COMO Parrot Cay
A thousand acres around a building someone else put up and abandoned, where buying a house needs the owners' leave.
Parrot Cay holds about a thousand acres in the Turks and Caicos, a boat ride of thirty-five minutes from Providenciales, with a long beach on one side and mangrove forest in the middle. Much of the island outside the resort proper is wetland and open land. The ground came with a history: a Kuwaiti family developed it in 1988 and built the large structure that is now the main building, and when the Gulf War damaged their finances it stood empty. Christina Ong bought it in 1997 and opened it as a resort; it is dated 1998 in most accounts and three years after the purchase in one.
The island is not uninhabited. The 2012 census counted a hundred and thirty-one people on it, and the private residences of the Parrot Cay Estates stand alongside the resort, many of them let through it. Their owners did not simply buy land: a house on the island requires the Ong family's permission, so the resort's owners hold a gate on who may become a neighbour. Accommodation is published at sixty-one rooms and at seventy-two rooms, suites, villas and beach houses. The house closes from the end of August to mid-October.
Built by one owner, finished by another. The main building belongs to a project that failed before the resort began. The estate was inherited half-made rather than designed from the ground, and it still stands on that foundation.
A right to choose the neighbours. Anyone wanting a house here needs the owners' leave. That is a form of control over territory that goes beyond holding the land, and very few estates in this register publish it.
Who it is not for
Parrot Cay is wrong for travellers who want an island with nobody else on it: the census counts residents, and the estates carry privately owned houses. It is wrong for anyone travelling from the end of August to mid-October, when the house is shut. It is wrong for guests who want a destination beyond the island, since the nearest settlements are on North Caicos and Providenciales. For a Caribbean island held by the families who live on it, Jumby Bay is on the same shelf.
Sources
- Operator record - private island of about a thousand acres, a fifty-minute transfer from Providenciales by road and a thirty-five-minute boat, with a mangrove forest at its heart; seasonal closure from 31 August to 14 October 2026, reopening 15 October
- Encyclopaedic and press record - the island was developed by a Kuwaiti family in 1988, who built the structure now used as the main building; left empty after the Gulf War affected their finances; bought by Christina Ong for COMO and made a resort in 1998; population 131 at the 2012 census
- Independent coverage - much of the island outside the resort is wetland and open land; private residences of the Parrot Cay Estates may be let through the resort, and buying on the island requires permission from the Ong family
Verification
- Official source
- Not yet checked
- Sources disagree
- accommodation is published as sixty-one rooms and as seventy-two rooms, suites, villas and beach houses; the beach as a mile long and, on one operator page, four miles; the opening as 1998 and as three years after a 1997 purchase. Beach status is unverified.
- Property confirmation
- Pending
- Last verified
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Booking
Private Resorts arranges each stay on request, quoting the rates available for the resort and dates. No benefit should be assumed unless it is confirmed in writing for the individual reservation.
Request a proposalClassified by The Resort Collection House · The Register · Edition 2026 · LHL-E-336
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How this is verified