Hello All, my husband and I are planning a trip to the Cayman Islands in June. Thanks to this fabulous website we were able to find a few leads on where to stay. We are budget minded travelers and are deciding between the Turtle Nest Inn and the Sunshine Suites by Wyndham. Which should we choose? Any other suggestions?
We are flying out of LAX which route or airline is quickets? Thank you so much for your suggestions!

Hard to believe a staunch North Sider like myself would be saying this, but I would choose Sunshine Suites. It in a great location on SMB and close to lots of fun stuff. You shouldn't have to rent a car for the whole time (which you would have to do if you choose to stay in Boddentown.)
Just go on travelocity.com to check on flights. Tons of airlines fly from LAX to GCM. Unless you want to fly the many red-eye options, the quickest may be Continental through Houston. The flights are very cheap for midweek (in the $400+ range). These low fares don't go very far into June just yet, but I'm sure they will drop down within a couple of weeks. Just keep checking.

Sue is right on all counts (hello fellow North Sider!) I hear great things about the Turtle Nest Inn, but if you're looking to be right in the middle of 7-Mile Beach, Sunshine Suites are your choice. We stayed there once ourselves and have nothing but good things to say about it: clean, decent buffets, etc.

We also live in L.A. and are kicking ourselves for not getting these new $400 sale fares on Travelocity from LAX-GCM. Many airlines connect to GCM from LAX, so you'll have no problem finding a good deal. Good luck!

If you are budget minded be forewarned that eating out there is very expensive. There are some less expensive alternatives such as Champion House and Tony Romas. There is a Pizza Hut as well.

I'll also say Sunshine Suites - have stayed there several times and it's a good choice. Beach there is MUCH better than at TNI and a car would not be necessary. You can walk or take a bus.

We stayed at both last May - the Sunshine Suites for 8 nights and the Turtle's Nest for 3. The Sunshine Suites location is better to go swimming, etc. at the beach, but the Turtle's Nest is very nice and personable, with a *beautiful* view. We were glad we stayed in two places, even though it was a bit of a pain to move in the middle.

Thank you so much to all of you for your comments/suggestions. Turtle Nest Inn did not have the dates we needed avialable. After much internet searching we found a great deal at the Hyatt Regency on Priceline.com $854.44 for seven nights. What do you all think? We have been reading the post on the board and the Hyatt Regency has not gotten great reviews but we could not pass up this deal. Now we are debating wether we should rent a car or not, we found a deal on sidestep.com for $124 plus insurance, taxes and fees for 7 days for an economy car. This is through Budget Rental Cars but we are not sure if we should get a car or not.
Does anyone know if the Hyatt Regency charges for parking? Is there a shuttle
or airport pickup for budget? We are flying into Owen Roberts. We also found a great flight out of Ontario, California on Continental airlines (it was the shortest flight we could find, about 7 hours to get there and 6 to get back) $1244 for two tickets flying sat to saturday with taxes and fees. I guess glueing yourself to the computer for a few hours pays off!

Your hotel and car deals are great (it's hard to beat priceline's prices) but I think your flights are only average. There are June flights from LAX to GCM in the $400 range on Travelocity.

Hello MahoganyPoint, we saw these fares on travelocity. However, these are midweek flights and our dates are not that flexible. We could have saved about $100 on both tickets for the exact same flight had we been able to travel on Friday. We are leaving and returning on Saturday. I am bummed about the flight situation too!

A car would be nice for several days to explore but you might not need it the whole time. Budget is most likely at the airport - most of them are. You can taxi to the Hyatt. Hyatt is fine - main problem most people have is that the hotel part is across the road from the beach and requires about a 5 minute walk. I've stayed on that side, in the villas and the walk was longer but it wasn't a problem - after all, you are on holiday and a 5-10 minute walk does not ruin the schedule. The beach can be crowded at certain times of the year but in June that should not be a problem. From the Hyatt you can walk to many of the restaurants.

The only problem I can see with your plans is that you will now have to eat all 3 meals a day out, and that can be very pricey. That's the advantage of having a small kitchen available to you. But, hope you have a great time and love GC as much as we do.

Hyatt does not charge for parking and all major rental car agencies such as Budget, Hertz and Avis are near the airport. I would still check the rates at Andy's Rent-A-Car, a local agency. I usually find they are the cheapest on a regular basis. I'm a local in Cayman and I always rent from them. As for food costs, the Hyatt is right next to the Lone Star - not high class, but the price is right! TexMex food.