The tour boat practically pulled onto the shore, close enough to drop a ladder down onto the sparkling white sand of Grace Bay Beach in Turks and Caicos.
Still exhilarated from a morning spent snorkeling Turks and Caicos' coral reef, the world's third largest, we walked about 30 steps in the sand toward the Grace Bay Club Hotel before plopping into a soft, square chair at Stix, the hotel's new restaurant located directly on the beach.
Bright purple and orange seats line a long table at Stix, fronting a thatched-roof bar where guests of the hotel as well as passersby enjoyed cocktails, snacks and lunch. Next to the bar a lounge area offers plush couches of the same color scheme, where guests in bathing suits sipped rum cocktails and rose wine.
Stix is Grace Bay's latest new idea, a concept the hotel calls a "pop-up "restaurant because it was meant to be a seasonal place to enable hotel guests to enjoy cocktails and nibbles without having to leave the beach to go to one of the hotel's three restaurants. Due to popular demand, it is now open permanently.
Befitting its name, Stix's entire menu is served on sticks, making the selections perfect beach food. Think toothpicks of sweet and spicy prawns dusted with green tea; lion fish plucked right from the nearby reef and served on skewers; addictive corn on the cob segments slathered in a coconut jerk sauce.
The ultra-casual, open-air eatery is Grace Bay Club's latest innovation and yet another way the property has reinvented itself over two decades.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Grace Bay Club was the first five-star hotel on a beach that is now home to an endless list of upscale properties. It was also the first property on the beach to build an infinity pool.
To mark its anniversary, Grace Bay Club is gearing up to introduce its next innovation: the Residences, three private villas that will offer guests the comforts of a private home with the services of the resort.
Located a good distance from the hotel, Grace Bay Club calls the enclave "a gated microresort" of three 6,000-square-foot custom homes, each with four bedrooms and five bathrooms on a private beachfront on Grace Bay Beach. The homes are under construction and are expected to open in 2014.
The hotel's last major introduction was the opening of its third building in 2009, the Estate. The hotel calls the 22-room Estate a "microresort within a resort," with private access to its own pool, cabanas and poolside bar and restaurant. The Estate has the resort's largest standard rooms and offers three-bedroom or higher suites with an additional media room that can be made into a fourth bedroom. An adjoining studio room can be added, as well, or serve as a stand-alone studio.
Grace Bay Club has a wing for every kind of upscale traveler; the first built of its three buildings is now the four-story, adults-only Hotel with 22 suites, behind the adults-only pool and near a popular nighttime bar area. In 2005, Grace Bay Club opened the 38-room, family-friendly Villas, with a family pool and host of kids' programs and amenities. All Grace Bay Club rooms are oceanfront.
Visit www.gracebayresorts.com.
Follow Johanna Jainchill on Twitter @jjainchilltw.