frenchtoile

I think we have finally narrowed it down to Cayman Islands or TandC.

I am looking at VRBOs and Airbnbs. Has anyone does this? I am leaning more towards TC. It seems like the least amount of crime for an island. How is grocery shopping? We are not night life people. Just a family of 4. We like spending time on the beach. Then cooking dinners. We will want to go out a few times.

What things are not to be missed?

Same question for CI. It seems so much like TC. Am I wrong?

I am anxious for input! Budget...seems to be something everyone always wants to know. If it's something great we will make it work. I'm not looking to over spend though either.

Odin

I've stayed in hotels in both islands. I don't feel like grocery shopping and cooking on vacation, I do enough of that at home but this is a personal thing of course. The prices in the supermarkets are eye-wateringly expensive, I can't imagine how much a shop would cost where you had to buy ingredients to cook a meal while you can eat for the same price in a (relatively speaking) budget restaurant without the hassle. Maybe for 4 people it is cheaper to cook meals yourself, there were only 2 of us so hardly worth the effort. There are some supermarkets where you can take out various cooked dishes in styrofoam boxes, they were good value and popular.

frenchtoile

Both Cayman and TC? Just asking....I know I wondered that on grocery shopping. Hawaii is bad. Can't imagine what prices could be in Caribbean.

Which resorts did you stay in?

BritishCaicos

I’m continually bemused when people use the terms budget and over spend.

A budget is simply a pre defined spending limit. The US have a defence budget and it’s probably not inappropriate for a trip to TCI.

what do you regard as over spend ?

$10 a burger ?
$50 a burger ?

$15 a main ?
$100 a main ?

usually in these situations posters are just looking for some solace that they are going to get encouragement like “oh don’t worry it’s just a scare story”.

It isn’t.

If you book into one of the many high end resorts and choose a meal package then you financially know where you are.

We have rented homes in TCI and there’s no point trying to rationalise supermarket prices. Just buy what you want and pay the bill, if you are going to have an issue with the grocery bill then don’t go. There are more beautiful places but they don’t have the luxury label with which to tell all your friends.

Ive been to 64 countries including Norway, Iceland, Singapore and Australia all usually regarded as having some of the highest costs of living in the world. TCI grocery prices cap the lot, virtually nothing is grown on the island, income tax is zero and so import duties are huge.

If you want cottage rentals on the seafront for around $2000 a week then look at The Out Islands of The Bahamas. If you value money the you are just not going to find it on the TCIs.

girlonthego

I have only been to Grand Cayman and not TC. We stayed at the Marriott and it was nice. There are places with bigger beach areas than the Marriott. I would say if safety is a concern, GC was very safe and also very low key in the nightlife area. Food was expensive both in the grocery stores and in the restaurants. I think that is an island thing.

blamona

DaveS

We’ve stayed in a condo at Rum Point on Grand Cayman the last two times there, much quieter and less expensive that 7 Mile Beach. There are several large well stocked grocery stores on the island. We’ve gone to https://fosters-iga.com/ and went online prior to our visits to view their sale ad. We did the bulk of our grocery shopping off of that and those prices were comparable or even less than home regular prices. Items not on sale were very expensive though.

TurtleTagger

Prices listed for groceries are in CI$. That means when converting to USD, you'll be paying 25% more than the listed CI$.