Grand Turk: Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
In Grand Turk I was looking for some form of transportation without paying $100 to rent a golf cart or catching multiple taxi cabs. The Grand Turk “Hop on Hop off” shuttle, which is more of a city tour with stops than a true Hop-On Hop-Off bus, is available for $20 on both Trip Advisor and Viator. I booked with Viator but found the trip advisor reviews to be helpful.
If there are two ships and you are on the first one, I don’t recommend waiting until just after the second ship arrives before getting off of your ship. It can be a mess.
Grand Turk Cruise Port
Kiosk number 3 is where I’m supposed to meet my excursion. That’s the one on the right there.
I walk up and hand my printout to the kiosk guy. He refers to his clipboard, nods his head, and gives me a yellow bracelet.
I look at the wrists of the other people standing near the kiosk. They all have on green bracelets. I look at the clipboard and see one more yellow bracelet–not bad.
The kiosk guy tells me to take a right past the gray building and have a seat on the white benches (taxi stand). He says “don’t go anywhere until you see me. You’re lucky today you are the only one on the tour.” I voice my excitement verbally and head for the white benches.
He shows up a few minutes later and takes me to another set white benches over where the shuttles are.
As I see him talking to a lady I begin to get concerned that they may be adding people to the tour. He comes back over and says “That’s Pasta Sharon. She’s going to be your driver. Wait here and she’ll come pick you up.”
I’m sitting here on the second set of benches waiting for Pasta Sharon.
That is the first set of benches over there.
Pasta Sharon shows up with her cab. I’m confused as to why she’s heading to the passenger side. Finally I realize that is the driver’s side here.
“I realize I’m on the wrong side of the road. I’m also on the wrong side of the car.” -Clark Griswold
We’re in the car with pasta Sharon. I knew from the reviews that this wasn’t a true hop-on hop-off bus. But it basically turned into a cab ride to the lighthouse then to Jack’s shack with some commentary along the way.
Here you can see a group returning from the Island Exploration by Hummer excursion.
The Trolley Train excursion is returning to port.
This is the Governor’s office. The house is behind it but apparently it was damaged in a hurricane a couple years ago. I’m seeing a lot of that here.
This is a replica of Friendship 7. Inside the real one John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth in 1962. He splashed down off the coast of Grand Turk. They also have a display at the cruise center.
It looks like they named this road after John Glenn.
This is the equivalent of Home Depot in Grand Turk. I didn’t take a picture of the grocery store but we did cover it. It was called Smart.
Duke Street
Duke Street is a historic street on this island. Hotels, rentals, and dive shops are located on it.
This is one of their nicest hotels.
This is a popular restaurant/bar.
According to Pasta Sharon this is an unfinished house owned by Serena Williams. She hasn’t done anything with it since the hurricane.
One of the places I wanted to see was her majesty’s prison. We kind of zoomed by that to stop at a shopping center.
I passed on the shopping and asked Pasta Sharon to continue to the lighthouse.
Columbus National Landfall Park
This is where fishermen bring their fish to be cleaned.
This is the new hospital.
This is the old hospital which now a retirement home.
These condos are owned by a Canadian General who hasn’t done anything with them since the hurricane.
This is the President’s office.
They have a lot of donkeys here. Many congregate near the lighthouse because tourists feed them there.
I love the color of the ocean water here.
The golf carts are slow and annoying. I’m glad I’m not in one of them. Pasta Sharon is annoyed that the car in front of us hasn’t passed the golf cart so we could. She doesn’t want to pass both.
I recommend to Pasta Sharon that she lean on the horn, zoom by, and I’ll show them who’s number 1. She opts not to.
Grand Turk Lighthouse
We finally make it to the lighthouse. If you want to go past the fence to see everything in the lighthouse area you have to pay three dollars. I paid the three dollars. They gave me a ticket.
I found out you aren’t allowed to take pictures in the gift shop.
It looks like the gift shop was the lighthouse keeper’s house and this is the kitchen.
This is the bar area.
A beer is $5 here or $2 with the admission ticket. I traded in my ticket for a $2 beer.
I would have purchased a lazy donkey t-shirt with this logo but they are out.
It started raining. I took shelter in the little gazebo no bar bar area, hoping for a rainbow over the lighthouse.
We didn’t get a rainbow over the lighthouse but we did get one over the ocean. I stayed there until it went away.
In the parking lot I came across the lighthouse donkeys. People are just to the right of this picture feeding them.
On the way back Pasta Sharon stopped in the road here and said it was a good spot to take a picture. While I was doing that the car behind us started blowing their horn profusely. I rolled down the window, extended my arm, gave them the 1 finger salute, and we continued on.
Governor’s Beach
This is the Mega One Triton Ship at Governor’s Beach. It washed ashore in 2012 during hurricane Sandy. Formerly an oil rig service vessel, it was transporting cargo between Grand Turk and the Dominican Republic prior to the hurricane. The government would like to have it removed but the cost has been too high.
There was an option for beach time here at Governor’s Beach. I wanted to go to Jack’s Shack so we continued on.
We arrived at Jack’s Shack which as you can see is not far from the ship. After telling Pasta Sharon I would walk back to the ship when I was done, we parted ways.
Jack’s Shack
After a couple of beers I started heading back to the ship. I thought I could just walk the beach back but I had to go back out to the road.
On the walk back it started raining lightly.
Grand Turk Cruise Port
When I got back to the port I noticed the rain had driven most of the people off of the beach. The line to get back on the ship was long. I decided to take this opportunity to get in the water for a little bit.
I got out of the water, dried off, and returned to the ship,.
This was not a traditional Hop-on Hop-off bus. If you are just looking for a quick island tour with stops at the lighthouse and beach, this is a good option for only $20.
