Turks & Caicos

The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), hiding at the southern tip of the Bahamian Archipelago, elude most travelers' radars. Yet this sparsely populated string of low sand cays boasts some of the world's most spectacular coral reefs and beaches, and has built itself into a true luxury-tourism destination. The pace of life is easygoing, the local welcome genuine and the diving truly out of this world.

Providenciales is the bustling epicenter of all this, but beyond its flash beaches and world-class resorts, you'll find local festivals, jungle-wrapped ruins, perfect seaside bars and even traces of Europe's first discovery of the New World.

Venture to the less populated islands, and you'll be enchanted by colorful postcards of fading colonial glories, gobsmacked by the annual migration of thousands of humpback whales, spoiled with your pick of deserted beaches and all but forced to abandon the pace of modern life.