While the Turks and Caicos have always been a famous place to vacation for US citizens, it's not as popular for European travelers to spent their holidays on this amazing island. Nestled between the Bahamas and Hispania (the big island hosting Haiti and Dominican Republic), this archipelago offers some of the most turquoise seas in the entire world. The arrival itself is nothing less than spectacular - flying over reefs, the most turquoise sea you have seen so far and white sand is approaching below the wings of your Airbus 320 that slowly makes its way to land on Providenciales - the islands' capital. Once you are lucky and get your bags (we didn't thanks to InterCaribbean) you are welcomed by a hotel representative who are placing you in a shared taxi taking you to one of the Caribbean chicest places to stay. Make sure to let the hotel know which flight you are taking since it is impossible to arrange your own taxi on the Turks and Caicos islands except you pre-arranged it before your departure.

Once we arrived at the property, we left the minivan and were welcomed by Kizy - a friendly front desk staff who offered us a seat along with a refreshing fruit punch that soon became a strong rum punch :))! She asked us if we are fine to wait a few minutes so that she can show us around the property - which turned out to be well worth the waiting since she was really welcoming and fun to start our stay at the Gansevoort Turks and Caicos. She explained us everything, took a long time to go into details whenever we had asked something plus could answer all open questions. While our luggage did not make it, the lady at the Concierge took good care of it and got in touch with the CEO of InterCaribbean directly in order to avoid any misunderstanding - that was outstanding service to be honest. Unfortunately the luggage was stuck at customs to be declared by us so she arranged the airline to pick us up and drop us off back at the hotel at the airline's cost. Very helpful and a great way to save our nerves.

For everyone who has the same troubles as we had, the Gansevoort has a extremely chic boutique inside the resort so we could get cool bath shorts, a linen shirt as well as a cool pair of trousers. To be honest the resort felt more like a luxury hotel in Ibiza or Mykonos rather than anywhere in America. It was so stylish with light interiors and the linen curtains along the pool matched perfectly to the total ambiance, as the cool chill out music playing on the pool. I always love to pay attention to the details to see if a five-star-hotel is actually as luxurious as its prices and I was impressed how Gansevoort did in this niche: The housekeeping was on par even providing cable binders with the company logo in order to avoid terrible long Apple chargers to somewhere in the bag plus the pool boys gave out free bottled water on the pool and on the beach just as sun protection SPF 30 and 50 in addition to Aloe Vera Gel for the sunburnt ones. I always say it's in the details and that's where I have been most impressed of.

Our room was a Spa Suite situated on the first floor. While these rooms have amazing open bathrooms with a big bath tub, they are the only ones lacking a balcony. We didn't mind since we spent all day at the amazing white sand beach enjoying the turquoise waters. Beside the amazing tub, there were double vanities a separated toilet as well as a walk-in shower with amazing rain shower head and a set of L'Occitaine toiletries - which perfectly matched the sexy look of our room. While we did not plan to cook inside the room, there was a small kitchen with microwave, basin and fridge - filled with complimentary water bottles. The low beds were quite comfy and super big ensuring a good night's sleep. As a welcome amenity we received a bottle of rose wine along fresh fruits which was a lovely touch. Well, let's face the facts: you are not going to the Turks- and Caicos to stay inside so besides an amazing room, the resort life is happing outside. There is a gorgeous pool with great music and the most wonderful beach in the archipelago - Grace Beach - with plenty of activities such as kitesurfing, banana boat or other funny stuff. Be cautious, there is a catamaran crossing with an actual beach bungalow on it playing local music from time to time - hilarious I can tell!

Breakfast is on the small side with limited choice on the buffet but honestly we did not miss a thing beside nutella perhabs to upgrade the pancakes. Eggs are freshly prepared on a live-cooking station and I guess there is no better way to start the day observing the pool boys setting up the club like infinity pool, while the sun is shimmering through the pergola of the terrace. We also had lunch on the beachside diner which was very cool and relaxing. For dinner we chose the fine dining outlet Stelle (where breakfast is served) to make sure we have seen all restaurants. While my colleague went for the tuna tartare as a starter, I had an excellent reconstructed caprese salad. For main dish we both went for the Tenderloin with truffled mashed potatoes and asparagus - my favorite combo. The dessert was simply too much and we had to leave the mango panna cotta aside for a good night's rest.

All in all, my expectations have been slightly exceeded, cause I expected it to be an unpersonal massive beach resort and in fact it's the total contrary: very personal service, amazing atmosphere and perfect boutique feeling. Even tough I think the hotel was nearly full it never felt like there were more than 100 guests which is amazing! The staff can still recognize you and you don't feel like a number. To all that comes the gorgeous light design and add-ons mentioned above which made it a truly great vacation on the Turks- and Caicos islands. I would definitely stay there again and value for money is absolutely fair.