VUE

A s if you needed an excuse to visit the home of the world's best beaches, Turks and Caicos is an easy escape for more reasons than one. For starters, it's only a three and a half hour flight (non-stop) from the New York/New Jersey area and less than 90 minutes if you happened to have already touched down in Miami. eir currency is the US dollar, they abide by Eastern Standard Time and although cars drive on the le, the steering wheel remains on the right. See? Easy. I arrived at Wymara Resort & Villas with my Calpak carry-on in hand, filled with swimsuits, sunscreen, cocktail dresses and little else. I was greeted with a tropical-tasting cocktail that came with a floater of local Bambarra rum. While I waited for my room to be prepared I made my way to Zest for lunch, the hotel's beachside restaurant. Here, I exerted the most brain power of the day when the waitress asked me what I wanted to order. I say that half jokingly, as I found it surprisingly difficult to focus on the menu when the clouds began to disperse revealing a radiant blue horizon shimmering under the mid-aernoon sun. I somehow managed to tear my eyes away and string together the words "jerk chicken tacos" before reverting my gaze back to the water. I won't waste time painting a picture of Grace Bay Beach, partly because it's so easy to imagine—a vision you surely have tucked away in your head of uninhabited, white sand shores with sorbet sunsets at dusk. It was a place I had always wanted to visit and yet seemed outside the realm of possibility because of a notion that I didn't belong. I wasn't here on my honeymoon, I didn't work in finance (as many of the hotel's guests shared with me) and I certainly wasn't Drew Barrymore, who recently stayed at Wymara Villas during a girls-only getaway. Aside from being the poster child for paradise, Turks and Caicos is also the epitome of luxury. Wymara offers guests and A-listers alike the ability to vacation lavishly, while also in total obscurity if they so desire. Wymara's boutique accommodations are broken up between its 91-room resort and a separate stretch of villas, which are only a 10-minute drive from the main hotel. e aesthetic captures the island's laid-back Carribean vibe while simultaneously melding global influences including whitewashed walls similar to those in Santorini and overwater swim platforms as if you're in the Maldives. But more on that later. V U E N J . C O M 139

• Cover