Alexandra Resort All-Inclusive Turks & Caicos

Why we chose Alexandra Resort: When we originally booked our trip back in 2019, Alexandra Resort was the only all-inclusive offered by Costco Travel. There are a few other all-inclusive options on the island, but this was the best option for us. Back then, you could also use the amenities at their sister resorts, Blue Haven and Beach House, but as of recently, Beach House is no longer part of this.

When rebooking our trip this time around, there was no doubt we would be choosing Alexandra Resort again. We didn’t get to go the first time and we wanted to see what we had missed out on.

Our favorites: Needless to say, one of our favorite things here was the food. Honestly, I was somewhat nervous before arriving because we’ve had mixed experiences at previous all-inclusive resorts we’ve visited, but we hoped for the best. Thankfully, we weren’t disappointed and if anything, ate a little too much during our stay.

I haven’t seen other places do this so it really stood out to us that this was an option, but the “stay in one, play at two” deal that they have is pretty nice. It’s not technically a deal that you purchase, it’s just what’s included when you stay at either Alexandra Resort or Blue Haven. Every day, a free hotel shuttle would pick up whoever was at the lobby to go to the other resort. One time we stayed at Blue Haven for over half the day and when we decided it was time to go back, we went to the lobby for the next pick-up time. We even had breakfast there, enjoyed the beach, ate lunch at Jammin’ By the Sea, and swam in the pool. It made us feel like we were getting even more value for what we paid for.

We also loved not having to worry about carrying around a room key. Instead, we wore these bracelets which served as room keys, but much more convenient I would say.

Our not-so-favorites: There were a few things I would’ve changed to make for a more comfortable experience. One of them being the size of the shower. It’s kind of random but it was THE smallest space I’ve ever showered in. Sometimes my elbows would hit the walls if I had my eyes closed while shampooing my hair so I had to be careful.

Another thing that would make me complain at times was the elevator. Although I’m super thankful they even had one in our building (especially with the weight of our luggage pieces), it would get insanely muggy and humid in there. When we were carrying food and didn’t want to spill, we’d take the elevator instead of the stairs, but by the time we made it to our floor I was drenched in sweat.

For this next one, I still blame myself a bit for not checking the news beforehand. But, when we went down to get our covid tests done, we didn’t know the requirement would be lifted at midnight, 12 hours before our flight was supposed to leave. Technically, we didn’t need to get the tests done, but the staff didn’t say anything until after they did the swabs, so of course we had to pay the $61 per person. Had we known, we probably would’ve leaned towards taking it anyways just to be safe, but the way things went it bugged me that they didn’t inform us when we were signing in for it that it was basically optional at that point.

One last thing we didn’t love so much was how early the bars around the resort would close. The pool swim-up bar and the other one by the beach closed at 4 pm. That seemed SO early! Luckily, there was another bar in between those two that closed at midnight. The walk to anywhere on the resort wasn’t long at all but the convenience of a swim-up bar is unmatched. I would have wanted that one to close a little closer to sunset at least or maybe 6ish.

The Lobby

The lobby area was a bit of a walk away from the rooms and the rest of the resort. Compared to other places we’ve been to, the first impression of it wasn’t mesmerizing, but it was all very clean and comfortable.

Down the hallway, there was access to the fitness room and two restrooms. Those restrooms were huge and had a shower and everything one would need to get ready in. They would really come in handy if you had a later flight and were already checked out of your room, but still needed to refresh after some of the day’s activities. The only downside to this was when we were checking in, a whole lot of people went to use the restrooms at the same time and since there was only 1 per male/female, it took me about 35 minutes to finally get into one.

The Room

Our room was located in the Prima Donna building on the third floor. The type of room we had was the Partial-Ocean-View Studio with a king-sized bed. To our surprise when walking in, we had a wet bar area right by the entrance with fully stocked cabinets and a fully stocked mini-fridge. And the plates inside the cabinets were super useful when heating up leftovers!

The restroom was very comfortable, minus the size of the shower. I mentioned it before, but the shower area was just way too small. Some days I wanted to skip washing my hair because we didn’t use the beach or pool and I could tell washing it every day was drying it out, but the shower was so small it was kind of impossible to avoid getting my hair wet and I didn’t have a shower cap with me.

Other than that, the size of the restroom itself was spacious. The vanity even had enough room for all of the products and makeup I took, with extra storage underneath the sink.

The bed was pretty comfortable, although it felt smaller than the king-sized bed we have at home. I usually bring my own pillow cases on trips just because I’m picky and have had some reactions to my skin at past hotels/resorts, but I forgot to this time. All was fine though, and the pillows were also very comfy! ☺️

When I read “partial-ocean-view,” I didn’t expect a very large view of it, but what we got was definitely way less than what I expected. 😂

Don’t get me wrong, the view was still beautiful, but for the extra couple hundred dollars, I would’ve been fine getting a garden-view room which I think is the default option.

I believe there are some bigger room options that include a washer/dryer inside the room. If you’re staying for a longer period of time or have kids with you this would be a really good choice so you can save some space while packing and just reuse your outfits after washing.

The Food

Asú Restaurant on the Beach: This is where we ate most mornings for breakfast. The buffet had a large selection of fruits, typical breakfast foods, an omelet station, and some pastries. Sometimes the fruit selection varied but other than that the choices for everything stayed very consistent. They also had different themes for dinner each day but were closed Fridays and Saturdays.

Smoothie Bar: These smoothies here were soooo good! I didn’t get mine topped off like on the menu photo, but John from the bar would make these fresh as soon as we ordered.

Fish Deck: This restaurant was one of the few that required a reservation in advance. My tip would be to set an alarm for midnight on the day you want to eat there and reserve your table then. Some days I would wait until morning time to decide where to book for dinner and it would be too late even though it would only be 9 am! (The front desk will hand you a paper at check-in with all dining information and QR codes for reservations.)

As for the food, it did not disappoint (how could it). And you can’t beat eating dinner on a deck right in front of this beautiful ocean!

Dragon Orchid Sushi: This was confusing to us at first, but the building where Fish Deck is located is actually Dragon Orchid Sushi. The sign out front only reads “Fish Deck”, but in reality, the inside of the building is DOS and the back deck portion is FD. That would’ve been really good to know when trying to find this place. 😂

If you know me, you know I’m not a fan of seafood, much less sushi. But, I really wanted us to go there because I know David enjoys it occasionally and if I didn’t like anything on the menu I could always hop over to Asú afterward. 🤣

Plot twist…the dragon roll was actually pretty good. 👀

I only ordered 1 roll in an attempt to not waste food in case I didn’t like it. I had no idea the rolls would be so small and I would actually kind of like it, otherwise, I would’ve gotten 2-3. David ordered the California roll and the dragon roll and also said he could’ve eaten way more had he known they’d be so small.

Black Rock: The smell of this place…omg a grilled-food lover’s dream. Everything was outdoors and the smoke and sizzling meats gave off an aroma you could smell from down the beach. Again, this requires a reservation, but the food was so tasty here. The only thing that got bothersome were all the flies that would come around after the steaks were brought to the table.

If you get the steak, as I did, be careful!! The flat rock it sits on isn’t stable enough to cut the steak on and the grease goes flying if you cut it when it’s still too hot. I had to wait a minute and transfer it over to a smaller plate so I could cut it without worries.

Irie Bites: Located right above Rumba Bar by the beach, this was the perfect place to get a full plate of jerk chicken and sides. I think it closed at 4 pm, so definitely a good lunch option if you’re spending the early afternoon on the beach!

Lunch Sole: This was also a really good lunch option by the beach. It’s the same place as Black Rock, they just change the name of it for lunch vs dinner. I would say this was where we ate lunch or early dinner most often. The pizzas were amazing and if you get fries make sure you ask for the seasoning and cheese on top. Honestly, everything on the menu was so good we would order like 4 things at once and just take the leftovers back to the room for a late-night snack.

Snack Station: Sometimes they would have snack-size bags of chips for people to take (such as Lays, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Doritos, Funions, etc.), and almost always the cookie jar and pastry dish were fully stocked. There were also some apples and oranges up for grabs, but let’s be real, chips sound tastier, especially on vacation.

Late Night Grill: Similar to before, we didn’t really know where to find this. Turns out it’s the hut called “Pizza Lukka” which is where you can get pizza slices during the day and where they cook the food for the orders from Lunch Sole.

The hotdogs from here were hands-down better than the ones at QuikTrip. It’s a close call, but my gosh they were so good. There weren’t too many options when we went. I’m not sure if it’s usually like that or if every night the only options are burgers, hotdogs, and fries. But either way that was fine with me. You really can’t go wrong.

Street Festival: We didn’t know what was going on when we walked by a table with a kayak on it, but later that night we realized it was the street festival! The Kayak was used to put ice and set out a buffet on top of it. The pasta salad was my favorite but there were other setups with more Caribbean food to choose from. And to make it even better, local vendors had their own setups too with souvenirs and other goodies for the guests to shop!

The Drinks

Coconut Bar: This was the main bar we would get drinks at especially since they were open until midnight. Steve was the best and really good at coming up with variations of drinks if we wanted something besides what was on the menu.

Rumba Bar: Located right by the beach, this was our go-to when we didn’t want to go past the sand and back up the stairs to Coconut Bar. The same drink menu is used all throughout the resort so no worries about missing out on something at a different one!

Pool Bar: I LOVE pool bars, but I wish they had kept this one open past 4 pm!! 🙁

The Activities

As expected, most of the activities revolved around the beach or the pool. Don’t get me wrong though, that was totally fine with me!

The beach had a big floating trampoline for anyone to jump off of. I first saw this on Instagram and was so excited to use it. At times, it would be fully occupied by guests, but there were still plenty of times I would see it empty. We only got on it a couple of times because it was kind of hard to climb onto the floating ladder (especially with a drink in hand) and I was honestly too scared to jump off of it even though it wasn’t in deep waters. 😂

Non-motorized water sports were also included in our stay such as kayaks, paddle boards, sailboats, and snorkeling gear.

We didn’t try the paddle boards, mostly because my balance is awful, but we did get on the kayaks (both single and double). There were a couple of times when we tried to do the sailboat riding but both times we were told no one was there to teach us, even though we went during times when we were previously told there would be someone.

The other activities on-site included a 24-hour fitness room, bicycles, and tennis courts. Sadly, we did not make use of any of these. We talked about going to the gym a few times but never actually went. I also can’t ride a bike so we didn’t use those although they would’ve been really useful in going to the shops nearby! Instead, we walked 25 minutes each way. And as for the tennis courts, we never saw anyone play or use them so I’m not sure if gear for that would have been included.

Transportation

Transportation to/from the airport was included through the Costco Travel package we purchased. The hotel shuttle was also included to go to the sister resort, Blue Haven. Other than that, we had to pay for a few optional taxi rides which were $7 per person, plus a tip.

Summary

Our long-awaited trip here was well worth the wait. The ocean water was unlike anything we’ve ever seen before and it wasn’t overly crowded like in other places. This was the first time IN MY LIFE that I actually wanted to swim in the ocean. The location of the resort was super convenient especially if you’re trying to step out of your room and be just a short walk away from paradise. With all that said, if you’re planning a trip here make sure you bring stretchy pants cause I literally gained like 7 pounds during our two weeks here. If that doesn’t tell you how much we enjoyed the food and drinks, then I’m not sure what will. 🙈

If you want to check out the resort yourself online, here is the link to it! (not an affiliate link) And to read about everything else from our trip, check out my other posts here!! 🙂