We stayed at Island house for 7 nights as part of our annual dive trip. Package included 7 nights lodging, 6 days of 2 tank diving with Grand Turk Diving Company and 2 cars for 6 people in 3 rooms. The rooms were in various stages of being finished. One was literally completed as we checked in. All the renovation was due to the Hurricane that hit Grand Turk a year ago. The Island House has recovered very nicely with most of the rooms now available for rent.

We were met by Donna, one of the owners at the airport for pickup and a small island tour. Since we arrived as 2 groups of 4, then 2 more, she made another trip to the airport later to get the remaining 2 people. Island house has a nice fresh water pool, plus great views of North Lake. They provide fresh, clean drinking water via a 5 gallon dispenser. They left a small glass pitcher in each room, plus a larger 1 gallon container if you needed to hold more water for cooking or just went through a lot of it.

The web site claimed they had direct dial phones, Internet and cable TV. As of our visit, they were still waiting for the cable to be re-done for the island from the Hurricane and the phone system was in the same condition. We didn't need either, but it would have been nice to know they weren't quite ready. Internet worked fine, but not by the pool, which was removed from the buildings.

During our stay, there were minor things we needed, like more coffee for the mornings and extra soap here and there. Each request was met with a cheerful smile and the item appeared. Or in the case of questions about where places were or needed reservations, Donna was more than happy to make the calls and arrange things. I can't think of one request that Donna could not help us with.

Overall, it's a great island. Still recovering from the hurricane, but plenty of restaurants are now open. More hotels are re-opening and things are getting back to normal. It will still be some time before they are really 100% back, but it's a great place to visit and we would easily stay at Island House again. It was one of the friendliest places we've been to. The views are also pretty nice since they are up on a small hill.

Our diving trip to Grand Turk was enhanced by our choice of hotel. Island House arranged our diving with a local dive shop. We were completely happy with the arrangements. We had not stayed there before, but I can assure you we WILL be returning within 6 months. They far exceeded the service we expected. For example, Chris, the manager, picked us up at the airport, and gave us a brief tour so we would be able to find our way about. Island House provided us with a car to use at no charge. We were asked to let the manager know if we needed anything. We were provided with purified water, free of charge.
The Island House Hotel will only get better and better, as they are completely remodeling due to the damage done by Hurricane Ike last year.
Randy and Connie Rudd

I will begin my review by stating that I haven't travelled much in the Caribbean, so I wasn't prepared for how expensive everything is, or how many properties seem slightly....decayed.

After reading the great reviews of Island House, I was a bit let down by the property in the sense that it seems "frayed on the edges" for the price you pay to stay there. It looks as if it were once very nice, but that the care that had once been put into it is no longer present, sort of like visiting the once fine house of an aged relative. Appliances didn't work, windows didn't open, projects around the property appeared to have been started but not finished and the pieces just left laying there. The fresh water system you use to fill jugs of drinking water was a little frightening- the tubes were full of green stuff. However, other tourists we spoke with said that is just the way hotels are in the Caribbean.

On the positive side, it was fabulous to have a great, spacious apartment sized room with separate bedroom, complete kitchen and deck. We did a lot of cooking since a meal out will easily run $50. Also the use of a car was fantastic! The hotel is inland, not near the diving shops, so you must have transport to get down to the beach.

Back to the less positive, Grand Turk is a desert island, dry and flat, and our stay was during the hottest part of the year (Oct). Being inland, and in an upstairs room was absolutely broiling hot, even with the little bedroom air conditioner and the breezes. I'm guessing it would have been much cooler to stay at a hotel on the beach, which is what I will do if by some chance I ever come back to Grand Turk.

My husband and I spent a lovely week at the Island House on Grand Turk. Colin was our host and we truly enjoyed him. He took us on a tour of the island, got us to the dive shop so we could get set up for the week, and took us to several grocery stores to get all our provisions for the week. It was also just nice to chat with him every morning or evening as we came and went.

We were upgraded to a one bedroom unit upon arrival, which had a large living/dining/kitchen space, a bedroom, bath, large covered porch, and open sun deck overlooking the garden and pool area. We also got free use of a pick up truck for the week, which is necessary since the Island House is not within walking distance to "town." The pool looked like it may have been somewhat dirty, but was clear and people used it daily. I am picky about that though and it was probably fine. Colin also provided gallon jugs of water for our use to prevent GI distress. We boiled the water too, but that was probably not necessary. We didn't want to take any chances of ruining our vacation though. The frige in our room was one of those mini, under the counter ones and the freezer spot didn't work well, but Colin let us use his freezer in the laundry room, no problem. We were also able to use the washer/dryer to do laundry.

The nice thing about being away from town is that the air smelled fresh. The old salt ponds remain in town and are used by the many different birds. It is nice to watch the birds, but doesn't smell so nice there.

If you go to Grand Turk, make sure to eat at the Poop Deck. It is a favorite of locals for fried chicken and was great. It is down at the end of main street out of the "tourist" zone in a yellow delapidated shack. Looks scary, but the chicken is great and the beer there is half the price you pay at the tourist restaurants.

We spent most of the week scuba diving with Oasis Divers-great dive operation and loved our divemaster Tim. He is a belonger whose family is from Salt Key and he gave us a private tour of the famous family home on the key when we did a dive day over there. Would recommend Oasis for sure-super professional, safe, and knowlegable. We also did the day trip to Gibbs Key to snorkel, BBQ, and feed the stingrays. Great day trip. Also went whalewatching and got to snorkel with a 35ft humpback--sooooo cool.

Overall, we had a great time at Grand Turk and if we ever come back, would definately stay with Colin at the Island House.