Where to Stay: Luxury in the Turks and Caicos

This beautifully preserved and protected archipelago just southeast of the Bahamas is home of to some of the most luxurious hotels and resorts in the Caribbean. The Turks and Caicos are a place where the Caribbean is still raw and exotic. Here are three choices of accommodations to prove it:

If Money is No Object: Amanyara
Starting Rate: Pavilion Rooms from $1,100 per night; Villas $3,950 per night
Amanyara, near Malcolm’s Beach on Providenciales, is the almost magical Caribbean resort you always hoped existed. The numerous reflecting ponds and infinity pools are scattered around the property so elegantly that they merge with the landscape and make the timber shingle pavilions and villas—each of which has one of their three terraces extending over the water—seem like their own tiny islands. Each of the 40 accommodations is wrapped in sliding glass doors and windows, with flat screens and polished sand-coloured terrazzos with teak inlays, and measures a boyond spacious 1,250 square feet. The hotel sits at the Northwest point, at an isolated end of a 5,000-acre nature preserve, and is fronted by a white sandy beach a short boat ride from some of the best diving in the area.

Smart Luxury: Parrot Cay
Starting Rate: Garden View Doubles from $525
Since being taken over by the exclusive Como chain, Parrot Cay, the private 1,000-acre islet that’s home to only this resort and a few private villas, has upped the exclusivity and luxuries that the many visiting celebrities prize. Rooms are stylish without being too trendy or stuffy—think four poster beds draped with mosquito nets, Balinese furniture and hardwood floors matched with white cotton. The best features are saved for the beach houses and villas, which are graced with plunge pools or full-sized swimming pools and face a mile long beach. The resort is most notably home to Como’s Shambala Retreat, a massive, state of the art health and holistic healing facility where many of the world’s spiritual leaders pilot frequent meditation, yoga and detoxification retreats.

Smart Family: Beaches
Starting Rate: All-inclusive doubles from $560
This massive 453-room mega-resort complex, the largest in the Turks and Caicos, is one of the premier all-inclusive family resorts in the Caribbean. If you’re looking for a romantic weekend—or dislike kids—go elsewhere, but for those packing tots or teenagers, the 12 miles of beach, 10 specialty restaurants, 12 bars serving unlimited premium drinks, 5 pools, supervised kids camp, teen disco, water park, Xbox 360 Game garage and certified nanny service are sure to appeal. With all this, you’d expect the rooms to resemble a Chuck E. Cheese, but they’re surprisingly elegant, with mahogany furniture, marble bathrooms and four poster beds. In January of 2009 the resort will open their more posh Italian Village section, and add a new water park ten times the size of Pirate Island.