the Arizona's place that we ate at for dinner. They have a full taco bar, nacho bar, all sorts of stuff that you can just kind of grab and go. And that was super easy. The rest of my family also ate at Sky, which is a rooftop restaurant Reflections, which is the buffet, Soy, the sushi bar, and Mario's, which is Italian. So we hit a lot of the dining options.

Ryan: 31:00

You throw, room service for throughout the day room service for breakfast buffet and sit down options for breakfast, grab and go stuff. There, there's just so much anybody can be happy eating here.

Juile: 31:17

Yeah, there was a ton of options. And I don't think my family is necessarily picky. My brothers had certain restaurants that they wanted to go to and they were definitely impressed with some of those restaurants. I know Sky is like the one that's really popular there because it is literally on the rooftop and it's has gorgeous views. My family my five did not make it there, but everyone else did. So next time. Mm

Ryan: 31:42

you have a family that wants to go to beaches, Turks and Caicos. Last question. What's your tips? What's your advice for that family?

Juile: 31:52

Oh gosh. This is a long list. I'll warn you because I learned a lot You know, I learned a lot on this trip. Whoo. So I would wait until kids are at least four years old

Ryan: 32:03

That makes

Juile: 32:03

Mine were just way too young for all of us to enjoy a good time. They had an absolute blast. I mean, every single day, my kids are pretending that they're going to Turks and Caicos every day. Luca packs a bag every day of random toys and he is quote unquote Caicos. You know how kids minds work. They literally said to me yesterday, mom, can you plan our trip to Turks and Caicos today? They're ready to go back, but with their ages of five, three, and one, my husband and I were exhausted. It was a lot to manage and there was a lot to do on the resort that we didn't get to take advantage of because of that. They do have a kids club, but my kids aren't really like huge kids club people. So, we didn't utilize it as much as we probably could have. I would also recommend flying on an off day. We did Saturday to Saturday because we had nonstop flight options. There are nonstop flight options other days, depending on the time of year that you go. But the airport is small.

Ryan: 33:09

Yes, you shared on a previous episode, your, your adventures in the airport in Turks and Caicos. Yes, I, you, shared

Juile: 33:16

Just terrible. Just terrible. So if you could avoid flying home on a Saturday, go that route. You don't have to book anything in advance. We didn't book a single thing in advance other than a photo session for everyone. While we were there, we were able to do all of our dining. We were able to do the spa. Other people in my party were able to do the glass bottom boat and snorkeling and we didn't book any of that in advance. The butler is 100 percent worth it if you have kids. Like we talked about earlier, that mental relief of not having to plan, well, literally anything just changes it. With having my kids being so little, our butler literally saved the trip for us. On those nights that we didn't want to get everyone back and showered and da, da, da, da, to get ready for dinner, if he couldn't have brought us real food, we would have been a little miserable eating, like take out burgers every day or going to the buffet every day.

Ryan: 34:16

In episodes past, we've talked about sandals, we've always recommended booking. Either a club concierge room or a butler room and and based on your experience that plays out even at the club and concierge level you've got access to somebody helping you with making reservations You've got more of an exclusive experience with activities and checking in checking out but boy, you're right for your family this would have been a very different trip if you didn't have alex and skyler there to assist you All throughout the day. I mean, this was amazing.

Juile: 34:50

And I didn't mention this earlier, but they actually, if, so we, our dinner reservations, because our kids are little, our dinners tend to be at like 530. And he'd be like, okay, I'll meet you at 515 at the door. And he would meet us at our door, walk us to the restaurant, go talk to the host and say, you know, I have the Schaefer party. And then Alex or Skyler would walk us to our table, get us settled, get our drink orders in. There was one night that we were eating at one of the restaurants and the butler walked past after dropping us off and saw us and just said hi again and she was like, have they taken your order? And we were like, no, not yet. Like, it's fine. There could, they'll be here in a minute. And she like literally got the manager and the manager was our server the rest of the evening. The service wasn't even bad. Like nothing was even wrong. They just hadn't come back to take our order yet, but it's just that like attention to making sure you're having a good experience. Which, with the kids, you don't want to be sitting there for long. Right. So another thing that was great really great with the kids and we found this out after we got there was people buy like in the gift shop, like floaties or tubes or, stuff like that for kids and adults. And then they just leave them there. So we didn't buy any. We actually just went down to where they have all the rentals for the water activities and they have a bunch of them laying there that you can just take and use for the week and then you just give it back when you're done. So that was kind of awesome that we. Didn't bring any of that stuff, but they had like the perfect little one for my one year old to sit in, which was great. We didn't have to buy it. Bring a ton of sunscreen. Bring a ton of sunscreen. It's very hot. It's very

Ryan: 36:29

bring like cooling towels or anything like that? And do you wish you did?

Juile: 36:34

I didn't and I don't know that I wish that I did because you, you could easily get in the water and

Ryan: 36:39

Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah,

Juile: 36:41

It's not like we were walking around like a Disney or anything. If I was going somewhere like Mexico and I was going to go to the ruins, I would do that. But I didn't feel like we needed to hear but one of the sunscreens I brought for the kids I didn't realize came off in the water on their face So they had gotten a little burned and then I had to switch sunscreens. And we did bring mineral safe sunscreen so If you're aware of those things, you might want to do that. Biggest thing that made our days super easy was also just order. If you have kids order room service for breakfast, it is just so much easier than having to get out the door early in the morning and then come back and get ready for the day. If they can just bring you your breakfast, it is so much easier and it is no extra cost.

Ryan: 37:20

Yeah, right. It's included in your stay, which, you know, at most all inclusives, that's a, benefit that a lot of us aren't used to traveling other

Juile: 37:29

Mm hmm. Yeah. Because it's not always included on a cruise or at other resorts you go to. It's. Obviously an extra charge. So you kind of forget that it's there, but we did it every day. And, you know, we started off the week, like, Oh, like bring me an omelet with everything in it. And by the end, I was like, oatmeal. Oatmeal oatmeal, just because you, had kind of like had all the specialty foods. I just wanted my oatmeal for the rest of the week. And for the kids, we would just get like a plate of pastries and some fruit and they were set.

Ryan: 38:02

love it. That's awesome. So, as we wrap up, Julie, what are future plans for the Schaefer family?

Juile: 38:10

Well, clearly we have some little people who would like to return to be just

Ryan: 38:14

I, I hear that. I hear that.

Juile: 38:17

So we will definitely 100 percent go back to be just Turks and Caicos. I I know that it is not a cheap vacation, so it will probably be at least five years before we go back, and plus for the kids ages, I think that'd be a good time. Up next for us is a cruise, and I do think that my husband and I, oh, actually, I lied. The next vacation we have is Disneyland and Ohlone.

Ryan: 38:41

Yay!

Juile: 38:43

And then we have a cruise. And then my husband and I will probably go to a Sandals by ourselves.

Ryan: 38:49

Wow, very nice. Those are awesome things to look forward to. You know how much I love Aulani. Chris and I were just talking about it on one of our past episodes, so I'm sure we'll do a prep Disneyland Aulani episode where you can ask me a bunch of questions and we'll geek out about your upcoming vacation.

Juile: 39:09

Oh, I can't wait. That'll be so fun. That'll be so fun.

Ryan: 39:12

You want to plan a trip to an amazing destination like Beaches, Turks and Caicos, but you don't know how to get started? As your travel advisors, we work with you to create a customized itinerary for your vacation and take the stress of planning away so you can focus on the fun and creating memories. You can reach me, Ryan, at ryanatcreatingmagicvacations. com

Juile: 39:35

And you can reach me at Julie at CreatingMagicVacations. com.

Ryan: 39:39

We look forward to talking to you next week on All Things Travel when we celebrate the 4th of July in the United States with discussing patriotic travel sites.