# HCC Turks and Caicos mini-blog



## Steamboat Bill (Jun 9, 2007)

I will attempt to keep a daily mini-blog of my first HCC Turks and Caicos stay and report on my thoughts and experiences here.

I started the day at Fort Lauderdale airport on Spirit air...great and inexpensive service direct to Turks and Caicos. My only thought of travel is why is it such a hassle to fly these days? I wore flip-flop shoes so I could walk thru the scanner, but TSA made me take them off and I had to walk barefoot across the carpet. As a board certified Podiatrist (now semi-retired) I would use the following medical diagnosis of this experience - Gross!

The Turks and Caicos airport is very small and my kids were slow getting off the plane and we were the last in line to go thru customs...note to self, be the FIRST off the palne next time. We easily got our bags, but the free carts were gone. No problem as the walk to the rental car was about 50 feet away. My rental car was with Budget and had no problems except the gas tank was 3/4 full....note to self....make sure to ask for a full tank next time.

Off we go to our unit...making sure to drive on the left side of the road. This place seems a lot like Cayman Islands, just not as developed. As we approach Villa Renaissance, the place looks awesome from the drive up. Check in was a breeze, the manager Ben was very pleasant and welcomed me and escorted me to the private parking garage below the condo. We have our own assigned space and he walked me and my family to our unit #105. Once the door opened, all we could say was WOW...this place is awesome!

This place is as nice or nicer than any Ritz or Four Seasons, except it has a small boutique feel as there are only 36 or so rooms. This place is actually NICER than it appears in all the photos and reviews I read online. I will describe the condo later because the immediate view of the beach and ocean directly out the living room and patio was unbelievable. This is the BEST location of any beach front hotel/condo/timeshare/house I have ever stayed in.

We unpacked, hit the beach and pool and went to town for some groceries. After a nice meal in the room, the kids are watchin TV...this place has THREE flat screen high quality LCD TVs with 100 channels, 3 DVD players and one XBOX 360, and a nice stereo. The floors are perfect tiled, leather couch, new furniture, awesome kitchen with stainless steel appliances (even a convection oven), granite counter tops, fantastic bathrooms, comfy beds, and lots of features like blender, high quality silverwear, cooking kinives, and accessiries that look like they came from the Pottery Barn.

The most important thing - my wife was very impressed and my kids loved it!

The feature that is hard to describe is how nice the back patio is. It is a large poarch that is private that open to the beach and ocean. This is the NICEST patio I have seen in any timeshare/hotel/condo/DC etc. Getting to the beach requires opening the sliding door and walking 20 feet past the patio. I love this first floor unit as higher floors would require stairs or elevator to access the beach. The pool has a huge hot tub adn the pool is 100% covered in 1 inch tiles and is quite elegant. They have a private tennis court and gym where the equipment looks brand new. There is a small bar where you can order drinks, but no food service. So far, I have only seen two other guests here...seems like we own the place.

I normally plan lots of details and activities when I go on vacation, this trip is different...no plans and just relax.


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 10, 2007)

Day 2

Played tennis this morning and then spent the morning on the beach. The water is swimming pool clear. Snorkling directly off the beach we found many starfish, conch, shells. etc.

On the beach, I loked left and right and counted only 4 other people as far as the eye can see. This place is NOT Atlantis.

Lunch at Hemmingways and dinner at Gecko Grill and both were great.

I think there are only 6 rooms being occupied here and it is quiet. The busy season is Sept-April.


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 12, 2007)

Day 3

Decided to tour the island and went to Chalk Sound National Park and Sapodilla Bay...very nice, but got a flat in the middle of nowhere. Fixed that flat and then went to Budget to replace the tire. I am glad I took the mandatory car insurance and the $94 replacement was fixed for free.

Decided to go back to Grace Bay as we have the nicest beach (IMHO) on the island. Glorious day today and simply relaxed on the beach outside our unit. Because there was NOBODY on the beach besides our family, I decided to swim au natural in the crystal clear water...all natural except wearing my Tilley hat. 

Had dinner at Mango Cafe and they actualy had a timeshare there called Royal West Indies. It was pretty nice.


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## steve b (Jun 12, 2007)

I was having a flashback to our recent stay in the HCC TCI condo right in the middle of my Jury trial today.  It truely is unbelievable.
ENJOY
steve b


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 12, 2007)

Day 4

Mainly relaxed today. Had lunch at "Da Chonch Shack" which is the quintessential shacl on the beach with no frills. In fact, most of the tables and shack are made with found materials. The Rum Punch was awesome and the strongest I have ever had...and I love rum. The service was a little slow, se we all played Uno (thanks to HCC stocking the room) until the food came. It was the best cracked chonch I have ever had (second place is now The Cracked Conch in Cayman Islands). 

Had to go back to the condo for a nap....then woke up for the Managers cocktail rum punch party at VR (I got rum free this time) and about 10 people showed up. We met a few owners from Maine and London. They were very interested in the concept of a DC.

Went for a sunset walk on the beach to Club Med, which is looking a little tired, but is primarly for simgles here.

We got new patio furniture this morning from HCCs decorator Mike here, even thought I thought the original stuff looked fine. HCC is not done fixing this place up yet.

So far, my wife and I agree that if this was the ONLY HCC property...it would still be a good deal as these units cost about $1m.


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 13, 2007)

Day 5

Wake up, walk out of patio onto beach sand, swim in water, relax on lounge chair for an hour or so, walk back to room....repeat process about 4 times during the day. 

It's nice to see the kids play outside all day without video games, etc. The simple act of playing in the sand, making sand castles, snorkling, is like out of a movie.

We saw two turtles in the water swimming along with a few sand dollars and many conch....very cool.

Although we live in South Florida, which many people consider the mecca of beach living, we rarely visit the beach, even thought we live about 5-10 minutes away. Why??? because the beach is quite polluted with cigarette butts, trash, bottles, etc. Amazing that the politicians (and fellow Americans) can't seem to keep our beachs clean and beautiful like they are here in the Turks and Caicos.

I would rank Grace Bay as one of the nicest beaches in the world. It is similar to Cayman Islands 7 mile beach with less people.

There is nobody here...I literaly walked from our room to the beach and back and not see another person for a least 250 yards away. This place is such an amazing boutique location that is like a mini Mar-a-Largo.

Apparently this place was developed by the Emir of Qatar....


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## smbrannan (Jun 13, 2007)

Steamboat Bill said:


> Decided to go back to Grace Bay as we have the nicest beach (IMHO) on the island. Glorious day today and simply relaxed on the beach outside our unit. Because there was NOBODY on the beach besides our family, I decided to swim au natural in the crystal clear water...all natural except wearing my Tilly hat.


 
Swimming naked with a Tilley hat? Are you sure you aren't a Canadian?


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## saluki (Jun 13, 2007)

Bill-

Glad to hear you are having a great time. Sounds like a wonderful place.

Just wondering, is there any sort of beach chair/umbrella set-up available there?


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 13, 2007)

smbrannan said:


> Swimming naked with a Tilley hat? Are you sure you aren't a Canadian?



I am 100% American, but have many Canadian friends. They turned me on to Tilley hats (which I love) and my swim was pretty short as my wife decided not to join me. I could actually walk from my condo to the beach without a bathing suite because nobody is here to even see....However, I am NOT that brave!

There are many beach chairs/lounge chairs and umbrellas directly on the sand about 50 feet from my patio. So far we have been the only ones using them all week. This, of course, is not prime season, but when we visited The Sands (a nice 4 star condo about 1,000 yards away) it was pretty crowded.

One other thing, I ordered some drinks, pina coladas, rum runners at the bar and they delivered them to the beach for us....kinda cool. Even thought we have a blender in the room and it would be much cheaper to make them ourselves, this was just a fun service.

I am on a free wireless interent connected to the cable tv in HCC's condo. I want to try walking my laptop to the beach about 100 feet away to see if I am able to surf the net while standing in the surf. I will try to get a photo and post it online.


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 14, 2007)

Day 6

Pretty much a repeat of yesterday. Had lunch at the Tiki Hut and had $10 fish tacos (best deal on the island). Went to the only timeshare Alexandra and there is a ton of construction going on there, I did not walk in and take a tour, but I hear they are freezing timeshare sales so they can sell them as full ownership condos. The timeshare market is NOT alive and well on T&C. But the condo business is on serious overdrive. It seems every block on Grace Bay is getting a new high rise (7 stories...yugh) condo built there. There are TONS of properties for sale here.

I also went to the Palms and met the private concierge for Exclusive Resorts (a very charming young man named Mike) who gave us the tour of the property and showed us a penthouse unit there....wow, this place is like the Grand Waileah and has an awesome full service spa and restaurants. I will post a review later. I can see why very rich people (not just average rich) like to join ER as the service is incredible. However, you are paying 5-6x the price of HCC. In addition, The Palms were MUCH more crowded than Villa Renissance.

Went back to VR for swimming and dinner at Coco Bistro for an awesome gourment dinner. Tonight is movie night as I brought a few DVDs and we have three flat panel LCD TVs with three DVD players.

I alss bought a few Cuban cigars today. I am not a huge cigar smoker, but the opportunity to buy some real Cubans for me and a few friends is irrestible.


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 15, 2007)

Day 7

Today was another great day. We slept in and relaxed all morning. We went on a Snorkle and Conch cruise that departed from The Alexandra (the only timesahre on Caicos) and it was awesome ($89pp www.caicosdreamtours.com).

The boat was a twin catamaran flat boat that can fit about 20 people (we only had 12 in our group). First stop was a reef off Grace Bay where we found tons of sand dollars and a nice reef. I was BLOWN away to see my 8yo son FREE DIVE to a depth of 10 FEET with only wearing a mask and snorkle (no fins) to grap a sand dollar and gently bring it to the surface....wow! My 11 yo daughter also did this with fins, but to see a 8yo swim that deep was very impressive. Next we went to the Caicos banks were we all hunted for conch and found about 20 or so and went to a deserted beach and had FRESH conch salad, drinks, snacks and explorered for a while with NOBODY else on the island. Then we headed back to the starting place. This was a great deal (perhaps the best deal on the island) and I highly reccomend this trip.

We ended up having dinner at The Alexandra and the food was very good. I walked around the property and it is a combo timeshare, condo, hotel. They are trying to discontinue the timeshare business and are NOT selling any new contracts and trying to buy the current contracts back. This is a great resort if you can get lucky and TRADE into it. Located next to The Palms.

We leave tomorrow and we will miss this place. I am extremely happy with our decision to join HCC and visit the Turks and Caicos. 

The thing that I keep thinking about this week is how "at home" I feel. This place is just like how I would design it if we were the only owners and then put it into a rental pool. There are no obvious signs that this is a timeshare, destination club, etc. It simply feels like home. When we visit DVC, they all say "welcome home"...but it still feels like a timeshare and all the ads, promos, tours, crowds, etc distract the feeling of being home. This is probably the best reason for joining HCC.

We leave tomorrow afternoon and we will do some tennis, swimming, sand castle building in the morning. I want to leave some "token" of our visit like putting a sand dollar in one of the many seascape decorations on display in the room and make it our little secreat reminder of our visit. Then again, I am not sure if I want to post the exact thing we do. It is sorta like leaving graffitti, but in a very nice way.


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## puffpuff (Jun 16, 2007)

Thanks for your posts. Its enjoyable to read and glad you had such a good time.  You may want to submit this series to HCC so they can share with other members as not all of them are tuggers. 

having seen bolth the HCC and the ER property, do you think the ER property  is worth 5 x the money relative to HCC? 

Do they excel in terms of conceige, property, or amenty, or all ? 

p.s. Put your initial  on the sandollar and we will look for it !!


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 16, 2007)

puffpuff said:


> Having seen both the HCC and the ER property, do you think the ER property  is worth 5 x the money relative to HCC?



For the Turks and Caicos...absolutly NOT. HCC offers a much better value and for our family and a better location.

I think ER is really focusing on personal service for members, larger units, extremely fancy decorating, etc. ER has a on-site personal concierge for only 3 rooms....wow that is like having a dedicated employee for your every need. I personally think this may be overkill here as there is not much to do besides water activities.

The rooms at The Palms are 3 and 4 bedrooms and are HUGE and the HCC room at Villa Renissance is 2 bedrooms. Luckily we are a family of 4 so HCC is perfect for us. We actually liked VR much better than The Palms as this place only has 36 rooms vs about 100 rooms at the Palms. We really felt welcome at VR as this is a tiny boutique property where we walk out our oceanfront room onto the beach and then ocean. The Palms is not oceanfront as it is poolfront with oceanview (also located on the 5th floor). The Palms has a incredible spa and nice gourmet restaurants, but we felt like we were still in Boca Raton, VR made us feel like we escaped to a european fantasy location.

If you have a larger family, need personal service, and have tons of money, ER is a great DC. For this location only, we feel HCC fits our needs better and we save about $7,000 for one week.

Remember, my approximate cost per night calculations for HCC is $300 per night and ER is $1400 per night.

Another interesting thing is that both VR and The Palms are NOT interested in selling any more condos to DCs as they lose their 40% managment fees.


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## puffpuff (Jun 16, 2007)

Thanks for your comments . One dedicated local conceige for three untis is quite an overkill.  most local conceiges offer their services as independent contractor to a variety of DCs . I wonder if that this the case here. 

Does HCC have a local conceige on site as well for this and other properties as a matter of policy  ? Or you are kind of on your own pretty much, and if you need anything, you need to call back to the customer service person in HCC headoffice. ?


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## travelguy (Jun 16, 2007)

Bill,

Thanks for your posts this week!  Great stuff.


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## Laura7811 (Jun 16, 2007)

Thanks Bill-
I looked forward to your post all week, it was fun reading(at home, not on vacation ) 
I can't wait to book this property. It's booked alot next year, so I need to make a desicion as to when to go. Do you think November is a good time to visit?

Laura


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## jcjl1 (Jun 16, 2007)

Thanks Bill for your report.  I've also looked forward to your posts and hearing what to expect in T&C.  We go in March with some friends and the two blogs have been really helpful.

HCC really does seem to have found a sweet spot for folks like us!

John


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## jcjl1 (Jun 16, 2007)

Laura7811 said:


> Do you think November is a good time to visit?
> 
> Laura



The beginning of November is the tail end of hurricane season I believe.

John


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## Laura7811 (Jun 16, 2007)

hmm maybe I should re-think it then, Last time I looked there was availibility in early December too. We can go anytime really, My husband and I are going to make T&C a no kids vacation 

Laura


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## taffy19 (Jun 16, 2007)

Your link didn't work but here it is: 

http://www.caicosdreamtours.com/

It sounds like a great vacation. Where are these islands? Are they off the coast of FL?


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 16, 2007)

Well, we are back home now and I am really satisfied with our family's decision to join HCC. Just this one property (ignoring the other 28 HCC locations) would be worth the HCC membership price alone.

As a comparison, I was in Hilton Head in April and toured the Marriott SurfWatch property and they wanted $43,900 for 2 bedroom oceanvista platinum week….and there was tons of people touring the property. Although the Marriott property is pretty nice, it is no where as nice as the Villa Renaissance.

$40,000 will get you a 25 night affiliate membership in HCC and that also includes 1 holiday week and 1 ling term reservation week.

$30,000 will get you a 15 night associate membership in HCC and that includes 1 long term reservation week.

This is why I think Destination Clubs are the next greatest thing in travel. Come on….if people are really spending over $40,000 for one Marriott Hilton Head week, why would anyone not want to join HCC for LESS???

Please let's not morph this thread into a "this is a club, not a deeded real estate topic"…I am simply stating the tremendous value (and superior quality) of a destination club OVER a traditional timeshare. I don’t care about property deeds, I just want to take great vacations in great places (and great prices).

To answer a few questions,

-ER has their own full-time dedicated concierge at The Palms. He is a VERY likable person and reminded me of the cruise ship activity directors. I doubt ER is paying him a ton of money, but it is an expense that members pay for.

-HCC has the standard concierge at Villa Renaissance that everyone else can also use. They are good, but not as good as Mike at the Palms. Either way, I usually end up doing the research on my own to find the activities we enjoy. HCC has a activity book for each property and a dedicated host at their home office.

-The prime season is Sept-April in the Turks. We were there in LOW season, but the water was very warm. I HATE cold water and thus, prefer the Caribbean in the Summer. November should be fine…book it! March will be a SUPURB time to visit, but may be busy for the restaurants.

-The islands are north of Dominician Republic and south of the Bahamas.


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## Sir Newf (Jun 17, 2007)

Thanks for the mini-blog Bill- it sounds wonderful down there...worthy of consideration...looking forward to reviews on the other locations- where is your next trip?...the DC business model certainly has a place in vacation planning...


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## travelguy (Jun 17, 2007)

Laura7811 said:


> hmm maybe I should re-think it then, Last time I looked there was availibility in early December too. We can go anytime really, My husband and I are going to make T&C a no kids vacation
> 
> Laura



We are booked into the High Country Club T&C property Dec 8-15.  I used Weather.com and WeatherUnderground.com to do some research into the weather history of late Nov and Dec before booking this week.  I don't remember the specifics but the weather this time of year was great for both temperature and weather (very low chance of storms).  I think you would be OK with either a Nov or Dec booking.

I'm planning on writing a review on this property and posting it in the TUG review section like I did for the HCC Breckenridge property.  I may take some video and try to post that with the new TUG video feature for reviews!!  Then again, my video skills are really poor so I may have to stick to the written word.


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## Steamboat Bill (Jun 17, 2007)

Here is a photo of me on the beach on the last day of the trip. It was very windy that last day and the sky was gray. The photo was taken by my 8yo and I was worried I was going to drop my laptop in the sand from the wind. However, I was able to get FULL INTERNET access and was actually logged into TUG from the wireless connection in the room. This was very cool surfing the Net from the surf....but it is hard to read the screen in full sunlight.


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