Beauty.

Bold, breathtaking, make-your-heart-go-flutter beauty.

It’s the cornerstone of Caribbean vacations.

People flock to Caribbean resorts for the soft sandy beaches, the turquoise warm water, the technicolor coral, and those soul-stirring sunsets.  All that endless beauty.

We at La Vista Azul understand beauty.  Perched high on a hill, quite literally above all the other Turks and Caicos resorts, we offer a feast for the eyes that none of the other Turks and Caicos resorts can match.

But someone’s got us beat, though it’s not another resort.

His name is Ben Gearing, and he flies for TCI Helicopters.  And he can show you the beauty of Turks and Caicos from a completely different viewpoint – above and hovering.  Everyone knows “above,” of course, because almost everyone flies here on a jet.  But that’s “above” at 400 miles an hour.  “Above” when you’re stationary and floating is another kettle of fish altogether, and it will blow your mind.

This is beauty from a vantage point most people have never known.  It’s different, and it will leave you different afterwards.

Ben is a 36-year-old resident of Providenciales, and he has been flying for TCI Helicopters for eight years.  He turns Caribbean vacations into stories people tell for the rest of their lives.  Some people stay at Caribbean resorts on the beach and swim out to the many-colored coral reef.  Some lucky few get to hover above all that, for a few transcendent moments, looking down in wonder.

TCI Helicopters offers a range of tours.  The 20-minute excursion sticks exclusively to Providenciales Island.  Add another ten minutes and you can journey over the stunning islands of Pine Cay and Parrot Cay.  The 45-minute tour takes passengers to North Caicos and Middle Caicos.  One tour actually lands on Middle Caicos for a lunch stop at the famous Daniel’s Café.

Whether short or longer, a chopper trip will alter your perception of Turks and Caicos, and of much more as well.

La Vista Azul is above all the other Turks and Caicos resorts, quite literally, offering panoramic vistas that are endless.  You have to actually leave the earth to see more.  That’s where Ben comes in.

People take Caribbean vacations at Caribbean resorts for the sublime beauty of it all.  Ben will help you take it up a notch.

To keep our many friends updated on what’s going on at the resort and on Turks and Caicos, La Vista Azul Turks and Caicos Resort is now on Facebook! We invite everyone who likes the beach life to follow us on online and learn to love it.

To celebrate, La Vista Azul Turks and Caicos Resort is announcing a Caribbean Resort Getaway Contest for Facebook Friends. The first 500 people to visit our Facebook Page and “Like” us will be entered in a draw for a free three-night stay for two. (Airfare is not included.)

There is no more pleasurable way to spend a weekend than to lounge around La Vista Azul Turks and Caicos Resort and walk along the beaches of this wonderful Caribbean island. When you don’t have to pay for the pleasure, it’s one of the best Caribbean vacations you’ll ever find!

We know when our northern friends think of us most.

When the snow clots the roads and ice hangs in shards above frozen doorways.  When a sun bleached of color and heat perches lifeless against a slate-grey sky.  When daylight brings no warmth and darkness freezes the air in your lungs, leaving you curled beneath your comforter … to sleep … perchance to dream.

To dream of warm Caribbean vacations at lush Caribbean resorts.

That’s when you think of us most.  We on the Turks and Caicos Islands understand that.  In the minds of many, we are strictly a winter-time destination.

Well, think again.

The lush, lazy life on these islands is not a seasonal enterprise.  It goes on year round.

Spring and summer are jam-packed with festivals and fetes and fun happenings of every kind.  And this year, we welcome back an old friend.

Born in the early 1970s and named in honor of the island of Providenciales, Provo Day is a traditional grassroots festival featuring a fashion show, a float parade, boat races, and live music.  It was, once upon a time, the highlight of the summer social calendar, and it makes its much-anticipated return in July.  Also being reincarnated at this year’s Provo Day is the Miss Turks and Caicos beauty pageant.

And Provo Day is just one of a myriad of exciting summer celebrations.  There is an endless roster of fun things to do and happenings to attend down here on Turks in the so-called “off” season.

We are always on.

And of course, if you’re coming to Turks and Caicos, there is no better place to enjoy the show than perched high above Turtle Cove and Grace Bay Beach at the beautiful La Vista Azul Resort.

Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall.

Anytime.

Always.

The Turks and Caicos Islands are out of this world, as anyone who has ever been here can tell you.

And on a February day in 1962, a man who had just literally been out of this world decided to drop in for a visit and see what all the fuss was about.

John Glenn had just made history as the first American to orbit the globe when his Friendship 7 Capsule made a dramatic splashdown in the waves off the island of Grand Turk.  When he came ashore, he was greeted by a crowd of eager residents who had turned out to witness history in the making.  It was one of the most exciting events ever to happen on Turks and Caicos, and it is still remembered today by many Islanders with pride and exhilaration.

Glenn had circled the Earth three times during the four-hour-and-56-minute flight before he dropped from the sky into our warm waters.  He stayed for three days and then Vice President Lyndon Johnson flew down from Washington and took the hero home to the inevitable ticker-tape parade.

And now, as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of that storied event, it has been commemorated with a permanent memorial at the Grand Turk Cruise Center.

“Splashdown Grand Turk” is a 3,500-square-foot attraction celebrating that vital American spaceflight mission and its importance to the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands.  The attraction’s many cool features include a detailed replica of the Friendship 7 Capsule and storyboards depicting the accomplishments of the NASA space program, the differences between the space equipment of yesterday and today, and the dramatic story behind the 20th-century space race.

It is a fascinating display, and it will be here forever to enthral and enlighten both visitors and Islanders alike.

It is also an important reminder that a Turks and Caicos vacation isn’t just about languorous days of fun in the sun and spicy nights of dining and dancing and whatever the moonlight may bring.

A Turks and Caicos holiday also offers some pretty captivating cultural opportunities, and our chapter in the space story is just one of them.