I'm considering staying at THE REEF resort on the East End of Grand Caymen. Has anyone been there & is there very private & primitive beaches in or near that area? We really want to escape & be with our family at times through our vacation.

We have stayed at The Reef twice. I am not sure what you mean by "Primitive" beaches, but the beaches at The Reef are very quiet and not at all crowded. Some days we had almost the entire beach to ourselves. You can always drive or walk a short ways on the East End and find a deserted beach.

Today I met with the writer of a leading travel guide who is staying with us here at The Reef while she writes the latest edition of her book.

She commented that she was amazed at how empty the beach was considering we are 95% full right now.

We have only 88 beachfront rooms on 1450 linear feet of deep beach, I guess that is why it never gets crowded

I stayed at the reef August 2003--I adore this place. The king size bed and the jacuzzi tub was to die for. The staff was friendly, professional, I could not have asked for better service. The east end is quite and relaxing, just what I like!! The snorkeling was beautiful off the pier, we snorkeled to end of the point and walked back to the resort on a path it was beautiful. I took lots of pictures 2 of them I have framed on my nightstand, one is the view from my room of the pool and beach, the other is just the beach. The bar and restaurant on site are great, you will spend money but worth it. A rental car is a must, venture out to rum point-- touristy but fun. On the way stop at the sports grill and there is a restaurant (cannot remember the name) but it is great local food. Stingray City was fun, the stings are aggressive when you feed them but the worst they will do is give you a hicky. An experience you cannot miss out on. Seven Mile Beach was too touristy for us but if you like spring breakers go there. I will definetly return with my 3 kids. I could not have asked for a more perfect vacation!! We even stayed stayed an extra day. Any questions email me at [email protected].

We'll be staying on 7MB but would like to go to the East End for a day--we've never done that before. Is beach access private at East End or can we get access?

While beach chairs and pools are (reasonably) for the use of hotel guests only, beach access itself is totally unrestricted in the Cayman Islands, it is a matter of law handed down from the mother country (the United Kingdom).

In other words, feel free to roam the beaches and coastline.

(FYI, the same rules apply in Jamaica, as they still have the same laws as an ex-British colony... don't let the security guards at the all-inclusives muscle you off their beach

We found a gorgeous beach just past Rum Point. I don't know exactly what it is called, but if you go through the beautiful homes, and to the tip of the island, you will come to an archway type of thing with a statue of Jesus. No one was at the beach the entire time we were there but us, and there are starfish everywhere. We saw a little shark there, and some gar.

Hope that helps.