St Barts or Turks and Caicos: two very different Caribbean weeks
TLDR
- •St Barts is French in language, food and habit; the setting is Caribbean and the culture is not
- •Turks and Caicos is a beach destination first and does not pretend otherwise
- •St Barts is reached by light aircraft or ferry, which filters who arrives
- •Grace Bay's reef sits close enough to swim to
- •St Barts has many small beaches; Providenciales has one very good long one
These two get compared because they sit at a similar level of the Caribbean market. They offer almost opposite holidays.
St Barts: a French island that happens to be in the Caribbean
St Barts is a French overseas collectivity of about 25 square kilometres. It runs in French and euros, and the character follows from that: bakeries, boutiques, and a food culture much closer to the Mediterranean than to the rest of the region.
The beaches are small, numerous and mostly uncrowded outside the festive weeks. You can drive around the island in an afternoon.
**Getting there is the friction and the filter.** The runway at Gustaf III is famously short, aircraft are small, and most people connect through St Martin. That constraint, more than any other single thing, is why the island feels the way it does. The island's capacity is limited by the runway rather than by the number of beds, so book the connecting flight before anything else.
Turks and Caicos: one beach, and it earns it
Grace Bay on Providenciales is the reason people come. The reef sits close in, the sand shelves gently, and it is genuinely calm. It is as good as the photographs, which is not something you can say about many famous beaches.
The rest of Providenciales is quieter and windier. Long Bay on the other side is where the kiteboarding happens, for exactly that reason. Beyond Provo, North and Middle Caicos are barely developed and about half an hour away by ferry, which is the single best day out available.
**Be clear about what it is.** This is a beach destination. If you want a landscape, a city, or a food culture with roots, Turks and Caicos is not that, and going in expecting otherwise sets the week up to disappoint.
The sentence that decides it
**Do you want somewhere to be, or something to swim in?**
St Barts is somewhere to be: a place with a language, a shopping street, restaurants worth planning around and an identity of its own. Turks and Caicos is something to swim in, and the swimming is exceptional.
Practical differences worth knowing
- **Language.** French on St Barts, and it is used, not decorative. English in Turks and Caicos. - **Getting around.** Both need a vehicle. St Barts is hilly and small; Provo is flat and spread out. - **Wind.** Turks and Caicos is windier than its brochures suggest, which is why the kiteboarding is good. - **Crowds.** Both are much quieter outside the December to early January window.
What we are not going to tell you
What either costs. The earlier version of this article quoted weekly villa rates and festive-season premiums. They were not sourced and they are gone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is St Barts hard to get to?
Harder than most Caribbean islands, deliberately so in effect if not in intent. The runway takes only small aircraft, so most arrivals connect through St Martin by light plane or ferry. Book that leg first.
Is Grace Bay really that good?
Yes. The reef is close in, the water is calm and the sand shelves gently. It is one of the few very famous beaches that is not oversold.
Which has better food?
St Barts, comfortably, and it is a difference of kind rather than degree. The island's food culture is French and it is the reason a lot of people go back.
Ready to browse?
Read the destination guides for st barts and turks and caicos.