Like most people, I have had stretches of time that were very hard, and when they were over I felt unwound, without the spark I counted on to live full throttle. At such a time I would imagine an island, a beach, a place of pure peace where I could hide from everybody. I was always on the lookout for such an island as I went through good times and bad but never found one that worked for me until I found Parrot Cay in the Turks & Caicos.

Click here for photos from Mary’s trip to Parrot Cay.

Parrot Cay has the reputation of being top of the line, an elite place. Perhaps it is. But I have not seen that side of it. The Parrot Cay I know is a perfect example of beautiful and beautifully managed nothingness. There isn’t a fancy doodad. There isn’t a hip detail. The sea is clean and clear in that part of the Bahamas. The 1,000-acre stretch of sand called Parrot Cay is white and soft. The wood, concrete and glass buildings are just right, utterly simple but with such astute proportions you don’t examine them. The furniture is white and made for reading and sleeping. The food is lightly Asian so that it is lightly spicy but delicious and digestible. The people who help you and serve your meals and clean your rooms are mostly from Indonesia, Bali and Java, and they produce a tranquillity one rarely finds in a resort in the Western world.

I am not an expert on spas but this one includes detox, Yoga, meditation, exercise, Pilates, hot stones, everything Ayurveda addresses — and the men who give you a massage have big flat hands that were born to massage. You rarely see anyone using the state-of-the-art equipment in the gym because you rarely see anyone doing anything. I heard today that the fine equipment I have been loving is being replaced with even finer equipment and that management is creating a great gym for the staff. They float already. Heaven knows what they will do after daily workouts.

One of the men who takes care of you here is Firman, an angel from Java who believes that he is a babysitter for adults who have lost their cool. He just carries me and my stuff  around. He even prethinks for me and he is always right. 

I go to Parrot Cay to read and to sleep and sometimes to swim off that amazing beach or to stretch out in a great pool that has one side like a gentle sliding board, it just eases you down, there is no side. If you have one of the villas – and that sounds fancy but the villas are not fancy, they just have private pools – you can swim back and forth all day long, not boring anybody and easing your body back to bliss.

I don’t know the management of this island or this resort but they did it right and my mind and body are grateful.