I recently stayed at Point Grace Resort may be the best points redemption hotel option in Turks & Caicos, less than 600 miles from Miami in the Caribbean.
Point Grace Resort is an SLH hotel, and Hyatt points can be redeemed there. (And Chase and Bilt points can be transferred to Hyatt.) It’s a category 8 property, and cost me 40,000 points per night – against room rates were $920 – $1640 (varying by night) over the weekend I was there.
Turks and Caicos is well known for its gorgeous soft white sand beaches, none more prized than Grace Bay where Point Grace Resort is located. It’s expensive making points options desirable, but decent options on points are limited. Many will consider Marriott points at the Ritz-Carlton (Turks is stocked with high-end resorts). I’d prefer this.
I often find the Caribbean overpriced for what it delivers, and you aren’t getting what I think of as a $1600 per night hotel. This is not Amanyara or Parrot Cay, but the truly top places in-season might run $5000 per night. Well outside of my price range! Point Grace Resort, using Hyatt points, makes a nice Turks & Caicos stay possible for me.
Checking Into Point Grace Resort
The property has just 28 rooms, all of which are suites. The one bedroom suites tend to be pool view, though I did see the water from my bedroom and looking right off my balcony, since we were on the second floor. Any other property I wouldn’t want pool view – too noisy oftentimes. But here with just 28 rooms there are usually just a few people at the pool, a few people at the beach, some off property and some in their suites.
We arrived at the hotel and check-in was processed in our room, but first we were given a brief tour of the property. Directly across from reception, where the hotel’s breakfast and dinner restaurants are housed, is the pool area. And just past the pool is beach.
We stopped at the pool bar, for a complimentary drink, while our host explained the property to us. One small interesting quirk is their spa allows children to have treatments. My wife and daughter talked about having their nails done but didn’t wind up finding the time.
Another oddity during the welcome tour was being told that people put out books at the pool and on the beach before 8 a.m., which was odd for such a small hotel. It seems like telling people this is necessary encourages this behavior, which isn’t a luxury experience. It turned out not to be needed at all, in fact I never saw anyone do this and we never had difficulty finding great space.
Point Grace Resort Suite C203
We were taken to our room, C203. It was bright and large, with a kitchen, dining area, and living room in addition to bedroom and bathroom. The sofa folds out, perfect for our four year old.
The bedroom was small, but had a closet and window with a modest view and king sized bed. One of the outlets beside the bed wasn’t working.
The kitchen was fully-stocked with dishes, utensils, paper towels, a dishwasher and the like.
The living room was bright and comfortable, and looked out at the balcony which overlooked the pool but still had privacy because of the trees.
The balcony was large with multiple seating areas.
My only real complaints about the room were about the bathroom. There was no counter space. The floor was in poor shape, sinking in some parts. The toilet gurgled up before flushing each time. And there were shared bath amenities rather than new bottles for each guest.
There were four bottles of water in the room. Our host to brought us to the room suggested that normally all we’d get each day was two and we could go to the store for more, but the hotel was happy to provide as many bottles as we asked for complimentary.
Service at the property was generally good but still Caribbean. We were asked if we wanted a second key for the room and said yes. I was told it would be delivered, but it never was despite asking for it two more time. Pool service was a bit confused when it came to getting towels when they’d run out. And service at breakfast was a bit haphazard. Still everyone was exceedingly friendly and most of the time even prompt.
Complimentary Breakfast
Breakfast at the resort is complimentary for all guests. That includes the buffet, which includes coffee and juices, and also an egg dish. There’s also a menu to select from which is charged. And ordering room service, which is available, comes at a cost including if ordering items that are available on the buffet.
The food at breakfast is.. fine. There are pastries and breads, meats and cheeses, smoked salmon as well. There was also a daily hot item in addition to bacon, sausage, and potatoes. Breakfast reminded me of a nice club lounge offering at a premium (but not luxury) U.S. hotel. Everyone at breakfast was uniformly friendly.
It’s worth noting, though, that the coffee was quite good – no need to cut the bitterness with creamer, and certainly no reason to add sugar (please tell me you don’t do this anyway). That was true in the restaurant and also coffee provided for the in-room coffee maker.
Other Meals On Property
We ate dinner at the hotel’s restaurant one evening. There are plenty of places an easy walk down the beach at the Grace Bay Club. I found the food at the hotel restaurant to be.. mixed. Some quite good, other food less so. My steak was disappointing (the thinnest piece of meat I could imagine, and overcooked as a result), while my wife’s fish was excellent.
On the other hand, a room service lunch was prompt and excellent.
Point Grace Resort: We’d Return
Given the price of rooms here, the high cost in points represented a value. And being able to use points at all for a nice property, with large rooms and access to fantastic beach, is something unique. I’d return to Point Grace in a heartbeat, though hopefully they’ll do some maintenance on the bathroom in the room to which I’d been assigned, and the admittedly ‘free’ and certainly good enough breakfast could have been made a bit less mundane.
The pictures don’t make it seem that fancy. Is this really worth 40k Hyatt points? I guess Turks and Caicos is just that expensive???
@Träger – yes, you’re paying for Turks & Caicos which is what I tried to get across. That bathroom was kinda horrible. But this was an all suites small property on a great beach you can get with points.
Sailrock crushes this place in every aspect
Agree with Trager, at least from the photos it looks like a holiday inn with a nice beach.
How did you book the room with points and your daughter? Every date we searched with a child, our daughter is 3, came up unavailable. But if we searched for 2 adults, lots of availability. Much appreciated.
@ Gary — Equal for me. It tastes better than sugar with no calories. GWB used to like his AF1 coffee black with Equal. I prefer Equal and lots of half-n-half! Yummy.
@Salvador – book for 2 adults. I told them our daughter was coming, we had no issues.
Kinda agree with the above posters; would probably just rent a condo in FL somewhere, or go a little further out into the Caribbean if I wanted to beach it; not really seeing the allure here.
Gary:
I like T&C. Docked there via cruise for the day a few times. I ate, toured the town, and enjoyed the beach. It’s beautiful as are the people.
I know I lack the travel expertise you have.
Help me understand why I am feeling like you guys really didn’t get what you deserved?
Was that $1600.00 American?
No all inclusive?
Dishes in the suite like you are making home cooked meals?
I’m thinking a private chef maybe at those numbers.
Am I overlooking something?
@Daryl – here’s the thing. I would never spend $1600 for this. Most of us look at prices like that and think we should be receiving genuine luxury. There’s genuine luxury available on Turks & Caicos, but it’s… $5000 per night.
I thought it was interesting that you could get a ‘pretty good place’ .. a suite, in a really relaxed setting without a ton of people, right on one of the best beaches, using points. That’s the value proposition here.
Put the seat down, Gary
Thanks for the responses Gary. It sounds like the beach and atmosphere must be really nice and it probably can’t come across in pictures.
Terrible value proposition. I spent a ton of coin to stay at high end properties in the Caribbean and the service is awful. I don’t need any excuses about “island time” and “Caribbean service standard”.
I can go a ton of other places that are pleased to offer exceptional service.
I’ll never spend another dime in the Caribbean. Slow, indifferent service is the norm.
Looks nice, but a bad use of 40,000 Hyatt points (unless you are the rare person who can gin up an unlimited number of points). I visited Providenciales once on a Delta coach award sale. I like the island, but the resorts are too expensive. The solution I found was to rent a decent -but-not-lux apartment, off the beach, on airbnb for well under $100. We rented a small car and drove to a different beach every day, which was quite easy, as traffic and parking are easy. A nice warm weather vacation for little money and effort.
We always stay at Bianca Sands right on beach next to Ritz. $1200 in season for very nice two bedroom so can easily split with another or bring a couple of kids. Lot less prior to xmas. Turks is expensive but short direct flight for us. Great beach and golf, which isnt too expensive or crowded.
@chopsticks have done the same thing in other Caribbean islands myself. This is the way. But even with this “secret” hiding in plain sight, the majority of people will pay a premium to just plop down on one resort beach every day.
I stayed at Point Grace last summer — and looking at the pictures, I think Gary had the exact same room we stayed in (views look identical).
On the whole, we walked away disappointed. As some readers have noted, it was a lot of points but lacked that intangible feeling of ‘special’. The beach was amazing but the food on property was average and the staff could best be described as friendly (enough) but distant. No one ever went out of their ways to showcase true Caribbean hospitality. Compared to other stays in Grand Cayman, Maui / Kapalua, etc — it was simply ‘okay.’
We looked at Sailrock too, and in hindsight I wish we had chosen that property. But we wanted to be closer to the capital of Providenciales with more restaurant and recreation opportunities.
As Gary noted, the bathroom was in really rough shape. The wooden floor next to walk-in shower was literally crumbling due to water damage. We needed maintenance done at one point during the trip, and I would diplomatically describe that experience as ‘something got lost in translation.’
Was a basic request (no hot water for a day), but required a lot of back and forth to navigate front desk and maintenance personnel.
PLS is an interesting choice considering that NAS, MBJ, PUJ, LIR, and every Mexican resort airport are just a nonstop flight away for us in AUS these days (with a basically guaranteed upgrade). Granted, NAS, MBJ, & PUJ aren’t exactly upmarket like PLS, but I’ve really been enjoying nonstop access to places I wouldn’t otherwise care too much about.
@CW — Yeah, we’ve done the same thing on a few other Caribbean islands — basically any island which doesn’t have a decent value points redemption at a nice resort. PLS is a particularly good island for this strategy because they have several nice beaches — that the vast majority of visitors never see because they’re stuck (car-less) at Grace Bay (which, admittedly, is a very nice beach that we visited a couple of times while on the island). You can also drive to the local restaurants away from the tourist area.. Like they produce almost no food on the island, but they catch plenty of lobster. We ate heaping plates of fried lobster for 10 bucks at a local hole-in-the-wall — a memory I never would have had at a fancy resort.
This is a prime example of how being loyal to chain can backfire. Hyatt points have wonderful uses – but this simply ain’t it. Instead of blowing 40K Hyatt points a night here, which can be better spent at Park Hyatt Paris, Andaz Maui, Big Sur, Maldives, whatever, opt for something more opulent / newer in another loyalty program (Ritz Carlton Turks and Caicos, for example), or do Airbnb or something on the island.
When chain loyalty means you are redeeming maximum dollar for sub-par hotels, that’s when you know you are doing it wrong.
@Anthony – I would choose this over Ritz-Carlton Turks & Caicos Resort Factory in a heartbeat.
I’ve been to Park Hyatt Maldives six times, Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris several times (and an upcoming booking), Andaz Maui multiple times, and Big Sur doesn’t take four year olds 🙂
I have points to spend, I wasn’t going to use cash in Turks, this let me go to a nice enough place there which I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to do!