View from Parrot Cay

When thinking about our honeymoon, IC and I figured that by the time our wedding was over, we will have been on Turks&Caicos for 7 days. This led us to conclude that we should only honeymoon for 2 nights since, what, we'd be sick of being in paradise by then? I don't know but looking back our calculations seem...misguided. I remember leading the charge of "let's only stay on for 2 extra nights" and in retrospect I am just baffled at my reasoning. We got there on Thursday, the wedding was on Monday, our day-after shoot was on Tuesday and we left for our honeymoon on Wednesday. In what universe did it make sense to come home on Friday? (Don't cry for us, Argentina, we've already taken a second honeymoon-esque type trip to LA and are planning to be in Israel this summer. Still, who leaves before the weekend begins!?).

Sidenote mostly for Trip Advisor folks visiting my page: We made a great little discovery with booking this honeymoon. None of the major travel sites, including Parrot Cay's own site, would let us book for less than 3 nights. But the site Tablet Hotels let us book for the two nights and had the cheapest rate and upgraded our room because we joined their Tablet Plus service (it was $195 for the year and a Parrot Cay next-level-up room was $200+ more per night, a no-brainer).

Anyway, the honeymoon recap:

The day we left for our honeymoon was the first cloudy, cold, drizzly day of our entire trip. The weather for the entire wedding weekend was just glorious, perfect, so we were ok with having the first not-great day be after all the guests left. The Parrot Cay bus picked us up from the Gansevoort and took us to their private dock. They gave us warm towels and beverages while we waited for the boat. (That thing wrapped in paper by IC's thigh is our cake-topper. He didn't let that thing out of his sight).



They had a model of Parrot Cay at the dock:



Then the boat arrived and the ride began:



It took about 40 minutes. The ride was kind of choppy due to weather but not too bad:





When we get to Parrot Cay, we were greeted by a woman in a golf cart who took us to the main building:





She drove us through the lush, beautiful property:





Traffic jam:



We were greeted with rum punch drinks while we waited for our room key. The main house was cute and rustic:







When we got to our room, well, that was rustic too:





Frankly, we thought the room was really weak. It wasn't even the fact that the room was very bare, or that the mini-bar was on the balcony, or that the air conditioner would turn off by sensor when the balcony door was opened, or that there was no wi-fi in the room and I'm a certified internet junkie. It was the little things. The sheets and the towels were terrible. The bed was really uncomfortable. The shower was old-looking and lacked water pressure. We kept wondering if we were disappointed in the room because we had just come from staying in the most incredible room of all time but the fact is we expected better for the price we were paying. We'd expect better from a random Sheraton and this was the world-famous Parrot Cay.

The property is beautiful, the food is terrific and the service is outstanding. But the rooms are a real downer and I swear we are normally the type of people who don't care much for the room. But when the bed is bad, it starts the day off wrong. Plus, the price to stay at Parrot Cay is so high that it really should be more luxurious. I understand they go for a retreat/rustic sort of vibe but that doesn't mean the sheets need to feel like sandpaper or that the towels should be worse than Holiday Inn.

Anyway, the weather was still not cooperating so we just took a long walk around the property and along the empty beach:









We sat on a rock at one end of the beach, kissed a lot and stared at our new rings:



We were all alone on the beach, it felt like the end of the earth:



We had drinks at the pool bar. The drinks were outrageously priced but very delicious:



We ate dinner that night at the casual pool-side restaurant. It was realllllllly good. The food was just terrific, I don't have a single complaint about it.

I was still feeling bridal and rocking the all-white:



The next day the weather was better. Still a little cloudy and windy but warmer. This is where we had breakfast:



We lounged on the still mostly-empty beach, then moved to the beautiful infinity pool:





They make drinks goooooood:



They also had cute little touches like someone bringing around popsicles while you lay by the pool.

Then we had massage appointments at the Como Shambhala spa. The massage was great, and the space is very beautiful.

So, remember when I said that the weather was better but it was still cloudy and windy? Well, you know how when it's cloudy and windy you may not realize how hot the sun is and be less diligent than normal in your sunscreen application? Yeah. That happened to us. We were little tomatoes after our massages. I'd post photos of us miserable and red lounging on our balconies but IC doesn't want to be reminded to it so instead I'll just show you our last sunset on Parrot Cay:



That night we had dinner at their more formal restaurant, also incredible.

And the next day we went home, married, rested and completely in love with Turks&Caicos and each other.



We'll be back, maybe for our one-year anniversary, and maybe we'll invite the 65 people who watched us wed to join us. Or maybe we'll just run off on our own. :-)

I hope you've enjoyed reading my recaps. I'm happy to answer questions for any prospective T&C brides.