I spent a tremendous amount of time reading this forum and also fodors for info on provo and at least wanted to post some info on our trip to help anyone who is thinking of going in the future.

I just got back from a week there (3/10-3/17). We stayed at Coral Gardens (the condos, NOT the reef residences) in a 1 br oceanfront grand that we found on VRBO. The accommodations were stunning-- a beautiful view of the waters of grace bay from a large wrap around balcony. JP Lamb and his staff were all extremely helpful. The 2 people who work on the beach, Santiago and Jerome also did an excellent job of making sure that guests were taken care of. They also did a good job of keeping the beach chairs and umbrellas reserved for only CG and RResidences guests. we never had a problem getting umbrellas or lounge chairs.

I was extremely concerned about the construction noise next to CG. There are 2 construction sites going on. One active, the other (the tuscana) not yet fully active. Our unit bordered the active construction site (was to our right if we were facing grace bay) and we heard very little noise, even with the balcony doors fully open. While on the beach we could occasionally hear the beeping of construction trucks or sawing but it was never so loud that it ruined the peace of the ocean. Again, i want to emphasize that i was seriously concerned about the noise before our trip after having read several reports online (to the point of almost canceling our booking). it was really not a big deal. ti would imagine that it might change when they start work in earnest on tuscana. it did not diminish our time thee one bit!

We did not rent a car and used taxis to get around the island. From coral gardens most taxis charged 8-10$ for two people to go one way. The only place where it was a bit more expensive was to the conch shack ($20 each way, but well worth it).

We visited a number of restaurants mentioned in other threads:

beach cafe at coral gardens: Ick! expensive and really gross. its almost as though they are trying to make bad food. really, save your money and walk next door to the restaurant called simba at the neighboring resort.

simba--we had a wonderful lunch here . service is a little slow, but its a 2 minute walk from CG and the food was decent and well priced.

hemmingways at the sands. we kept going back for the fish tacos! a little walk from CG but worth it. we really enjoyed lunch here.

Da conch shack: we went here for lunch on the one day that we had rainy weather. This is a must go. Conch fritters, curried conch, and cracked conch are awesome. I cant say enough about how good this food was. Just go!

For dinner, there were a couple of standouts.

We tried the tiki hut on our first night here and thought it was just ok. decent but nothing crazy.

Went to magnolias on the second night for the sunset views (beautiful) and what we had heard was really great food. We both loved the views more than the food, especially at the prices!

the other place we went to (twice!) was coyoba. We went for dinner one night and enjoyed the food soo much (the gnocchi, ribs, fried snapper entree) that we went back on our last night, sat at the bar and ordered appetizers and wine. Really great food.

As for activities, we did some touring around the island, but not much as we didn't have a car. Mainly we snorkeled of the reef in front of CG and walked down grace bay taking in the beautiful view. we were looking for a quiet beach vacation with good food, nice people and a great atmosphere. All in all we got just that!

NO real complaints other than one against american airlines. our return flight connected throught miami back to JFK. the problem was that theere was only an hour and a half between flights. By the time we cleared customs and fond our bags ther was 15 mintued before our next flight left. Wouldnt you konw it....they wouldnt let us on the flight!! we were stuck in miami overnight. SO, AA's stupid scheduling gets the big thumbs down. Everytthing else on the trip was wonderful!