Sorry for the late post And I know the Club was hit by Irma and is closed till Nov. 26. It looks like that everyone survived but I am sure there was a lot of damage to the island. Also, had a little go around with TripAdvisor as they did not want me to post anything non-Club Med and rejected my earlier posting. If you have seen my prior reviews, you will know we are big fans of Club Med (or more precisely, the old school Club Med) and in particular Turks and Caicos. I will go into more detail but this was one of the best trips to Turks and while the Club is very dated, it was the best we have seen CM Turks in a long time.

I always start out with this caveat. Club Med Turks is unique. You either love it or hate it-little in between. If you enjoy being active or watching active people and meeting people, this is the place. It has a beautiful beach (Grace Bay gets rated as one of the top beaches by TripAdvisor), is a huge piece of property, and is somewhat isolated from the main tourist area. It was built I think in the 70’s and the rooms are Holiday Innish, no balconies, some mildew, but functional. A/C can be spotty. We use the room only to sleep and shower so we don’t care. If you want to be pampered and have really fine food and be waited on, look elsewhere. The other unique aspect about Club Med especially Turks is you will see a lot of the same guests. We time our trip with a couple (Solange and HazMat) we met several years ago. Also, I easily met 20+ people unplanned from prior trips. I also finally met BoraBoraBob-we have exchanged posts re: CM on another website. Somewhat of a cliché but Club Med Turks is not a vacation, it is a lifestyle.

I want to take my hat off to the Chief of the Village, Francis. His predecessor, Michael Clarke did a great job improving Turks and Francis built on it and pushed the Club to a higher level. The food was much better and the grounds were in better shape and just overall cleaner and neater. For example, a person cleaned the pool every morning. This was also one of the best GO teams I have experienced. ((GOs are Gentile Organizers-who do the activities, a lot of the bartending and food service, and are expected to interact with the GMs (Gentile Members) and they live in the club. Standing rule, GOs have to be the last people to leave the dance party/bar at night. GEs (Gentile Employees are the locals who work at the Club. Many who have been there for year) All of them work hard.))

As to specifics, the main restaurant had a fire in December and reopened in May just before we got there. I joked with Francis that the fire was the best thing to happen to Turks. (I don’t mean to dismiss the seriousness of the fire-a couple of people got hurt and it was a big fire.) The main restaurant is much nicer (but still noisy) and the food was a step up over previous trips. You can also get food at Sharkies, a beach bar, after the main restaurant closes after lunch.

A lot of questions have been raised about Turks. The long-term lease expired a few years ago and CM entered into a seven year extension which should be close to expiring. That CM spent a lot of money to rebuild the restaurant bodes well for CM keeping the property. The CdV also mentioned planned renovations on the theatre and pool. So hopefully, CM will keep the property. CM, if you are reading this-keep the place adults only. As much as we like CM we will explore other adult-only places if Turks allows children. This is one of the few adult only CMs in the world.
Lastly, we book through Mill Travel and they always get us into building D, close to the center of the club, tennis, and sailing. If you are a diver try to get into A, B or C which is close to the dive area.

Some things about the Club. I will try to focus in on specifics as well as some comments for CM.

1. For dining, there are some free outside tables but you generally need to get there early or expect to eat late. You can reserve a pool side table by buying a premium bottle of wine. Initially I did not like this of needing to buy a bottle, but if it helps CM to stay afloat so be it. It is nice however, and all you need is one bottle. The Poully Fussie is good.

2. The Armada (an afternoon sail to Iguana Island) is held on Tuesday and often on Wednesday if there is enough demand. The sign-up was a little unclear as they made it sound like a lottery. But the sign-up is Monday after five and it is first-come first-serve. So you are advised to get there early. Unlike old times where everyone in your party had to be there, only one person had to go and could reserve several spots. Later around seven pm, everyone had to show up to get assigned a boat. Also, if you can captain, you and one guest get a preference. And they do mean captain-if you have not been sailing they will want to see you sail. If the wind is bad on Tuesday, they will cancel it and the Tuesday people get the Wednesday slot and the Wednesday people will go on Thursday if the wind is good. If the wind is bad on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Tuesday people lose their slot. Kind of nice to do two days but that means less afternoon sailing.

I went and we had to tack a lot as we were going directly into the wind. Took 2+ hours to the island. Pretty long sail outbound which is fine with me, but kind of boring for others. Coming back, it took 30-40 minutes.

3. More on sailing. Several small Waves and two larger Getaways. They use to have four Getaways but two are in the graveyard. I have seen the mast give way on them in heavy winds and I don’t think structurally they are sound for heavy winds. This was also one of the best sailing teams I have experienced led by Nick and his crew, Frankie (was leaving), Britt, Big D and Dorian. Dorian was transitioning from the bar to sailing so basically doing two jobs but was still energetic and friendly. They had increased the sailing time from 9 am to 5 pm with no two hour lunch break. Good news.

4. Tennis was run by Gabriel. A great pro and nice guy. Perhaps talked a little too much but still very good. In the past, the tennis GO had Thursdays off when the singles tournament took place which was run by a sports GO and he worked the other six days. This time he ran the tournament and had Saturday off. This meant no drills on Saturday.

5. Bar team was good and Emily was working who I had met previously in Turks and also Columbus Isle. One drawback is during the day they often had two bartenders but one spends the time restocking the bar so basically one bartender. Often that one would get bogged down on mixed drinks, etc. It would be good for the other bartender to stop restocking and help out for a few minutes. The other aspect is that after the restaurant closes for breakfast, they would make the coffee which takes time. Seems they could set-up a coffee machine so GMs can make their own coffee like they do in the restaurant.

6. My wife and I did the 10 minute intro dive in the pool. I was amazed at how nice diving was versus snorkeling. My wife took the intro dive course with going out on the snorkel boat for a dive and enjoyed it. She is thinking about doing the certification course when we go to Turks in December. I actually saw more interesting fish snorkeling at Corral Gardens (turtles and a big ray) than she did diving but I think it is more hit or miss. Several divers loved their trips.

7. We don’t use CM transportation anymore. We use Lumpy Taxi (mobile 649-241-2478). He is same price as the CM transportation: $20 per person with a $40 minimum which is the standard taxi rate. No waiting for a shuttle to be packed and it is a nice air conditioned ride to and from the Club. Often when leaving for the airport it is on a packed, hot bus. Not how I want to end a vacation. Also, a tip for solo travelers. If you are using CM transportation do not book you transfer in advance, rather pay when you arrive. Booking in advance, CM will charge you $40 as you have to pay the $40 minimum. However, in all likelihood CM will put you on a shuttle with others and if you pay the driver, it would only be $20 because there are other travelers to satisfy the $40 minimum.

8. Turks is an expensive island. Beers even in some of the basic bars are $7+. The IGA near the resort charges $5-6 for a bottle of local beer and a basic wine we buy in Chicago for $4-6 is $15+. Burgers are $12 plus. When you factor in the activities at CM and the all-inclusive nature (basic drinks only) CM is a bargain.
Bottom line. If you want luxury look elsewhere. If you want fun and an active vacation and meet people, this is the place. See you in December!

I can't say enough about Francois and team who kept us safe throughout this ordeal. Hurricane Irma hit us on Thursday night and the entire Club Med team worked as a well oiled machine preparing to make sure each and every guest on the resort was taken care of! I think about all the local Turks and Caicos residents who did not have the fortune we had and have lost their homes.
I met several wonderful people and they are continuing to share love and keep each other strong. I look forward to seeing them again very soon.

Was booked for another Turks trip from 8-26 to 9-23. Yes a month and took a ton of stuff with me. Francis got me an excellent location in Bldg "D" on the ground floor. AA got me out of Houston a day early due to impending Harvey hurricane. CM sold me an excellent room to arrive a day early.

The first week and a half was excellent sailing weather and I enjoyed it. As usual the sailing team did an excellent job. I won my first Ping Pong medal in a few years on the third of Sep and was looking forward to getting my first medal in awhile on Thursday evening.

However the weather had other ideas. Irma just wouldn't wonder off North and on Tuesday the 5th the staff started shutting down the place and getting prepared. I think they did an excellent job of preparation to keep us all safe. Lot of plywood.

Airport was closed Wed and Hurricane hit Thur evening. Only a few minor injuries.

Club was delivering food to our rooms through Sat. Then theater was set up to feed us. Once again main restaurant was closed. Reminded me of last Nov when I had to leave because of fire and main restaurant was closed.

Francis and his staff did an excellent job of keeping us all safe through a serious hurricane.

My only complaint was they or Club Med would not use the "C" word, closing or closed. Only official word was "We are not accepting new guests until Sep 30". That kind of covered just about everybody but me. I ask over and over if the club was closing and always got the same answer "No". So I planned to stay until I was scheduled to depart on 23rd of Sep.

As of Tuesday the 12th there were no sports activities yet scheduled. And it became obvious that within a few days I would be the only GM left at the facility. Also on Tuesday Francis once again said they were waiting for Miami Management and Engineers to arrive to make any closure decision, but he said it was unlikely I would have anything to do being the only guest and recommended I think about leaving. He said by Saturday it would probably only be the maintenance staff and a few cooks.

So I booked a flight and left on the first regularly scheduled service on Wed.. Have heard nothing from Club Med.

I gave the resort a 4 instead of a 5 because of lack of corporate transparency. They used the excuse they were put out of business due to Irma hitting the Miami area too. They should have a plan B".

As I sit here Marie has become a hurricane and is taking the same track as Irma. Hope Turks doesn't get hit again since I'm due back at Turks on Nov 25th. If they are open.

I'm an avid Club Med Cancun visitor but this visit was not what I'm used to experiencing at a Club Med.

The hotel needs some updates. Rooms aren't in the best condition; AC struggles to cool the room.

We paid for the upgrades and were told that we had not done so when we arrived. The GO that was working was one of the rudest people I've ever met. She told us we should call whomever told us we had upgraded rooms. So. We did. She then argued with him and said no. We couldn't have an upgraded room. Then the first room they brought us to didn't have functioning AC. So they had to move us to another room.

I talked to the Chief about our issues and as a way to make up for it we were given a "lobster dinner." We should up for the dinner and were told we were not on the list. Took 45 minutes for us to finally get dinner.

There's a young boy that wanders onto the property every day from the area. Think he's a prostitute or something because every night he was with another woman. The women were usually wasted.

There's also a guy with a backpack that was usually high and I'm pretty sure he was selling drugs to other visitors.

If you drink wine, bring your own. It's bad.

This was just a bad trip all around and made me very disappointed in Club Med.

Our trip was Sept 2-9 2017
unable to evacuate prior to the Hurricane Irma hit Turks and Caicos, we lived through the worse. we understand that this review comes in exceptional time - not many people can review the resort at Cat 5 hurricane.
Overall the Turkoise resort and rooms are tired. STAFF IS AMAZING! EVERY SINGLE PERSON WORKING ON THE RESORT IS A HERO. We (343 guests, 180 Canadians among them) lived through the strongest category 5 hurricane (Irma) during our vacation. Of course it wasn't a real vacation for us. many activities, sports, snorkeling, sailing, tennis, ... was cancelled due to the weather. Extensive damage was done to the resort by the hurricane, so I think we might not go back there for a long time. The fact that we didn't have working AC during and after the hurricane also left some bad impressions. Beach is magnificent at Grace Bay!
We will be monitoring when the full renovations/upgrade are complete and then think about returning there. When we left, Club Med turkoise were evacuating resort to help local TCI residents to recover from cat 5 catastrophic hurricane IRMA. We returned back to Ottawa, Canada via humanitarian rescue flight ... not the usual way to end your vacation :(
Francis Lacoste - village chief (resort director) and everyone from the staff (Alex, Nick, Alexis, Rosalie, Fabiola, Jessica, Sarah, Francis, Melinda, Geoff, .... please forgive me if I forgot to mention all the names) did an amazing work. They worked tirelessly around the clock to make sure all 343 guests and 85 staff were safe and had water, food and everyone was well informed.
We made some good friends during this trip.
Taras and Chantale from Ottawa, Canada

Club med is the best! Hands down i will never vaction at another all inclusive resort : ) the food and drinks where super yummy & the activities & the shows at night where the best! U just felt like u where part of one big family : ) & lets not forget about the view and the sand on beach with both take your breath away! Lastly we where there doing Hurricane Irma & we felt nothing but safe the chef of village and the hole clubmed go ge team did an amazing job of keeping us safe and informed before during and after the storm! Even helping us to get rescue flights off the island :) lastly the food and the drinks where just as good as before the storm it!! We really cant wait to plan our next vacation at club med! Till next time you guys really deserve all the praise shouted from the rooftops : )

Had to cut my vacation 5 days short due to Hurricane IRMA. Hopefully due to the circumstances Club Med would reimburse me and my wife. I would reconsider another vacation with Club Med depending on the outcome of my trip on September 3rd through the 5th. Me and my wife were supposed to be there from the September 3rd through the 10th.

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