bjtravel

We are planning our FIRST trip to GC (end of May) and need help in finding good accomodation - Family of four (2 small kids). We are planning to rent a car.

1. Looking for: Nice sandy beach, ocean front accomodation, QUIET area, want to be away from the cruise crowd, some snorkeling right off the beach!
2. We are not into shopping and Pool is not a must.

We were looking at Rum Point and 7MB, but was reading other posts and found that Rum point doesn't have nice sandy beaches?

Dad will be out for Diving, so a sandy beach in front of the hotel\condo with less crowd is what mom and kids are looking for

Thanks in advance.

TurtleTagger

Seven Mile Beach is generally considered the best beach on the island, but it is also the most developed, some say overdeveloped, stretch of beach as well. The northern section of the beach will be considered "quiet" by most measures of the word. You'd be close to plenty of dinning options, shopping and other touristy things. The condos hee tend to be a bit older, but there are few hi-rises and plenty of shade trees. the snorkeling of the beach at places like Cemetery Beach is OK, some find it mind blowing others with a bit more experience tend to view it as pedestrian.

Rum Point has plenty of sandy beach areas, but most are in a more natural and unkempt state due to the lack of large scale development. The best sections of beach are located from the retreat condos down along Sand Point Rd towards the inlet. It is hard to call this area anything other than quiet. Snorkeling from the shore here is by far the best on the island.

Each area has its pluses and minus and both are great. If you need the comforts of home and them some, SMB is probably for you. if you prefer self-catering and a more tranquil setting than Rum Point might be your ticket.

GeorgeR

I agree with the above comments. Renting a 2 bedroom condo in the north part of Seven Mile Beach will meet your needs. There is a Foster's supermarket nearby. It is also not far away from Camana Bay.The condos are older but most of them are only 3 stories so the beach in front of them does not get crowded. The south part of the beach has many high rise condos and areas such as near the Royal palms where cruise ship passengers congregate.

bjtravel

Thank you! I am going to take a look at the accomodations in north side of 7MB

january89

When are kids were smaller we always stayed at Plantana Condo's on 7MB. We have been in late May and mid June and always felt we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. There will be other families but no crowds. You can walk down the beach a bit towards Governors House for some great snorkeling. Not sure how old your kids are but ours LOVED the Pirate Ship. It leaves from Georgetown Harbour and is great fun. We too always avoided the cruise ship crowd. Follow this link http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/C...n_Grand_Cayman and enter your dates to see how many extra guests will be on island on the days you are there. Plus of the ships being in is the shops stay open a bit later to accomadate the shoppers. I would suggest driving to RumPoint for a day. Very Gilligan's Island like.