Providenciales

Providenciales is the most developed island in the Turks and Caicos chain, and almost everything about its tourism identity traces back to a single beach. Grace Bay, a roughly 12-mile arc of pale sand facing a protected barrier reef, has repeatedly topped TripAdvisor's global Travelers' Choice ranking for best beach in the world — more often than any other single stretch of coastline.

What sets Grace Bay apart isn't just the color of the water, though the shallow reef-protected shelf does produce an unusually consistent turquoise. It's also that development along the beach has stayed relatively low-rise, without the dense high-rise resort towers found along comparable beaches elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Away from the beach, Chalk Sound National Park offers a different kind of striking water — a shallow lagoon on the island's southwest side, scattered with small limestone islets, where the water reaches an almost artificial-looking turquoise in bright sun. It's calm and current-free, making it popular for kayaking and paddleboarding rather than swimming laps or snorkeling.

The reef system offshore also draws a dedicated diving crowd distinct from the beach-focused majority of visitors — wall dives dropping off steeply into deep water are well regarded among divers who know the destination for that rather than for Grace Bay itself.

As a British Overseas Territory using the US dollar, Providenciales runs on imported goods and a resort-driven economy, which keeps prices noticeably higher than in Mexico's Caribbean coast or the Dominican Republic — the tradeoff for a smaller, less heavily built-out destination.