This Turks and Caicos Resort Has a Pristine Beach, 4 Pools, and Over-the-top Villas That Are Perfect for Families

The Shore Club, Turks & Caicos, on Providenciales is the perfect place to escape the cold with your family.

The Shore Club Turks & Caicos has been one of the most coveted properties on Providenciales, the third largest island in the Caribbean archipelago, since it opened in 2017. It opened under developer The Hartling Group, which owns The Shore Club as well as two other Turks and Caicos properties: The Palms and The Sands. Located along 820 feet of the calm, shallow oasis known as Long Bay Beach, The Shore Club spreads out across nine acres and includes four pools, four dining outlets and five bars, the 12,000-square-foot Dune spa, a banquet space, and a boutique.

Thoughtfully designed accommodations — 110 rooms, 38 suites, and six villas — incorporate natural elements, like limestone, reclaimed coral that has been used in the building material, and hand-painted tile. In 2024, the property will expand, adding eight additional eight-bedroom villas to its portfolio, privately owned homes that will be available for bespoke guest stays.

“The villas will each feature 12,000-square-feet of space, two pools, and customizable options, like a personal gym and wine cellar,” says Stan Hartling, CEO and owner of The Hartling Group. “Having opened and operated The Sands, The Palms Turks & Caicos, and The Shore Club Turks & Caicos over the last 20-plus years, we are excited to expand the footprint of Hartling Resorts and luxury experiences on Providenciales.”

In December, I visited The Shore Club with my husband and two children. Along with The Palms, its sibling property, The Shore Club is the only hotel in Turks & Caicos named to Travel + Leisure’s 2022 World's Best Awards' list of best hotels. (Guests of The Shore Club can easily access the pool, spa, beachfront, and restaurants of The Palms; a shuttle runs between the hotels, expanding available options.)

On our first full morning, we did, in fact, travel over to The Palms, where a boat was waiting to take us on a brief snorkel and over to Iguana Island. During the course of our stay, actually, we were able to dine interchangeably. One night, we enjoyed dinner beneath the twinkling lights of the almond trees at the titular restaurant at The Shore Club. The restaurant, it seems, was built around the two massive botanicals, which reach up from the ground in the center of the restaurant; it opened in 2021. My steak, spread with a luscious chimichurri, was sheer resort delight, though the bananas foster, sheathed in several inches of caramel, may have stolen the show.

At Sui-Ren, where Peruvian and Asian concepts meld, we sat in an outdoor courtyard, calmed by the soothing sounds of a fountain. It’s no coincidence that “Sui-Ren” translates to “sleeping lotus” in Japanese; though the name is often conferred upon the Chinese god of cooking, it’s hard to feel anything but calm – perhaps not somnolent, though – in such tranquil environs. Our palates were mesmerized, too. My husband’s lamb chops, which arrived over a stunning, aromatic personal charcoal grill, were a true show-stopper. So, too, was the wild margarita, a signature cocktail of ginger- and lemongrass-infused tequila, Cointreau, agave, and lime.

It’s hard to overstate the grandness of our own accommodations, an 8,800-square-foot six-bedroom, six-bath villa with sweeping views of the ocean from several of the bedrooms, including the expansive primary suite. We were assigned a butler, who could be reached by WhatsApp at nearly every hour of the day. Inside of our private courtyard: an 11-by-43-foot pool and attached gunite hot tub, along with teak lounge chairs. Inside, our villa boasted a full media room, multiple seating areas, a kitchen with a Wolf induction range and full-sized refrigerator (stocked, much to our delight, with multiple bottles of Champagne, juice boxes for the kids, and plenty of soda), and a pantry full of snacks.

Upstairs, the primary suite’s bath led to an outdoor shower and sauna, and a balcony from the bedroom overlooked the water. Downstairs: even more opportunity to sit outside with a sundowner on the outdoor patio that led directly to the beach. Villas have private seating areas and a water sports attendant, as well as access to the Colonnade pool’s cabanas, which normally come at a cost.

The hotel’s subtle, minimalist design, led by RAD Architecture, places nature and the environment first. Whitewashed wood throughout the property, including at the pools and in the main lobby, allows nature to prevail. Water features — shallow pools at reception and Sui-Ren and the ballroom, for instance — constantly remind guests of the importance of the sea. Limestone and coral pavers create a natural, neutral color palette.

"From inception, we've had an interest in repurposed building materials as well as upcycling,” says Karen Whitt, vice president of marketing at The Hartling Group. “When building The Shore Club, coral was harvested on Long Bay and then incorporated into the villas and pathways, giving the resort its living energy.”

Underground tunnels, built beneath the hotel, hide any trace of service. “The underground tunnels are very functional for our staff, who can travel between the suite towers for maintenance, housekeeping, and more, without having to impact the guest experience,” Stan Hartling says.

I took a trip to the Dune Spa one morning, where I enjoyed a holistic massage that focused on relieving tension from my areas of deepest need (the spa’s treatment rooms are private oases made from abandoned shipping containers, tucked among the vegetation). The shipping containers used for the Dune Spa, Karen Whitt says, are also a nod to the property’s interest in reuse. “Shipping containers are left abandoned every year, and by using them, we are able to repurpose the steel and give it a new life, while cutting down on other materials.”

Later, I toured a 1,700-square-foot one-bedroom suite, with a wraparound front deck, ocean view, full kitchen and sitting room, powder room, and gleaming primary bath with freestanding tub. Rooms are split into two low-rise buildings and there are a variety of room categories within them, including junior suites, one-, two-, and three-bedroom condos, and penthouses.

All guests are invited to enjoy a complimentary breakfast at The Almond Tree, which includes a beautiful buffet highlighting local and more continental-style cuisine. Guests can also order from the menu, if they prefer, which I did, for a chance to see what the restaurant was highlighting: a tortilla, for instance, topped with superlative refried beans, avocado, and a perfectly fried egg. With four pools, even a generously booked hotel never feels even remotely full. At The Colonnade, garden cabanas are first-come, first-served and are complimentary for all guests, while the larger, reservation-required cabanas that are included with the villas and penthouses can also be reserved by other guests for a fee.

After dropping our children off at the Jungle Jam kids' club one afternoon, where they happily made bracelets and robot art, my husband and I dashed off to the Sea Grapes pool, right off of the beach, where we enjoyed our own delirious serenity: frozen cocktails and a nearly empty pool area, all ours to savor. Although I chose piña coladas over yoga, guests are more than welcome to opt for the latter at the fitness club, where classes are offered (and where a secluded lap pool is its own serene delight).

On our final night, we headed over to The Palms for dinner at Parallel23, an elegant Caribbean fusion restaurant with multiple indoor and outdoor spaces (we ate in a grotto, surrounded by creeping green plants). First came a quartet of amuse-bouches: a lobster-filled dumpling, a watermelon gazpacho, a salmon tartare, a vegan sushi roll topped with balsamic “caviar.”

Then, as the velvet night settled, I bit into a pitch-perfect bite of raw tuna, topped with salty, pop-in-your-mouth tobiko. Finally, the coda, a trip coming to a momentous close, I suppose, an arresting and large fan of grilled Caribbean lobster tail, its meat so thick I struggled to pry it loose. My persistence was rewarded. It was, not unlike my escape to Turks and Caicos, extremely satisfying.

For more Travel & Leisure news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Travel & Leisure.