Grand Cayman, Little Cayman or Cayman Brac?

Old Jan 18th, 2007, 05:21 PM
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Grand Cayman, Little Cayman or Cayman Brac?

planning our first trip to the Caymans for next month and trying to decide how best to divide our precious vacation time. Cayman Brac sounds like the quiet island experience we are looking for but would hate to miss out on dive opportunities on the other islands. Seems like Cayman Brac has less dive site associated with it? Any thoughts?
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Old Jan 18th, 2007, 05:23 PM
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I think best to do some more research on diving in Cayman then post some more detailed questions.

Suggested sites that are focussed on diving :
- www.divecayman.ky (official site)
- www.divester.com
- www.scubadiving.com

Lots of great diving in all three islands, and you can also get the quiet island experience in the Eastern districts of Grand Cayman as well as the Brac or Little
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Old Jan 18th, 2007, 05:32 PM
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Thanks for the sites - just starting the research as it goes. Any suggestions/preferences on where to stay in the Eastern districts?
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Old Jan 19th, 2007, 07:44 AM
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Great diving opportunites on all 3. Have only stayed on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac - but the Brac Reef dive opp will trave to little cayman weekly to make sure guests dive bloddy bay wall.
If you are just starting to book for next month check flights and hotel availablity to little cayman/ brac. This could well be a limiting factor as to where you go. We had hoped to go to Little Cayman in December, but all flights were full when we tried to book in September.
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Old Jan 19th, 2007, 07:45 AM
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so many typos- that should be "Blood Bay"
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Old Jan 21st, 2007, 05:52 PM
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My husband and I are also divers. We visited both Grand Cayman and Little Cayman in 2003. We absolutely loved Little Cayman and we'd highly recommend it. I could go on and on about how much we loved it (and I probably will, so bear with me!)

Whether or not you'll like it does depend on what you want, though. Little Cayman is a quiet island retreat- very quiet. There was only one true resort there (the Little Cayman Beach Club, although I think they might have been building either a resort or a time share when we were there) and it was still pretty small.

The "airport" there is really a grassy landing strip with a small building next to it. This building serves as the island's fire department, airport, post office, and only pay phone. Your resort will probably send someone (possibly even the owner) to come pick you up at the ariport. It is quite a unique experience. We were charmed by it, but it depends on what you like.

There are NO chain hotels or restaurants there. In fact, there is only one true restaurant- the Blue Iguana next to Paradise Villas. You can eat at most of the "resorts" there, though. We stayed at Paradise Villas and if we wanted to eat at another place on the island, the hotel manager would just call over to the other hotel and often the owner of the hotel would come pick us up. It was very quaint. The island only has a population of about 150, so everyone who lives there knows everyone else.

There are no taxis and rental cars are insanely expensive and really unnecessary there. Most accomodations come with bikes for your use. We had a great time riding around exploring the island. The iguanas are everywhere and often beg for food- they seem to love bananas.

The diving in Little Cayman was phenomenal. We dove with Paradise Divers at Paradise Villas. They did a great job of pointing out cool marine life and little things we would have missed on our own (like a tiny seahorse).

One night for dinner we went to Pirate's Point. It was wonderful and so much fun that we swore we'd stay at Pirate's Point if/when we get back to Little Cayman. Pirate's Point has a bed and breakfast for diver's atmosphere. Gladys, the owner, is a gourmet chef and she oversees or does all the cooking. You sit at large tables with other guests and after dinner most of the guests retired to the living room area and played dominoes or other games or watched TV.

We didn't visit Cayman Brac, but we heard it is more populated than Little Cayman. It seems to be where most people who are Cayman natives were born and where most of their families live.

Grand Cayman is beautiful, but very expensive and touristy. It is incredibly clean and they say it is very safe- almost no crime. We didn't do much diving there, but we did do the Sting Ray City dive. It was a really neat experience (although rather touristy) and I'd recommend doing it. It was very cool kneeling in the sand surrounded by 10 sting rays swooping around you.

The only other thing to be aware of about the Caymans is that Little Cayman and Cayman Brac do not really have sand beaches- they are what they call "iron shore"- basically sharp rocks. You can't really go into the water to swim in most locations because there is a lot of sea grass near the shore. The beautiful sand beach on Grand Cayman is gorgeous, but it is actually shipped in from Cuba (or so I've heard).

If you decide on Little Cayman, you should definitely check out Pirate's Point. As I said, we stayed at Paradise Villas and we like it. They are nothing fancy, but they are nice and quiet and the kitchenette is nice. The managers and dive masters were also really nice and helpful.
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Old Jan 21st, 2007, 08:42 PM
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I highly recommend this one, you better check this site, www.whoisintown.com. You'll meet here your fellow travellers that could give you more tips and suggestions on your plan to travel. Have a safe and nice trip
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Old Jan 22nd, 2007, 10:56 AM
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thanks for all the tips! guess I better get my GC to CB booked ASAP - thanks again....
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Old Jan 26th, 2007, 08:32 AM
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We stayed at the Cay.Brac Beach Resort. It was OK but the diving isn't that great. the best day was the trip to Bloody Bay Wall. Beware of using Cayman Airlines..they really stick it to you with overweight baggage and they also insisted on storing our camera bags in the hold and then dropped it on the tarmac, damaging the case. They would not acknowledge that it was their fault.
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