In Turks and Caicos, we discovered a well-curated escape from reality | Canada Voices

The last time that my wife and I were on vacation, just the two of us, Ariana Grande was dating Pete Davidson, no one knew who or what a Baby Yoda might be, and Donald Trump had yet to be impeached (either for the first or second time). It was a different world, filled with different expectations of what a few days spent travelling in a new city might look like for a pair of lovebirds. Five long years later – oh, no wait, it’s actually been six – and the two of us were staring down a summer of no escape.

It’s not that vacationing with kids doesn’t offer its own kind of fun. But there is something to be said for a true couple’s getaway, one that offers a more traditional kind of R&R than the one we’ve come to define as “restlessness and responsibilities.”

So with our youngest of three children finally old enough to stay with/torture someone else for a few nights (thank you, Bubbie and Zadie), the search was on to plot the dream vacation that would allow me and my wife to not only appreciate the sweet sounds of silence, but also each other’s company, which we both have hazy memories of enjoying.

We didn’t want to fly so far as to cross a time zone, nor did we want a location with especially temperamental weather. And we needed a locale that valued invigorating culture as much as dead-brained beach time. Oh, and if we could possibly find the most beautiful stretch of sand and water in the world, that’d be nice, too.

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Enter the Turks and Caicos Islands. The “gateway to the Caribbean” is only a four-hour flight from Toronto; enjoys a warm and stable tropical climate that hovers in the sweet spot between 24 and 29 C year-round; and whose Grace Bay Beach is frequently voted the world’s best.

What more could you ask for than kilometres of soft, powdery white sands and waters so warm, calm, clear and turquoise-hued as if to resemble a giant field of juniper berries? Well, how about a Canadian-owned luxury resort that practically whisper-screams “parental escape”?

Ottawa native Bruce Maclaren opened Wymara Resort + Villas in 2009 and its recent renovation helped it secure a Forbes Travel Guide four-star rating for the second consecutive year, making it one of only three properties in Turks to receive such recognition.

Whereas the majority of Turks and Caicos architecture favours a quaint colonial-chic design, every inch of the 91-room oceanfront Wymara – which also boasts an ultraprivate villa compound on the nearby Sunset Cove – offers the kind of white-on-white elegance that suggests Miami Beach by way of the Pearly Gates.

From the ocean-view suites equipped with free-standing bathtubs (watch out for the rain-forest faucet affixed to the ceiling), cream stone floors, marble countertops and Aesop toiletries to the rosé-all-day atmosphere of the hotel’s Blue Water Bistro and beachfront Pink Bar, Wymara feels engineered to induce maximum Instagram jealousy. Post a photo here, and you’ll instantly be the envy of all your friends stuck back home with the kids.

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“Oh, I was thinking of Instagram shots all the way back to when I was designing this,” Wymara’s Maclaren said as he toured me and my wife around the property’s latest addition, the open-air Land + Sea restaurant located near the secluded villas and beach club. “It’s been 17 years of chipping away every day trying to make the business better than it was the day before. The goal has always been to deliver what the dream of island living can be.”

After moving from Ottawa to Australia in the early 1990s, where he built up a construction company, Maclaren relocated his family to Turks in 2008, having fallen in love with the area’s natural beauty, its laid-back vibe and gastronomic scene, which prizes bold, spicy flavours and seafood so fresh that it is practically still swimming once it hits the plate. (Conch is the unofficial dish of the island, found in everything from ceviche to fritters.)

Far from an absentee landlord, Maclaren has been involved in every nook and cranny of Wymara, from designing the 130-foot-long ocean pool – in which a saltwater pool is refreshed by ocean waves, a favourite amenity in Australian resorts but a first for the islands – to the resort’s lobby and restaurant playlists (which explains the curious amount of Tragically Hip tracks).

Life here seems to operate on a philosophy perfect for overwhelmed couples. Every day, you can either maximize your tropical-vacation energy – snorkel with sea turtles, have a drink at the Noah’s Ark floating bar near Half Moon Bay lagoon (where you might run into regular visitors Drake and LeBron James), navigate a clear-bottom kayak to the iguana-packed Lizard Island – or do absolutely nothing at all.

On our first day, we simply lounged on the beach, a semi-hypnotized state only briefly punctuated by the occasional trip to the nearby Pink Bar to grab a cocktail (try the Conch Cave Colada, a blend of local Bambarra rum, mango and pineapple juice served in a fresh whole coconut). If we felt compelled to switch it up, we’d do something radical like, I dunno, trade the beach views for a cabana next to the property’s communal infinity pool.

While there were a handful of (bewilderingly well-behaved) children spotted here and there, most of Wymara’s guests seemed to be seeking exactly what my wife and I were looking for: a well-curated escape from reality. We all seemed to be collectively giddy at the possibilities of no possibilities at all.

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At Wymara, the most daunting question that we faced every afternoon was whether we should order the line-caught yellowfin tuna tataki or the local mahi mahi.

After two days of low-energy lounging, though, my wife and I decided that we needed to stretch ourselves – or at least have someone else do that. Which is where Wymara’s recently refreshed wellness program came in handy, with the spa offering a couple’s massage that pampers you with beauty products from the London-based 111SKIN line, the current favourite brand of movie stars thanks to the renown of its founder/plastic surgeon Dr. Yannis Alexandrides. Perhaps it was just coincidence that, afterward, I was mistaken by a staff member for Seth Rogen, but I’ll take the newfound confusion as a sign that the spa was working its celeb-ready miracles.

It was a four-day stretch of indulgent nothingness, until, on the last day, Maclaren surprised us with an afternoon-long stay at one of his newly constructed private villas. Don’t get me wrong. We still did nothing, but it was the kind of “nothing” enjoyed by couples whose vacations are regularly chronicled by the likes of TMZ: exploring five bedrooms, two pools and even a curved water slide that shoots you straight into the sea.

We left Turks feeling reconstituted and re-energized. So much so that we remembered just why we decided to have kids in the first place. And naturally we promptly followed Maclaren’s Instagram advice, immediately posting the whole affair to our feeds. And scrolling through the photos once back home at the dinner table, well, it cushioned the fact that all my household’s dishes now have Baby Yoda plastered across them.

If You Go

Non-stop flights from Montreal and Toronto to Providenciales International Airport are available on Air Canada.

Wymara Resort + Villas, right on the shores of Grace Bay Beach, rooms starting from $925/night.

In addition to Wymara’s four restaurants, check out local haunts Da Conch Shack on Blue Hills Road and Mr. Grouper’s on Lower Bight Road. Then close the night with karaoke at Danny Buoy’s Sports Bar (153 Grace Bay Rd.).

The writer was a guest of the hotel. It did not review or approve the story before publication.