Grand Cayman -Best Of
 

Planning a trip to GC in Nov., and would like some some suggestions on the best Restaurant, happy hour, live music, sting ray trip, horseback riding, secluded beach, snorkeling and anything else that travelers found to be above the ordinary.
Thanks!

Hi. I haven't been yet but am getting married and honeymooning in GC in December.

Based on all the reserach I've done, I have found that The Reef Grill and Smugglers Cove are the best restaurants on the island (Bamboo if you like Sushi). The Royal Palms is best for live music on the beach.

A trip to Singray City is a must..Capt. Marvin and Captain Dexter come highly recommended.

If you are a SCUBA diver, Divers Down has been given rave reviews

Oops. I accidentally posted before I was done. Anyway, where are you staying?

We'll be at the Reef Resort on the East End of the Island, but we rented a jeep-so that we don't feel isolated.
Have been to GC before- on a 10 hour cruise ship stop and loved it. Can't wait to go back, but looking for maximum relaxation (that's why we chose to stay off of 7 mile beach)... If you know of or have heard of anything that is too good to miss- let me know. We hope to see a lot of the island during our weeks stay.
Your suggestion for the Royal Palms live music sounds good, and I have also seen other recommendations for Capt. Dexter for the stingray city trip... We're not divers- more like loungers, and I might snorkle but it's not likely.

I second The Royal Palms for entertainment, I believe it was Thursday night, they have the reggae band

Smugglers Cove was a great meal as well as the Tuna at Reef Grill(adjacent to Royal Palms)I still think about those 2 meals
Best affordable meal was the fajitas at the Tex-Mex place outside the Hyatt which for the life of me I cant remember right this minute. I loved all the food I had there. The hamburgers at the Hyatt and Rum Point where awesome. I loved the potato gnocchi at Papagallos. It was quite a haul to get to pap's but I would go back just for that dish. Loved the pork tenderloin at the Treehouse as well, and the table on the coral reef was so breathtaking to watch a sunset from.

The cuban cigars are awesome and so cheap!

You should snorkel, its great there and very relaxing. The sting rays are on a sand bar so you arent even snorkeling. You can go to Cayman without seeing them, its the law! It was fun to just be on a small boat out in the water and with the fins on it took very little effort to tool around and check out the fish and for $30 USD, that was the cheapest way to spend the afternoon.Went with Bob Sotos and they where great.

I loved cayman and I think you made the right choice to decide to go back.

I would highly recommend dinners at "The Lighthouse" and "Calypso Grill". You will not be disappointed with your experience at the Lighthouse. Make sure to have reservations on the pier.

The best of-
*best grilled dolphin sandwich w/ jerk mayo ( sunset house "my bar" ).
*best rum punch (sunset house my bar)
*best nightlife- royal palms bar infront of the reef grill...great food!
*lone star for cheap food and cheap drinks
*best pepperpot soup...the crows nest
*best secluded beach would either be in Spotts or anywhere you can pull up to in East End.
*Hyatt for the best sunday brunch
*best late night cocktail bar "the bed"
*best little local bar "seaview bar"

These suggestions are AWESOME- keep them coming! I'm more excited than ever now.

Whatever happened to the restaurant Chef Tell's Grand Old House? The last time we were there we had a wonderful meal.

The Lighthouse is a wonderful place. Great food, wine list, and excellent service. For something a little less fancy, The Edge and Over the Edge have decent food and are not as expensive.

For Sting Ray trips, I would recommend Bob Soto's. It's $15 pp and they stop at three places. 3 guides, a small group - and the price is, I believe, the lowest on the island. We didn't go horseback riding as it's prohibited on the beaches during the summer months due to the turtles' nesting during that season.

I agree with most of the responses posted but also want to recommend the restaurant Crow's Nest on the south shore. It's very much a local place; you eat on a screened in porch overlooking the water. Reasonable prices for Grand Cayman and very good seafood. It's a little to the east of what used to be Chef Tell's (now called just Grand Old House.) Grand Old House is VERY overpriced and not so great. I would not eat there again. I think it has gone downhill in the last couple of years. We do love Calypso Grill in Morgan Bay, both for the food and view. The food is good at Bed but I don't like the atmosphere; it's a little claustrophobic. I really like to eat outside, preferably overlooking the water. There is a nice restaurant on the east end that overlooks the water (I think it's called Papagallo). I also like the Reef Grill and had a lot of fun dancing at Royal Palms to the Reggae band. It's very much a local place, maybe only about 10-30% tourists when we were there. We also ate at the Treehouse which is very pretty but the food was only so-so (fine for burgers). Have fun!

Just got back from our second trip. Our favorite restaurants are Smuggler's Cove, Pappagallo's and The Lighthouse. I second the vote for Capt. Marvin for your trip to Stingray City - we've gone twice with him and had a fantastic time. Don't miss the stingrays! Have fun!

kg,

All good advice above. There are a couple website you should checkout for a plethora of info on Grand Cayman.
www.caribbean-on-line.com (Cayman message board)
and also checkout www.gotocayman.com.

When you get to the caribbean-on-line site, you will click on the island of GC, and get to the right section of the site. There are hundreds of archived messages answering all your questions ten times over.
Also, on the gotocayman.com site, there is a great FAQ section, along with another message board.

Between the two sites I've mentioned, you will have info on GC than you'll ever need.......

Hope this helps....

Highly rec:
Portofino's in Gun Bay
Over The Edge in Old Man Bay
Driftwood Sunday BBQ North Side)
Lighthouse

These are all within reasonable distance for you staying in East End.

could not agree more about the Crow's Nest restaurant. Truly our most memorable dining experience. The owner is a gem, the porch side setting wonderful and the one place we TRULY felt like we were experiencing a bit of the culture of the island. If you're looking for fancy this isn't it; but if you're looking for a darling place with all the ambiance you could ever want, Crow's Nest is it!