We’re always looking for a balance between comfort, adventure, and affordability when we travel, and were delighted with our 4-night stay at Pirates Hideaway on Salt Cay. The owner, Candy Herwin, is one of the most interesting, generous hosts we’ve ever met, and went to great lengths to make sure that we enjoyed every moment of our vacation. She was helpful even as we planned the trip weeks in advance. She suggested we spend our first night at Sibonné on Providenciales, and we loved the place.
Candy joined us on the flight to Salt Cay, and once we landed, we were greeted by the owners of two of the three restaurants on the tiny island. Dinner reservations on Salt Cay are essential, given the logistics of importing fresh ingredients and planning meals. Pat’s Place offers delicious, traditional meals like conch fritters, plantains, and rice and beans (called “rice and pease” on all the islands). We enjoyed the Wednesday “Conch Fest” at Coral Reef Bar and Grill, and had excellent quesadillas and grilled red snapper there.
With only five days to explore the island, Candy’s suggestions and quick tours of some of the best spots helped us avoid any dithering and get right down to enjoying ourselves. She’s written a beautiful coffee table book on Salt Cay, and produced a documentary on the history of the island. We highly recommend watching it if you visit Salt Cay; with that level of detail filled in so vividly, we enjoyed our travels around the island all the more.
We stayed in the first floor suite in the main guesthouse, and even on hot afternoons, found that the overhead fans kept the room breezy and comfortable. We’d read about bugs bothering people in the Caribbean, but only encountered a few mosquitoes outside after dusk. Long sleeves and a little spray around the ankles were all we needed. There were no mosquitoes in the room at all. There’s a super beach for collecting shells and bits of coral just a few minutes’ walk from Pirates Hideaway, so bring some small ziplock bags to hold your treasures.
We poked our heads into a newly renovated Salt Raker house on the property, with colorful piratical and sea life themes painted on the walls of the bedrooms by a local artist. The two other tourists on the island (yes, there were only 4 of us that week) rented bikes, but we highly suggest a golf cart. It’s a bit bumpy on some of the beach tracks, but after a long winter of being cooped up indoors, we loved having the warm salt air against our faces on our daily journey past the salinas and historic Bermuda-style buildings. North Beach was our favorite spot to snorkel. We had the entire beach to ourselves, and the water was crystal clear, free of the sandy murk we’d encountered on Grand Turk and Provo beaches.
Other details of the trip: we flew to Salt Cay with Caicos Express -- an excellent airline. At the beginning and end of our trip, we rented a car from Grace Bay Car Rental on Providenciales. Their Nissan Tiida is a great little car.
Bottom line: we can’t wait to go back!

It was time to get away from the glitz, glamour, and pull of the big city. I boarded a plane and found my way to Turks and Caicos. Which is wonderfully great for a vacation, but there are others there, others with their big hats, sunscreen white noses and screaming kids either pushing off the cruise ships or jostling for a lounge seat on Grace bay (that is if you stay at one of the hotels on Grace bay--).. I needed less, much much less... So I googled 'Off the beaten path'. And what do I see but a wonderful tiny 2mile island 30 minutes off the coast of Provo. -Salt Cay- I flew into a tiny airstrip on Caicos express. As of my visit the plane- a 8 seater Cessna flys in twice on Monday and Fridays and once on Wednesday. That fit the bill for my need for less people and relaxation to a tee. Candi the owner of Pirates Hideway was there with a nice gentleman/island guide Cozi to meet the plane and take me on a golf cart back to the hideaway. Candi had a wealth of knowledge of the orgins of the island, the current political situations, and the best ways to relax here. Two other wonderful ladies were there as well to pick up people that were staying on the island. Debbie from Salt Cay Divers/island tours (as well as a wonderful casual ocean front eatery), And Heidi the owner of Island Thymes(a wonderful casual bar/restaurant--you have to try the almond crusted snapper--better then any ny eatery!!) as well as manager of small island rental properties. Yes. When you land you are far removed from anywhere you have ever imagined. You are brought back to the basics of life and relaxation. The roads are sand/dirt. There are several really really friendly donkeys, and a couple of cows that meander up and down the streets. Little families of chickens walk on the sides of the roads. Yes there are roosters that remind you that its time to wake up and enjoy the splendor of nature. The hideway is on the south portion of the town it has a nice pool to cool down after a long hike or a strenuous day snorkeling/sun bathing. On a walk home late one night after enjoying a wonderful fish dinner at Debbies I walked off the property and onto the road next to the salinas and looked forward. The island is relatively flat and there were stars--- more stars then I have ever seen from straight ahead to the sides over the ocean to behind me I was engulfed in another world of bright twinkling lights. You even saw the Milky Way, Orion even had all the stars so that he really did look like Orion!!.. The next morning I decided to go exploring the soft sand of the North beach and the Rocky east beach. There were no footsteps in the sand. There was no one. The ocean was three different shades of turquoise. Beautiful Conch shells litter the white sand (make sure you go to Debbies for Conch night!!), gorgeous corals, natural bridges over the rocks, and serenity. Just the gentle sound of the waves meeting the shore. As you get to the south portion of the island you see a gentle inlet from the ocean into the island and the beautiful mangrove forest and nursery for the baby ocean fish. Out a hundred yards in to the ocean is the Columbus Channel. Every day I saw humpback whales blow or breaching. Debbie has a nice excursion where you take a small boat out to get close to these gentle giants. Amazing doesn't even come close to the bond you feel with life and with nature. Its like your very own survivor show only its you and the sea... I saw two donkeys grazing further up the hill and followed the footsteps back to the small town.. There are less then a hundred people on the island. Three main eaterys --Debbies, Island Thymes, and Pats (all who are amazing ladies that can make fabulous fish, conch, lobster or just a burger!!!).. Just remember that this is a small island and although fish is plenty it costs alot to bring fuel, basic cooking supplies, and spices to the island and the costs you incur correspond with this.. I always felt welcome by the islanders, ex pats, and fellow travelers. By the end of the trip most even knew my name!!... So come call any of the nice ladys and look up saltcay.org. and find yourself in the most basic of ways...

Being in Salt Cay is being in love. The island and its mother the sea live together perfectly. Their beautiful flow of energy of life is magnificently reflected in Poseidon, aka Nick at Pirate’s Hideaway.

Pirate’s Hideaway is the guest house of Nick and his impressive sister Candida. It features Oliver Cromwell, a delightful parrot whose “hello” and other conversation mingled musically with the donkeys’ bray, birdsong and roosters’ crows. Nick’s connection with the wildlife enabled our children, an eleven year old girl and a six year old boy, to marvel at the donkeys’ “velvet like” fur. They also got to go salt raking -- exellent!

Nick’s generosity also gave us clamming in North Creek where the kids, after operating as clam runners from guest to guest, made sand villages along teeming tidal pools. Their villages featured bridges and a “government building” (I wondered why they would include this voluntarily) made of clam, snail, conch and more shells. The expanse of wet sand was a perfect palette for their driftwood stick drawings on a big scale – wowee zowee!

The clamming experience was better than any salted seaweed spa I can imagine. The mineral richness of magnificent mushy sea sand took me in and smoothed and soothed my body and soul – all while able to gaze upon Poseidon! Gentle North Creek is a stone’s throw from the Atlantic crashing on boulder like coral – yin and yang at its best.

Salt Cay’s hospitality was deliciously expressed in the Pirate’s Hideaway’s clam chowder – expertly prepared (from our clams!) by Nick in their own kitchen, a large comfortable space within earshot of Oliver featuring African flavored artifacts. Their freshwater pool provided a waterfall for soothing massage if one liked (I did), along with plenty of floating noodles. All of this abundance was surrounded by flowers and fruit trees -- plus, they have a cotton tree!

Not to be missed is the fried conch -- to my mind a taste of the sea's angels' wings -- at Pat's Restaurant, located near the Pirate's Hideaway.

Candi attended efficiently to all our arrangements, including our “wheels” for the week, a golf cart on which we were routinely greeted by friendly waves from resident islanders, reflecting their polite welcome for our families.

In the sunshine the scuba diving was perfect, and in the night the stars bathed us most plentifully – Neptune and the Southern Cross protecting us. And all the time the sustaining breezes – at bedtime I could feel and hear them all around and drift off so easily.

I am most grateful for the sweet refuge of Pirate’s Hideaway and Salt Cay; it holds a first in vacation destinations.

We have been to Salt Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands several times now. Salt Cay is the island that time forgot. It is a wonderful place to go and relax and forget about everything for a while.

If you are looking for a huge, all inclusive resort, stay in Provo, but if you are looking for a small island that can offer you friendly people, a comfortable stay, seclusion, and beaches where you can swim and snorkel, than Salt Cay is a place for you.

Blackbeard's is an island home with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. It is well furnished and has fans in almost every room. There are wonderful murals on several of the walls inlcuding some terrific ones around the showers. Candy is a fantastic host, and would do anything to make her guests feel right at home. By the time you leave Salt Cay, you will be able to call Candy a friend as we have. If you stay at Blackbeard's, you can use a beautifully tiled freshwater pool just steps away from the house at Pirates Hideaway. Pirates Hideaway is adjacent to Blackbeard's and is another fine place to stay.

There are many great beaches on Salt Cay ranging from fine sand beaches to rocky shoreline. The island is only about 3 miles by 1.5 miles, so no matter what kind of beach you are looking for, nothing is more than a short distance away. Travel on the island is done mostly by golf cart on unpaved roads, which Candy can help you arrange. There are many donkeys and cattle that roam free on Salt Cay and that adds to the charm of the island.

Blackbeards has a full kitchen where you can prepare your own meals, but you may want to consider eating out at Island Thymes, The Green Flash, Coral Reef, or Pat's. You will not go hungry on Salt Cay. The food is great, and is only surpassed by the good times you will have talking with everyone from Salt Cay before, during, and after meals.

Several places on the island now offer you Wi-Fi for your computers, but once you are on island you will soon find that is easy to forget about the outside world, and you can focus on meeting many new friends. Remember that Salt Cay is a small island with many friendly people so take advantage of the time that you can spend with them over checking your work e-mail if you can.

The diving on Salt Cay is top notch. Debbie and Ollie run a great dive shop and will work with you on whatever kind of diving you would like to do. They have good equipment, nice boats, and always hire professional dive master. You can also take your diver certifications classes from Salt Cay Divers. You can expect to see anything from sharks, turtles, dolphins, eels, lobsters, or at the right time of year even whales while diving in Salt Cay.

Salt Cay is a unique treasure. It is a wonderful place for a vacation and you are sure to return home well rested and with fond memories.