BACKGROUND
My girlfriend and I visited the Windsong Resort on Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos islands for 7 nights in early August 2009. We chose the Windsong from a small group of the more affordable resorts on the island, including the Royal West Indies Resort, the Alexandra Resort and Grace Bay Suites, all of which were priced in the vicinity of USD 125-200 per night. Although the Windsong was the priciest of this group, we chose it because 1) its top ranking on TripAdvisor and 2) its apparently favourable location for snorkeling, which we enjoy. We stayed in a 2nd floor Studio with views of the front grounds and of the ocean.
POSITIVES
1. Spacious, clean room with good facilities (including microwave, large fridge, iron, hairdryer, large desk, ample storage, in-room safe). Very comfortable.
2. Great bathroom with rainshower and handshower combo, with excellent pressure. Ideal for getting sand out of your hair and off your body.
3. Complimentary services, including free car ride by Charles to the nearby grocery store (which incidentally is outrageously expensive), free daily evening travel by Charles to and from your choice of restaurant; free DVD rental; large, soft towels readily available at poolside and on beach.
4. Very friendly and helpful staff.
5. Beautiful, well-designed pool with jacuzzi.
6. Snorkeling gear rental station in the resort - you can get fins, masks, snorkels etc for a small fee from here.
7. Relaxed, comfortable and isolated vibe to the whole resort, perfect if you are looking for some peace and tranquility without any bells and whistles. It is flanked by the Coral Gardens on the left, a much older, worn out property with the most basic of pools; and the Sandals resort on the right, which is far more commercial, full of kids and market hawkers.
NEGATIVES
1. No restaurant in the resort at the time of writing (although we are told this is scheduled to open at the end of August). No room service either. This was a major drawback. Breakfast is provided, and although basic, is nonetheless quite appetising (bagels, cereal, yoghurt, muffins, etc).
2. Snorkelling rental - it was great that this rental station was in resort, but they insist you return all equipment daily at 5pm. You are not allowed to keep it in your room overnight. This is quite inconvenient, particularly if you are snorkeling at another location on the island and want to snorkel past 5pm.
3. Maidservice was inconsistent. On some days they washed our dishes, on others they didnt. They didnt appear to give us fresh bedsheets every day, but instead just dusted off our existing sheets and remade them. Did not clean up the sand on our table.
4. Very small in-room TV (around 22 inches), difficult to see from the bed.
5. Snorkeling outside the resort not as good as expected. We have been to resorts where we have snorkelled with shoals of hundreds of fish; here we were lucky to catch 5-6 medium-sized fish swimming in a group. I did see a turtle, but this was the sole highlight of an otherwise mediocre snorkeling experience.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
We had a very pleasureable, comfortable and stress-free stay at the Windsong. Staff were always helpful and friendly, and the complimentary services on offer, particularly the free evening car journeys, were really useful. Facilities inside the hotel itself were somewhat basic; the reception was small and unimpressive, which surprised me for this TripAdvisor top-ranked hotel. We also really felt the lack of a restaurant; for lunch, we had to go next door to the Coral Gardens' "Somewhere" restaurant, which luckily served great Mexican food. In the evening, we had to eat out every night. This was a pleasure rather than a burden, given the high quality of food and wide choice of restaurants in Provo; but still, on holiday you do tend to get peckish at odd hours.
Frankly, the top ranking is somewhat surprising, given the wide range of top resorts here in Provo, including 1) the newly-opened Gansevoort, which has a stunning pool, a great in-house restaurant called Bagatelle, and fantastic live music at the bar on a Saturday night; 2) Nikki Beach, which has a beautiful outdoor bar which hosts great parties on a Sunday; 3) other large resorts including the Palms, Amanyara, Seven Stars etc. Of course, we didnt see the rooms or experience the service in any of these, but we did see their grounds and their facilities and they seemed far superior. If you can afford $300 upwards a night, then these resorts should be chosen ahead of Windsong. If your budget is a little lower, however, then Windsong seems an ideal choice. The Alexandra resort, which we earlier considered, was vastly inferior and felt worn and dated by comparison.
TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
These are absolutely stunning islands which, if you are a lover of great beaches, beautiful ocean, fantastic food and drink, you will certainly enjoy. The sand truely is white powder, the water a gorgeous turquoise - probably the best I have seen. The weather, even in August (which is supposedly Hurricane season) was outstanding, with clear skies, plenty of sun without too much humidity and only one bout of rain lasting 10 minutes in the whole week we were here. A major plus point is that these islands are far less commercial than Barbados, Jamaica and other better known Caribbean destinations. We saw very few tourists around and this added to the relaxed, calm feel of the place. While you are here:
1. Hire a car or moped to get around. Nothing is walkable, even if you are staying in Grace Bay, because of distances and because of the intense heat .
2. Try to check out the uninhabited islands like Water Cay.
3. Go to Bagatelle on a Sat night, Nikki beach on a Sun afternoon.
4. For snorkeling, do check out the Windsongs reef but venture further out to Smiths reef, where there is no-one around and you will see the same if not better variety of undersea animals.
5. For restaurants, Mango Reef, Bagatelle, Bella Luna, are all great choices.
