Guests Staying on Grand Turk FAQ

If you have established that you are, indeed, going to be staying on the island of Grand Turk during your Turks and Caicos vacation, this page will provide you with some answers to frequently asked questions. Grand Turk is a small, laid-back island with many peaceful beaches, crystal clear water and fabulous wall diving only a short boat ride from shore. There isn’t much development on Grand Turk yet (thankfully!) and people usually come here for a relaxed get-away. Grand Turk is a special island, and isn’t for everybody, but there aren’t many places like it left, especially for those who enjoy exploring off the beaten path!

Despite the fact that a cruise ship port was built on Grand Turk in 2006, the island is rarely crowded. The majority of cruise ship passengers stay at the cruise ship port which is outside of town, at the south end of the island.

If you’d like to see reviews from other travelers, you can find us here on TripAdvisor. For information about Grand Turk on TripAdvisor, you will want to look at their more specific pages and forums for Grand Turk and/or Cockburn Town (which is the capital). For activities, you can view Things To Do in Cockburn Town and/or Things To Do in Grand Turk, both of which are relevant to the small island of Grand Turk.

Our staff is busy working on inventing a teleportation machine so that you can stay on Providenciales (aka Provo) and dive on Grand Turk, but progress is going slow. Until then, you will have to choose an island. Most of the international flights from the U.S., U.K., and Canada fly directly into the island of Provo, which is the most developed island in the Turks and Caicos. If you want to come to Grand Turk, which is a smaller and more laid back island, you will need to take a connecting domestic flight from Provo.

The choice between Provo and Grand Turk depends on the type of vacation destination you are looking for as the two islands have very different personalities. Provo is a more developed island with upscale restaurants, nightclubs and hotels. Grand Turk, although the capital of the Turks and Caicos, is still a smaller, less developed island. People go to Provo when they are looking for a busier location and come here for a quieter location with great, easy diving. Our island, Grand Turk, is one of the most peaceful islands in Turks and Caicos, boasting lovely white secluded beaches as well as healthy wall diving just 10 minutes from shore. Grand Turk is only 7 miles long by 1.5 miles wide.

Check out our Getting to Grand Turk page. There you can find links to commonly used international airlines from the U.S., the U.K.,  Canada, and the Bahamas, as well as links to the domestic carriers which provide air service between the islands within the Turks and Caicos. There are multiple daily flights between Providenciales (aka Provo) and Grand Turk on the Turks and Caicos Islands’ domestic airlines.

All dives are wall dives along the incredible Grand Turk wall in the Columbus National Marine Park. The top of the wall starts at 25-30 feet and drops off to over 7,000 feet. The most active reef zones are from 30-60 feet. Our Divemasters select the sites each day based on diver input and weather/sea conditions. Please visit our Diving page to see some of the sites that we regularly visit.

We dive in 24-28 foot Carolina skiffs. The maximum number of divers that we take is 8, although our boats are rated to hold more. We provide a guide service from the Divemaster on all dives.

If you have never tried diving before, it is easy to learn. A Resort Course course allows you to try diving under the direct supervision of an instructor. You first go through an informative briefing, followed by a shallow water (3-5 foot depth) training session to get familiar with the equipment and breathing underwater. Providing all goes well there, you are then taken out in the boat for a shallow water dive along the top of the wall. It is truly a great way to try diving!

An alternative for our visitors staying on island is to take a full PADI Open Water Certification course. This course requires approximately four days of elapsed time and upon the successful completion of this course you are certified to dive. We also offer PADI Open Water eLearning Referral course should you wish to complete your bookwork and tests online before arriving on Grand Turk. If you wish to complete your bookwork, tests and confined water training before you arrive on Grand Turk, we offer a PADI Open Water Referral course as well.

If you would like to take either a Resort Course or PADI Open Water Certification course, you will need to complete a PADI Medical Form in advance of beginning your training.

Our retail shop and office is conveniently located on Duke Street, on the property of the Osprey Beach Hotel in their Courtyard Atrium building. This location is also within short walking distance of a number of other hotels and guest houses on the island.

Our dive boats will typically pick you up on the beach in front of the Osprey Beach Hotel. Depending on weather conditions, we may pick you up at the Blue Water Divers office in a company truck and drive you to the boat location.

For booking you can email us or call the number below. To make a package booking we require a 20% deposit taken on Visa or MasterCard. This is a non-refundable deposit.

Please refer to our booking Terms and Conditions section for full details. To scuba dive you will need to present a recognized certification card and logbook.