DC4MS

I had an opportunity to visit The LUSSO Collection property in Turks & Caicos as a “guest journalist” to evaluate their property and write a trip report. I paid my own airfare, rental car, meals, and activities. I stayed for a total of three nights and did not receive any financial payment for this review.

The Turks and Caicos Island of Providenciales is located 500 miles southeast of Miami, and is know for its uncomplicated lifestyle, natural beauty, turquoise waters, white sandy beaches, and the third largest reef system in the world.

Although all the major destination clubs have properties located in traditional condominium buildings on the popular Grace Bay, LUSSO is the only club to offer a stand-alone “home” on the secluded southwest side of the island in a private area that is generally only visited by locals known as Sapodilla Bay.

Sapodilla Bay is also home to Sapodilla Hill, a protected Historic site where there are dozens of engraved limestones with the names and dates of shipwrecked sailors from as early as 1760. I asked LUSSO why they selected this location instead of acquiring a condominium property like the other clubs on Grace Bay.

“A condo, regardless of how great it is, just cannot compete with the feel of a spacious single family home,” said Steve Greer, CEO. “We often hear members ask for more ocean-front single family homes, less so for ocean-front condos. I would rate this destination as the one that caused us to reflect the most and the longest on the condo on the “name” beach vs the house in another part of the island. And, in this destination more than any other, I think it is highly likely that as we add more property we may have a mix of both types and locations.”

The LUSSO home is called “Constentina” a 3,800 square foot, 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, $3.6m oceanfront home that is located on the ocean side of the Chalk Sound National Park. The home sits on a large lot with a private beach, private dock, outdoor patio, gazebo, continuous breezes, and unobstructed views of the Atlantic Ocean.

Finding this home from the airport or Grace Bay is a bit of an adventure itself as there are no street signs, stop lights, or clear landmarks to find your way. I received detailed directions to the home and enjoyed the challenge of looking for the roundabout after the NAPA store, keeping an eye out for the Caicos Oil gas station, and taking a right on an unmarked road and searching for a large cream colored property, with a red tile roof, and a circular window at second floor level.

When I drove up the long winding driveway, I was impressed with the size of the property as it appeared much larger in person than it looked on the LUSSO website. When I entered the two story property, I was greeted by Kerry Lancaster, the LUSSO Concierge who showed me around the property and offered several suggestions for dinning and activities.

The main entryway of the home presents visitors with a central view of the home, family gathering room, infinity edge pool, and blue ocean water. The kitchen was off to the left and the staircase to the second floor was off to the right.

There are two master bedrooms on the first floor and both offer great views of the ocean. I had a hard time deciding which room I wanted to sleep in, but ultimately chose the eastern room as I enjoy waking up to the morning sun and this room offered an added bonus of a beautiful view of the ocean. If my visit was during the winter or spring, I probably would have slept with the large sliding glass doors wide open.

The master bedroom on the east side of the home had a king sized bed, vaulted ceilings with decorative pickled cypress wood and a ceiling fan. There was a separate air conditioner with a wireless remote that displayed the temperature in degrees Centigrade and an awesome wall mounted iPod docking station that produced incredible sound from the ceiling mounted speakers and even charged my player. A 32 inch Vizio television was sitting on the dresser and had a Sony DVD/VCR combo attached. Two large closets were organized with California closets and had a floor mounted safe.

The master bathroom offered marble sinks, a deep non-jetted tub, huge shower with great views of the Chalk Sound, and the walls were decorated in a classy Venetian plaster treatment. The bathroom was decorated with several beach themed artwork, vases filled with shells and a large assortment of LUSSO branded soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion.

The kitchen had granite countertops, large central island, GE appliances, separate U-line icemaker, wooden cabinets, tons of glassware, flatware, and cooking accessories. The kitchen was also equipped with an outstanding Amtrol reverse osmosis water purifier that eliminated the need for bottled water. There was even a welcome basket filled with flowers, snacks, candies, and even a puzzle of the Turks.

If I had to choose the most interesting area of the home, it would be the outdoor patio where the dining room and sitting room are located, in fact the entire backyard pool area is probably were most families will spend the majority of their time. This patio area is about 40 feet by 20 feet and is screened in with several ceiling fans, decorative mosaic tiling, and great views of the pool and ocean. This is the first home I have visited where the formal dining room was actually located outside the home, but it works well in this location and there was a constant breeze the entire time I was there visiting.

The family room separated the two master bedrooms and kitchen. The large sofa, sitting chairs offered plenty of seats to enjoy watching the 50 inch VIZIO plasma television or watching the rest of the family out in the pool area.

The western master bedroom was similar to the eastern one and offered a slightly different room and bathroom layout. This room also had awesome view of the ocean, king bed, sitting couch, iPod docking station, 42 inch Philips television, Sony DVD/VCR combo, two large closets, floor safe, and an extremely large and wonderful shower head. The bathroom had a stacked washer and dryer for small loads of laundry or can be used to quick dry bathing suits.

The closet under the staircase was packed with tons of toys for adults and kids. There were six sets of snorkel equipment, four beach chairs, three sets of golf clubs, two tennis racquets, a huge assortment of children beach toys and a playpen.

The staircase is a double wide dark wooden and marble walkway that leads up to the second floor bedrooms. There is even a nice view of the Chalk Sound National Park from the distinctive circular window as you walk up or down the stairs.

The two bedrooms on the second floor have private bathrooms and great views of the ocean. Both bedrooms have 42 inch Toshiba televisions and large closets. The eastern bedroom has a king sized bed and a Xbox game system while the western bedroom can be equipped as two twin beds or one larger bed. Both upstairs bedrooms share a private second floor balcony that can easily sit a dozen or more guests and offers a nice vantage point for the setting sun.

One of the things that LUSSO does extremely well is offer great branding of items to remind you that you are a guest in a LUSSO collection home. There was LUSSO logo robes, towels, pens, key chains, playing cards, notepads, coasters, soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. I appreciated the HP laptop computer, wireless Internet, printer, and fax machine that made working while on vacation an easy task.

The outside of the home, especially the pool and gazebo area is the place where most guests will spend their daylight hours. The infinity edge pool is a large 40 foot by 20 foot rectangle that has a Autopilot salt chlorine generator for silky water feeling and a hot tub that spills over into the pool below. There are six high quality Barlow Tyrie Kagan resort style lounge chairs surrounding the pool that offer a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. A round teak table with six chairs is located under a palm lined gazebo that also has an outdoor kitchen with U-Line refrigerator, Glen Canyon Stainless Steel Grill with side burner that can easily cook a dozen or more steaks. A large wrap around pergola provides nice shading to the outdoor area.

The western side of the backyard has an outdoor round fireplace and a 75 foot walkway to a private dock on the ocean where guests can sunbath or watch a golden sunset across the Sapodilla Bay. There is a aluminum ladder that leads directly into the sandy bottom ocean that is only about four feet deep and the water is crystal clear. The western and southern part of the property is surrounded by a coral cliff that is about 10 feet above the ocean and has several gaps where sea life can be observed below.

A short 30 yard pebble lined walkway is located behind the house that leads to the eastern part of the property that offers an extremely unique feature for a Destination Club property – a private beach. The beach is about 50 feet by 15 feet and is very private as it is surrounded by coral rocks. The sand is golden, soft, and is perfectly clean. There are no footprints here and the ocean waves are no larger than a few inches high. The water is crystal clear, warm, and extremely inviting. I hereby declare this LUSSO Beach. Just for fun, I decided to swim from the eastern beach, around the south side of the property, and climbed up the staircase to the private dock on the western side of the property. I would estimate the distance to be about 200 yards and I could easily walk the entire trip as the water was not that deep.

While my visit to the LUSSO home was only three days, I cooked most of the meals on the outdoor grill, spend the day relaxing by the private beach and pool areas, made a few pina coladas and even managed to squeeze in a little work on my laptop. One of the highlights of the trip and a “must-do” activity for anyone visiting this location was the Sea Doo delivery service.

Kerry, the LUSSO Concierge, arranged a brand new Sea Doo to be delivered to the LUSSO Beach location and was my toy water rocket for a few hours. It was extremely exhilarating to ride around the flat Sapodilla Bay area, Taylor Bay, and crystal clear waters of Providenciales. Kerry informed me that I could keep the Sea Doo all day if I wanted, but two hours was more than enough and the rental rate was less than $100 per hour.

At the end of my three night visit, I was sad that I had to leave as this property as it was incredibly relaxing and beautiful. I now understand why LUSSO decided to acquire a private home on the Sapodilla Bay area rather than choose a significantly more crowded location on Grace Bay.

Here is a slide show of some photos I took during my visit

Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

ER Traveler

Gorgeous home! I love the private beach and dock. Is it easy to rent a private boat to use throughout your stay?

DC4MS

Yes, the concierge offered that option, but I chose a Sea Doo for a few hours. If I was here for a week, I would probably want to ahve a prvate boat for a day or two.

catpak1960

Thanks for the great review!! We are visiting the home in November and after reading your comments I can't wait!

Kagehitokiri

hope you enjoy lusso.