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There's a story of one high-octane real-estate developer who turned up on Grand Turk Island without doing his homework. He expected shopping, nightclubs and waterslides, and found none. Complaining about having nothing to do, he said, “This is the kind of place I send my kids for punishment.”

Of course, he missed the point. It's true. There isn't much to do on Grand Turk Island. But that's exactly why people visit. They want the old-fashioned pleasures of a tropical island. And Grand Turk is the stuff of relaxation fantasies. A beautiful island that isn't swamped with crowds, hassles and gaudy tourist activities. A place where one day flows effortlessly into the next without the help of a schedule or a tour guide.

Sounds seductive. But is the cranky real-estate guy just a little bit right? Is all that peace and quiet, well... a bit boring?

Not for us. My husband and I spent more than a week on Grand Turk this past summer, and learned there's always something to do: We just let the island guide our visit. If you enjoy the sea — being in it, under it, or looking out at it —then you'll have no trouble filling your time.

Grand Turk, the administrative capital, lies to the east of Providenciales, its busier sister island. It sits in the warm tropical Atlantic across a deep underwater trench from the other Turks and Caicos islands. The trench is so close you can stand on the beach and see where the water turns dark and deep just a few dozen metres offshore.

Up close, it creates one of the premier diving walls in the world, with exceptional visibility and healthy sea life.

Until recently, Grand Turk tourism was all about scuba, but there are plenty of water activities for people who like to breathe their oxygen straight out of the air. Hearty swimmers geared up with snorkelling equipment can enjoy the wall too. We had the eerie experience of floating in 10 metres of water, looking at the coral and fish right below us with the dark, plunging drop-off disappearing off to the side.

The less adventurous will see plenty of fish in the shallows close to the beach or at a nearby cay on an organized snorkelling trip. For a much bigger eyeful, there are whale-watching tours during the winter. Huge, graceful humpback whales migrate through the deep waters nearby from late January to early April.

The real gem of Grand Turk is the beach that stretches right down the western coast of the island. It's called Pillory Beach in the north, Governor's Beach in the south and, in true laid back Grand Turk tradition, it has no name in the middle where most of the island's small hotels are.

Named or unnamed, it's one of the most beautifully underused beaches around. The water is shallow, clear and an aquamarine colour that makes you reconsider everything you thought you knew about the colour blue. The water is a protected marine park so there are no jet skis and no fishing boats. With only a handful of small hotels and most of the visitors off diving all day, there isn't much competition for beach space. We walked all morning without seeing another beachcomber. Sunbathers can laze without interruption.

That gentle, solitary, rhythm applies to exploring on land as well. The best way to see the island is on your own steam. Only 12 kilometres tip to toe and about 1.5 kilometres wide, it's easy to get around on a rented bike.

Up north is the main lighthouse, originally built in the 1850s. Down the eastern side is a wilder shore with the rough waves coming in from the Atlantic Ocean.

The main town, Cockburn, is the capital of the Turks and Caicos Islands and has a distinctly government feel to it. People go about their business in a civil-service manner. Black SUVs roll through town with ministerial licence plates. Think Ottawa, but tiny, and with a stunning oceanfront. (About 3,700 people live on Grand Turk).

The National Museum, in Cockburn Town, tells stories about island history, including the hundreds of shipwrecks scattered around the shoals, one as early as 1513. Moral of the story: All those reefs are great for 21st century divers but were bad news for adventurers, privateers and colonial sailors.

Astronaut John Glenn had a wreck here too. He splashed down just offshore after successfully orbiting the Earth in February of 1962 — the first American to do that. Less well documented is a 1492 visit from Christopher Columbus. Grand Turk claims the explorers on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria made their first New World landfall here.

These days, it's cruise ships docking here. Carnival Cruise Lines added Grand Turk as a regular port of call last winter, but so far it hasn't broken the island's spell. A new passenger terminal in the south end of the island has a pool (including swim-up bar), a Margaritaville Café and tourist shops. Most cruise visitors take short tours or go directly out to the dive and snorkelling spots and we hardly noticed the tourist spike on “cruise ship day.” By evening the ship, with its one-day visitors, is gone.

On this island where nothing much happens, there's one guaranteed highlight: sunset. There's no better way to take in the show than sitting in the small, friendly, beachside restaurants, chatting with locals and other visitors.

On Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, the party moves en masse to see the only regular entertainment on the tourist strip. On those nights, the local band Mitch and the High Tide plays until 11:30 or so, about the same time the bars and restaurants go quiet and the patrons wander home for a sleep fuelled by fresh sea air and maybe a few rum punches under a star-filled sky.

Special to The Globe and Mail