Not to miss

Grand Turk

Grand Turk is a treeless, brush-covered, bean-shaped dot of an isle. The island is dominated in the middle by several salinas, or salt ponds, often odoriferous reminders that 'white gold' was the island's most important industry until its collapse in 1962.

There are nice beaches at Cockburn Town, Waterloo and White Sands Beach. Cockburn Town, the sole settlement on Grand Turk, has been the administrative and political capital of the archipelago for more than 400 years. Today it also claims to be the business and financial centre.

For all that, Grand Turk remains as sleepy a Caribbean capital as they come. There are only two main streets, smothered in sand, trod by an occasional donkey and lined with pastel-painted colonial buildings. Downtown also has many Bermuda-style wooden houses erected by the wealthy Bermudian expatriate society that once dominated the salt trade.

The waterfront has the best sights in the capital, including historic government buildings surrounding a small plaza where a Columbus Monument claims cheekily that the explorer landed here in 1492. It's worth nipping into the General Post Office to admire the Philatelic Bureau's beautiful stamps, for which the Turks & Caicos are justly famous.

Conch Bar Caves National Park

This park protects 24km (15mi) of underground caverns - one of the largest cave systems in the Caribbean region. Some of the caves have lagoons and stalactites and stalagmites, often dramatically plaited in curtains, and most have colonies of bats.

They were used as sacred sanctuaries by the Lucayan Indians, who left petroglyphs on the walls. There are at least 38 pre-Columbian Lucayan sites on the island, many of which have been excavated by archaeologists. The most notable is the Armstrong Pond Village Historical Site.

Caicos Conch Farm

This creepy place near the northeastern tip of Provo claims to be 'the world's only conch farm'. It strives to protect the Caribbean queen conch from extinction and also raises the molluscs commercially. On a 20-minute tour, you can learn how conchs are grown from eggs to adults.

Chalk Sound National Park

Ever wonder how exactly to define the colour turquoise? Well, look no further. The waters of this 5km (3mi) bay, a vast, unrippled electric-blue carpet, can make you gasp with its beauty. The bay is eerily and magnificently studded with countless mushroom-like tiny islets. A slender peninsula separates the sound from the sea and is scalloped with beach-lined bays.

At Sapodilla Bay, the rocky hilltop boasts carvings on slabs of rock that name shipwrecked sailors dating back to 1844.

Turks & Caicos National Museum

If you find yourself in charming, dilapidated Cockburn Town, then visit this superb museum in the restored Guinep House. This historic building constructed of salvaged ships' timbers displays eclectic miscellany such as shell tools, beads, stamps, locks, and greenstone cells. Other sections are devoted to the salt industry and life on the coral reef.

The gallery upstairs offers an incredible, lifelike underwater display in 3D, a natural history gallery with displays on local wildlife, and a room dedicated to the pre-Columbian Taino culture.