Grand Cayman Advice

Sting Ray City (either the Sand Bar site where you can wade or snorkel or the Dive site where you snorkel). Book a tour that also has a stop at a barrier reef or coral garden location (most do).

Favorite restaurants are:
Calypso Grill
Grand Old House
Luca
Kaibo for lunch

On the cheap:
Tim Buc Tuu
Sunshine Grill
Over the Edge
Macabuca for lunch

Visit Smith Cove Bacadere beach and the cliffs at Pedro St. James.

If you like to explore and snorkel I have found this site has great info: httpnorkelblog.tumblr.com

Sting Ray city is a must! Try to book through the Ritz. The boats are nice and they only take a small group so you are not crammed together with 100 people.
Some of our favorite restaurants are Luca (love it!!!!!), Deckers, Pappagallos and Guy Harveys is fabulous if you want a nice lunch or Dinner downtown while shopping. The restaurants on the Island are fabulous. The Wharf is great as well and is perfect for a sunset dinner and then you can feed the tarpons off the deck. There is a great website you can check out www.caymanrestaurants.com. It has a list of most of the restaurants with links to menus etc. I keep it handy every time I am on the Island. Have fun!!!!!

we loved guy harvey's. if you're very adventurous make a reservation at roland's - he prepares what he's in the mood to cook and it's byob - located mid island so 20+ min drive from seven mile.
we really liked the rum point restaurant. sunset, good food, very pleasant.
you should go to the botanical gardens. it's gorgeous! plus you'll see blue iguanas & green cayman parrots.
if you like to walk the mastic trail is interesting - but hot so take water.

Roland's Garden has moved. His his new location on Seven Mile Beach at the old butterfly farm features the restaurant and now a beer garden.
http://www.rolandsgarden.com/

Cayman Good Taste has descriptions, menus and a map feature for many of the restaurant locations.

http://www.caymangoodtaste.com/

thanks for the update. have you been to the new place? it looks like it isn't even open yet.

Not sure if the new place is open yet or not. It was still "under construction" during our last visit, but the website is much further along. We stay in the Eastern Districts, so unless it gets rave reviews probably won't be in a hurry to check it the new Seven Mile Beach location.

Depends where on SM you are, we stayed at Aqua Bay Club, gorgeous 2bdr condo and we walked on the beach to Cemetery Reef, one of the best spots on the island. We avoided shops & stuff when we knew cruise ships were coming in. We did take out alot- sushi, jerk chicken, etc so we could have our own happy hour and sunsets on the beach! Pricey, but worth it.

Norma Jean's BBQ is a not miss for us. She sets up on Thu, Fri, Sat at the West Bay Public Dock. Wonderful, wonderful bbq! We drive all the way over from the East End when we are on the island to get a takeout dinner just to have that bbq. Her dad is the famous Chef John who sets up his bbq at seven mile public beach.

Vivine's Kitchen on the east end is great for lunch. Good, local food.

If you are there on a Saturday, head over to the Market at the Grounds in Lower Valley. It's like a farmer's market with local vendors selling everything from fresh fruits/veggies, to tropical juices, homemade jams, hot sauce, etc. Look for Ivy's Gourmet Treats. Ms. Ivy is wonderful. Try the freshly squeezed sugar cane juice from Tony (aka Junior).

Pure Art located south of Georgetown is a cute place, jam-packed with all sorts of caribbean made items. It is a bit touristy in that most of the shoppers are the tourists, but we're not talking tacky t-shirt stuff. She carries everything from paintings worth $$$$ to candles to caymanite jewelry to spices.

Explore with Red Sail and make sure you get to Stingray City. The stingrays are so friendly.

Sting Ray City with the two snorkel stops. There are several operators. We went with Soto's. Red Sail sports for addtional snorkeling. Check out the 'Wreck of Cali'. The Nautilus Semi-sub. The Botantical Gardens. We did a full day Island tour with Tropicana Tours. Loved it.

http://www.tropicana-tours.com/tours.html

Rent a car and get a good map and snorkel all the stops from shore. Go to Rum Point for the day. We enjoyed the shopping and walking around in Georgetown.\

We went AI and loved it as food/drink is quite expensive there.

Thank you so much everyone! We will have a lot of food to choose from it sounds like! Thanks for the tip on where to buy Caribbean made items too! I love local! We are staying at the Ritz so we'll book stingray city with them like you suggested. Does anyone know if its best just to get cabs everywhere? Or I think we can rent a car for the day too...

Local items and crafts can be found at:

Pure Art just out side of George Town near the Grand Old House restaurant.
http://pureart.ky/

The craft market in the center of town by the cruise terminals.
http://www.tab.ky/html/craft_market.html

The Market at the Grounds on Saturday mornings.
http://www.thegroundscayman.ky/html/themarket.html

Beach Bubbles in Bodden Town for handmade soaps and more.
http://cayman27.com.ky/news/item/7187

The Bodden Town Art Shop
http://arteccentrixgallery.com/art-galleries/feature-bodden-town-art-shop

The Tortuga Rum Cake bakeries and stores.

Always think renting a car is the best way for getting out and about to explore the island. Cabs or public buses are fine for getting between George Town, Seven Mile beach and the West Bay attractions.

it may not be your niche but the same guy harvey with the restaurant mentioned above is a well known artist. he paints mostly fish - http://www.guyharveyart.com/ his shop is just across the side street from his restaurant. they have some better quality souveniers downstairs and gallery upstairs - you may even find him working there.

Over The Edge was fabulous...we ate there at least 3 times a week for the 3 weeks we vacationed. Cracked Conch was really good too. And there is a restuarant I think called Paradise?? It's next door to Edens Rock snorkeling.

I am a flight attendant that flys to the Cayman 3 times a week I have created a fun fact sheet of the islands for my passengers for fun just email me....or go to passengerpicks.com

Thanks everyone! Is Red Sail sports catamaran a good company to try? Or Blue Tip Watersports?

We use Red Sail all the time and are quite satisfied. They are more of an "operation" and not a "mom & pop" type outfit, but suites us fine. Never heard of Blue Tip.

http://www.fodors.com/community/caribbean-islands/trip-report-42.cfm

We liked Captain Bryan.

We just stayed at the Ritz over Thanksgiving with our 4 and 6 year old. The Ritz was great. They have amenities at the beach and allow free use of their kayaks, snorkeling gear, paddleboards, water cycles etc. You can swim 50-75 yards right off the beach and have some good snorkeling. Even our 4 and 6 year old did it.

We used Captain Marvin's for Stingray City mainly because they are much cheaper than using the Ritz's boats. If money is no concern, book through the Ritz and you will have a more personal experience on a small boat. It you want to save $300-$400, Captain Marvin's was right down the street and we enjoyed it. Before you book your trip, ask them when the crusie ships will be in port and try to go in the afternoon or on a day when the ships aren't there. It will be much less crowded. We went in the morning and it was fun but there were 7-8 boats and a couple of hundred people there.

As far as restaurants, we went to Fidel Murphey's Irish Pub for all u can eat fish and chips and it was excellent! The best fish I have had.

Blue Tip is the Ritz Carlton's boat service. They have 3-4 nice boats and a boat called the Oculus that has a glass bottom. The boats leave right from the resort on the garden side.

Sorry fro the separate posts. We did not rent a car while we were there. We just jumped on the one of the many "buses". They are really minivans and if you are walking on the road, they will honk. If you want to get on, just flag them down. You can go anywhere for $2. We took them into town (not impressed) and to the turtle farm.

Not sure if I'm repeating anything anyone has said, but we stayed at the Beach Suites on SMB (right across from Deckers). For food...Deckers is good, Camana Bay is an outdoorsy mall type place that has great places like Michael's Genuine Food and Drink plus all sorts of shops (mostly for window shopping - pricey stuff). We went at the end of November/beginning of December so everything was gorgeously decorated for xmas...

All along the main road on SMB are little strip malls - there's 3 places owned by the same people, a sushi place, a bar/grill called legends and a "cafe" called eats, this is good if you get "tired" of the cayman menu and just want a burger and some fries. they don't look like much in the strip mall but are tasty. we also did a drive around the island and had lunch with a BEAUTIFUL view at a place called Tukka (east end) and also calypso grill in the west end.

as for things to do - definitely go to sting ray city, we used stingray sailing with chip, his father and the photographer mark. it was a wonderful experience, they picked us up, it was a small group (me, my bf, and another couple) and were just really cool guys. don't waste your time with georgetown and hell. rum point is nice but just a margaritaville-looking beach, we were only there for the bio bay kayak tour (which was also a cool experience with tom). enjoy - i know i did!!!