Great Grand Turk!

Grand Turk is the largest island in the Turks and is home to the territory's capital Cockburn Town. John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury Spacecraft landed on the shoreline of Grand Turk in 1962, and you can find a replica of this craft on display at the entrance to the port when you get off the ship. The main attraction at the port of Grand Turk is the beach area and pool at Margaritaville. The beach, pool and loungers are completely free, although you will need to bring your own towels from your cruise ship. Excursions on the water are not sold individually at Grand Turk, only via the cruise ships. The beach area is rather rocky, so swimming shoes are a must. Not everyone may choose to make this port a beach day, however. We had a full day of sun and surf on Half Moon Cay the day before we went to Grand Turk so we were sunburned and waterlogged! So we decided to do an island tour of Grand Turk- which we bought right at the port in the area by the shops. The tours were offered by a local company who worked with the cruise lines, and we were able to put the tour tickets on our sign and sail card, which at the time was Carnival, as we were on the Conquest. The tour cost $20 per person and was about 2 1/2 hours. We actually spent longer than that as we ate lunch on the island, which truly runs on island time! 

In the above picture you can see the restaurant we dined at (inside seating) for a very long lunch. Barbie's was recommended by our tour guide as a great spot where locals go that was famous for fried conch. The conch was indeed really good, and the fried shrimp was yummy too. However, it was a good thing this was a hop on hop off at your leisure tour as we ended up waiting about an hour for our food! We were not the only ones waiting, though, and the staff of two seemed really busy. The locals seemed blase about the whole wait, and many were content to sit outside in the heat and chat with fellow locals with a cold beer. We still say this was the slowest restaurant we have ever been to- and it was a definitely our first experience with true "island time"! :) After lunch, while waiting for the next tour van to come by (one came about every 30 minutes) we shopped around at the area craft markets and their local shop Kishko's. The tour took us to see the entire island, shoreline, Lighthouse Park, the famous Governor's Beach and the Salt House Museum. If you are not up for a day in the sun taking a tour of the island of Grand Turk is a good option to explore this unique, laid-back oasis. http://www.grandturkcc.com/