Beaches Resorts

[starbright83]

I'm thinking of booking a week long vacation next year at one of the Beaches resorts. I have 3 kids, 17, 14, and 3.
Has anyone been to any of these locations and do you have any opinions? I think I narrowed it down to Turks & Caicos and Boscobel, but would appreciate any info on the others, as well.

Thanks!!

[jenn248]

We went to Beaches Turks & Caicos in November and really enjoyed it. We don't have kids ourselves, but our nieces are 14, 12, 6, and 4, and they all had a great time. I think there are two teen clubs (teen and "tween"), so hopefully that and the water park would keep your older kids entertained.

This is the review I posted on the Nest when we got back, feel free to let me know if you have any specific questions:


We went to Beaches Turks and Caicos with a family of 13, including four kids, ages 4-14. Overall, I was very impressed with the resort (I’ve only been to one AI previously - Club Med Punta Cana - and liked everything about Beaches Turks and Caicos better with the exception of the beach, which was a little narrower and thus more crowded than Punta Cana). Beaches is a great resort for families, with lots of options for both adults and kids. However, given that we were there over Thanksgiving week, the place was overrun with kids (I think I saw maybe a dozen couples who were there without children). Although my husband and I don’t have kids and still had a lot of fun, I would probably go elsewhere if we were traveling just as a couple. For a family, however, I’d highly recommend it.

Here is my review of specific aspects of our time there:

Service: The staff is very well trained and incredibly friendly for the most part (virtually every staff member says hello and greets you with a smile, bartenders ask for your name and remember it all week). It is obviously a well-polished resort and management team, and they’ve clearly thought out even the smallest details (e.g. providing cookies and bottled water in their departure lounge). Overall, the customer service was great. During our first night, the power went out around midnight and the air conditioning unit started making a lot of noise (to the extent that I thought it was some sort of alarm, and looked outside to see if people were evacuating). Within 15 minutes of our call to the front desk, a maintenance man was there to fix it. The next day we got a call from the manager, who apologized and gave us (unsolicited) resort credit.

Accommodations: We stayed in the Caribbean Village and enjoyed it; it seemed less hectic and a bit more spread out than the French or Italian villages. The French village is the furthest away from the beach, and reminded us of something you’d see at Epcot Center (i.e. a little over the top). I also think it would be rather loud, as the stage for the shows is located there The Italian village looked very nice (you could tell it’s newer than the Caribbean village), but seemed a little more crowded. We had a standard room and it was perfectly fine but average, with a comfortable bed and clean bathroom. The mini fridge was stocked with juice, soda, and water (all included in the cost), which was a nice touch. Two of my husband’s brothers had suites (they each have two kids), which were much nicer-looking than the standard rooms (two separate rooms with a Jacuzzi tub) and had a fully-stocked bar and concierge service.

Food: The food was pretty good, although not as good as what I’ve been accustomed to on cruises (for some reason, I always think that AIs should be like a cruise but on land...). There was lots to choose from - I think there were 16 restaurants total (French, Italian, Mexican, Japanese steak house, sushi bar, seafood, pizza place, a couple of buffets and cafes) - and three restaurants that were adults-only. Unfortunately, the sit-down service - while friendly - was very, very slow (our dinner at the adults-only French restaurant took about two hours). I did appreciate that as a vegetarian, I could go to the culinary concierge in advance and request a vegetarian meal if a restaurant didn’t have any veggie dishes on its menu (unlike at Club Med Punta Cana, where the head chef recommended I stick to the salad bar...).

Amenities and Activities: The beach was quite nice, but a little narrow and therefore crowded in spots. However, we we went to the far end (i.e. away from the pools) and were able to spread out a bit. The water itself is absolutely gorgeous - I’ve been to quite a few islands in the Caribbean but have never seen water quite this turquoise. The water park was a lot of fun - for the adults in our group, as well as the kids - and the pools were very nice (with multiple swim-up bars), although I was a little surprised that they didn’t have an adults-only pool (just one hot tub). There are a number of reefs you can swim out to from the beach, and the resort claims to offer a lot of water sports. However, it seemed like they always had some excuse as to why you couldn’t use them. For six out of seven days, they claimed it was too windy for kayaking or stand-up paddle boarding (and when my husband finally convinced the manager to let him take a paddle board out on the windless day, he discovered that they had no fins, so you couldn’t steer them). They also said that the waves were too big for the water bikes, on a day when the waves were ankle-high.

Excursions: For the most part, we were happy sitting on the beach or enjoying the water park, but the entire family did go on the Kitty Kat (catamaran) tour on afternoon, and it worked out well for the whole family. It’s about three hours for snorkeling and a trip to Iguana Island, so it wasn’t quite long enough for the young ones (ages four and six) to get bored. The crew was very friendly, and there was a nice selection of drinks and snacks. The water slide on the back of the boat was a great touch. My husband and one brother-in-law also did the Eco Tour, which is a mangrove tour on either kayaks or stand-up paddle boards. It was booked through Beaches, but the tour operator was a company called Big Blue; my husband was impressed with how they ran their operation and said he would use them again (independently of Beaches) if we were to go back to TCI. Independently of the resort, we went parasailing and went on the banana boats. The vendors for both of these walk up and down the beach (although they weren’t obnoxious and didn’t harass you, which has been my experience on other islands), so no need to seek them out.

[thatgirlang]

Well the PP has said it all so I will keep it short! Not much left to say. LOL Beaches Turks and Caicos is amazing. AWESOME family resort. We went for a wedding last summer without our kids and were sad at how much they missed. I've been telling everyone since then that if you want to take an all inclusive trip with your kids, this is the one to take.

We stayed in the Italian Village which was really beautiful. Before we left we toured a couple Caribbean Village rooms, pretending we were looking into the 2 bedrooms for our next trip, and they were nowhere near as nice as the Italian 2 bedroom that we were in.

[bronxgirl]

We went to Beaches Negril last December and had an amazing time. I don't think you can go wrong with any of their resorts.