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Turk's Head Inn, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

Hotel Booking If you've ever imagined a small inn set in a garden on a quiet, sun-drenched island, this is it. With wooden floors, wallpaper and four-poster beds, the two-story 1840 home feels like Grandma's house, breathing an air of simpler times when graceful living was an attainable goal.

Airport Information Visitors fly directly into Provodenciales Island (PLS), and transfers to other islands are available from there. Lynx Air does offer direct flights to Grand Turk from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The Turks and Caicos is only 75 minutes from Miami, less than 3 hours from Charlotte, North Carolina, 3 hours from New York and 3 and a half hours from Boston and can easily be reached with direct flights from the US, the UK, Canada, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Each traveller is required to pay departure tax of US $23 at the airport upon leaving the island.

Travel Agency Named for the island's signature turk's head cactus, Turk's Head Inn gained quiet notoriety under the ownership of a French ex-pat, artist Xavier (X) Tonneau in the 1980s and '90s. The reasons were simple: The house was gracious, the food was good, the bar filled up with local characters nightly, and the front porch was made for doing absolutely nothing. One of those local characters will be doing nothing at Turk's Head eternally: British journalist-cum-barfly John Houseman liked the spot so much he asked X to bury his ashes in the garden.

Staff With American Airlines providing two flights a day to Providenciales from Miami, the Turks and Caicos Islands could hardly be more accessible. Room rates on Provo can run anywhere from $80 to $2, 000 a night depending on your tastes and the size of your wallet. The Turtle Cove Inn overlooks the marina and usually runs packages with the charter boats. If you decide to visit from late April through November, prime blue marlin season, by the way, you can save 15 to 20 percent on most hotel rates.

Cheap Hotel Across Front Street - a narrow spit of pavement rimming Cockburn Town's waterfront - a wide-screen vista of ever-changing light plays across the turquoise shallows. A few hundred yards out, a cobalt band marks where the bottom plunges sheer into the mile-deep Turks Island Passage. In spring and fall, humpback whales glide by on their way to and from their calving grounds on the Silver Banks north of Hispaniola. In the harbor, lighters over from Haiti way trade for Turks Islands fish. Almost nothing moves faster than the sun's imperceptible trek across the sky.

One of the most valuable possessions of the islands are the pristine white sandy beaches, which in total cover 230 miles and are complemented with crystal clear turquoise waters. The islands are relatively flat but vary from sand dunes to lush green vegetation. Salt Cay, Grand Turk, South Caicos, Middle Caicos, North Caicos, Providenciales, Parrot Cay and Pine Cay. East Caicos and West Caicos along with several other fascinating cays are uninhabited. People on the islands known as "Belongers" are known for their friendly spirit, stress, feel comfortable and truly relax.

Flight Booking These days the Turk's Head is run by veteran innkeepers Edward Clotworthy and Alan Tatham, who bought it from X, sight unseen, in 1997. Fresh from a noted luxury inn in the English countryside, they threatened a thorough renovation. Some of the Turk's Head's widespread fans were afraid the place would be tarted up with gingham throws and doilies.

On the negative side, the island has limited land attractions (you can see everything of interest in a day), it costs a premium to go, stay, and eat there (about the same as Hawaii), and it takes longer to get to Aruba than it does to travel to a number of other þot Caribbean destinations such as Cancun, Grand Cayman, Punta Cana, Negril, Turks and Caicos, and most of the Ýaints, particularly St.

Travel Agent Thankfully, the new owners concentrated their efforts on subduing the inn's notoriously rebellious plumbing and managed to upgrade the decor without effacing its essential character and without running off any of the characters who contribute to it. Divers still make the leisurely stroll across Front Street to be plucked from the beach by skiffs bound for some of the hemisphere's finest inshore diving. Errant roosters wander up to eye guests reposing on the bougainvillea-draped porch. The songs of the humpbacks still echo on the coral ramparts offshore. And in the garden, the late Mr. Houseman, MBE, serenely contemplates eternity from beneath a half-keg of the John Courage ale he revered so much.

Red Turk's Cap puts on a massive display of red flowers during the summer and grows to 30". Yellow Turk's Cap makes a perfect accent to it with its ye ... Lily, Turk's Cap Red Red Turk's Cap puts on a massive display of red flowers during the summer and grows to 30". 8 and grow in full sun to partial shade. ... Ranunculus, Mixed

Hotel Chicago Turks Head Inn, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos: 649-946-2466

Online Booking Posted online 01/01/99.

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