The Cayman Islands enticed us because of the diving opportunities and the easy trip to Miami, where we met up with friends. Here’s all the info that can help make your trip easier to plan and more fun!

Why the Cayman Islands?

The Cayman Islands are easy. If you want a tropical vacation with lots of options and little planning, the Cayman Islands have you covered. They, Grand Cayman especially, are focused on tourism, providing plenty of options for activities, restaurants, and hotels. Because of this, families, especially those with kids, are everywhere. You’ll also find fantastic diving at more than 300 dive sites in the Cayman Islands!

Quick Tips

• Language: English
• Currency: Caymanian Dollar CI$. They do accept US dollars though you’ll likely get Caymanian dollars in return. The exchange rate is close but CI$ is higher.
• Wear sunscreen and reapply, especially if you’re diving! I learned this the hard way on this trip.
• Also wear bug spray for the bugs!
• Lingo: you’ll hear locals call the islands Grand, Little, and Brac for short.
• Because the Cayman Islands is a British Overseas territory, you’ll meet plenty of British people. You’ll also find many Canadians and expats.
• If you rent a car, drive on the left!

Weather and Best Time to Visit the Cayman Islands

Going at the end of March, we met so many from Canada and the northern part of the U.S. escaping the winter weather! With its year-round temps, it’s the ideal place for a beach vacation. Watch out for hurricane season.

Getting There and Getting Around

You’ll land in Grand Cayman at Owen Roberts International (GCM).

If you’re staying long in Grand Cayman, if you’re staying away from Seven Mile Beach, or if you want to get around easily, it’s recommended that you rent a car. Otherwise, taxi is your option. We stayed in West Bay and we did a lot of waiting and calling for taxis which was a bit of a hassle.

Where to Stay in the Cayman Islands

Since you’ll be landing in Grand Cayman first, staying put is a good option because the biggest island has plenty to do and plenty of accommodations. If you’d like a slower pace, visit Little Cayman or Cayman Brac. Cayman Brac is known to be the most “Caymanian” island and is much less tourism focused. Many of the accommodations on Little Cayman are diving-focused but you don’t need to dive to stay there.

Grand Cayman Hotels
The average Airbnb on Seven Mile Beach is about $327 a night. Hotels on Seven Mile Beach are easily $600 a night while the average hotel night in Grand Cayman is about $300 a night.

• Kimpton Seafire Resort and Spa – probably the nicest hotel on the island
• Holiday Inn Resort Grand Cayman
• Morrit’s – three resort options
• Sunset House
• Shangri-La Boutique Bed and Breakfast – This is where we stayed on Grand Cayman. You need to rent a car if you stay here. It’s a short drive from sights and restaurants but a quiet and comfortable place to stay.

Little Cayman Hotels

There are a few hotel options on Little Cayman and many offer all-inclusive packages that include your accommodation, meals, and diving.

• Pirates Point – We had a great time staying and diving at Pirates Point. It was a short trip but we got several dives in and enjoyed the island. The food was fantastic!
• Little Cayman Beach Resort
• Conch Club
• Southern Cross Club

Where to Dive in the Cayman Islands

I tell you all about diving (plus see a video) in this post! There are over 300 dive sites in the Cayman Islands, making it a top destination for all levels of divers. The diving was good and fairly easy because there are so many dive sites close by.

What to do on Grand Cayman Other Than Dive

• Relax at Seven Mile Beach
• Explore Cayman Crystal Caves
• Take a Bioluminescent Kayak Tour
• Drink Beer at Cayman Islands Brewery
• Hike Mastic Trail
• Tour and Taste at Cayman Islands Distilling Co.
• Visit “Hell” (place with black limestone formations)

While Stingray City is a popular attraction in Grand Cayman, I do not support it. This is a place where you can take a tour to swim and feed southern stingrays. While they are not trapped in enclosures, the act of baiting and touching the stingrays for years has changed their natural habits. I’ve also read accounts of stingrays aggressively swimming onto tourists, almost knocking them over, because the stingrays know tourists have food. There have been few injuries but know while they are friendly here, they are still wild creatures. If you want to see stingrays in their natural habitat, try a Discover Scuba trip.

What to do on Little Cayman

Rent a scooter and explore the island. We rented from Scooten Scooters.

Where to Eat in the Cayman Islands

Get your fill of jerk chicken and rum cake! Check out this post about things to eat (and where to eat them) in the Cayman Islands. The great thing is the islands, especially Grand Cayman, offer international cuisine, making it easy to find everything from sushi to local Caribbean eats.

Conclusion

Don’t forget to grab some Tortuga Rum Cake Co. cakes as a souvenir! The Cayman Islands are everything you’d want from a touristy Caribbean island. You’ll have a relaxing vacation.

Check out this quick video from our trip!

P.S. Need some travel inspiration? Check out the destinations page for more travel guides.

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The post Cayman Islands Travel Guide: Where to Stay, Dive, and Play appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

The Cayman Islands are where I hit 50 dives and started appreciating the small things. Maybe it was me finally feeling the most steady and calm while diving as I ever have (only took about three years!), but I truly enjoyed diving during this trip. We also saw nudibranches, very small sea slugs, for the first time, among many other favorites.

Best Time to Dive in the Cayman Islands

It’s always a good time to dive in the Cayman Islands. The temperature is 21-27°C/70-80°F year-round. Be wary of diving from June to November because of hurricane season; you never know what will happen.

Arrow Crab looks like a spider

Which Cayman Island to Dive?

Grand Cayman is the biggest island and the easiest to get to because of direct flights from the U.S. Getting to Cayman Brac and Little Cayman will require another flight after landing in Grand Cayman. Little Cayman and Cayman Brac are both about a 40-minute flight from Grand Cayman while Little Cayman to Cayman Brac is a 10-minute flight.

Grand Cayman is the most developed island, with hordes of tourists and businesses that support tourism. Little Cayman is the quietest, with one main road, one police officer, and a handful of resorts. Cayman Brac is in the middle, though still much quieter than Grand Cayman.

It’s fun to visit at least two islands to get different experiences. You’re more likely to have a more intimate dive experience on Little Cayman or Cayman Brac unless you book a private tour on Grand Cayman. That means more personalized instruction, smaller groups, and guides that are more inclined to point out smaller wildlife.

Flounder

The Best Dive Sites in the Cayman Islands

There are more than 200 dive sites around Grand Cayman and around 60 dive sites each near Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Here are the most well-known dive sites:

• Bloody Bay Marine Park, Little Cayman
• Mixing Bowl, Little Cayman
• Devil’s Grotto and Eden Rock, Grand Cayman
• USS Kittiwake, Grand Cayman
• Babylon, Grand Cayman
• MV Captain Keith Tibbets, Cayman Brac
• Stingray City, Grand Cayman

I did my first wreck dive in Grand Cayman! I also very quickly learned I do not like wreck dives, haha. USS Kittiwake served as a submarine rescue ship for 49 years and was donated by the U.S. Maritime Administration. It was purposefully sunk near Seven Mile Beach in 2011. In 2017, a tropical storm pushed the ship onto its side. The tilted ship felt like a fun house to me and the mind games made it harder to dive. It threw off my center. We also went through some very narrow entryways and made sharp, tight turns that made me uncomfortable about bumping into the ship. There wasn’t a lot of wildlife to see. I would much rather go through swim-throughs and see more fish and coral, which we did a lot of on our other dives.

What You’ll See Diving in Cayman Islands

You’ll see many of the Caribbean wildlife in the Cayman Islands. What we saw was similar to what we saw in Honduras and Belize.

We saw nudibranches for the first time! These sea slugs come in all different sizes and designs, and they were so small, I had no clue what they were until we talked about them after the dive. We also saw lots of turtles, squid (even ones mating, haha), rays, and free-swimming sharks! (The sharks I saw previously were sleeping.)

Some of my favorite fishes also made an appearance, including squirrelfish, drum fish, and puffer fish.

Lettuce leaf nudibranch at the bottom

Cayman Island Dive Shops, Dive Resorts, and Liveaboards

Vibrant tourism in the Cayman Islands means plenty of dive options, good and bad. Sometimes that means diving with beginners, which makes your dive a little more hectic. It’s easy to feel like one of many tourists being shuffled on and off boats day after day. You’ll also get dive guides that are less than enthused about having to dive AND being vocal about it, whether they mean for their customers to hear or not. To avoid all of that, I recommend researching dive shops before you book and find ones with smaller dive groups. Also, when you’re there, chat up your dive guides and they may be more inclined to personalize your dive as much as possible.

Dive Resorts – Little Cayman
Because Little Cayman is so small, there are a few options and many offer all-inclusive packages that include your accommodation, meals, and diving.

• Pirates Point – We had a great time staying and diving at Pirates Point. It was a short trip but we got several dives in and enjoyed the island. The food was fantastic!
• Little Cayman Beach Resort
• Conch Club
• Southern Cross Club

Dive Resorts – Cayman Brac

• Cayman Brac Beach Resort

Dive Resorts – Grand Cayman

• Sunset House
• Cobalt Coast
• Compass Point (they partner with Ocean Frontiers dive operation)

Dive Shops – Grand Cayman

• DiveTech – For diving in Grand Cayman, I narrowed down my choices to Dive Tech and Living the Dream Divers and in the end, the pricing was better at Dive Tech and they had a pink boat. We had a pretty good experience with DiveTech. The instructors were knowledgeable for the briefings and the equipment was in good shape. All the dive spots were no more than five minutes away from shore. Some trips had a bigger group than I would have liked and less experienced divers, but there was always time at the end of the dive to explore on our own. We dove with Lee as our guide several times and he made our experience better with his enthusiasm and knowledge. DiveTech also offers hotel and diving packages to make planning easier. Owner Jo has made DiveTech’s branding all pink everything, from the boat to the towels, so that’s pretty fun!
• Living the Dream Divers
• Don Fosters
• Epic Divers
• Ocean Frontiers

Cayman Islands Liveaboard

• Cayman Aggressor IV

Conclusion

While the Cayman Islands wouldn’t be my first choice to return to for diving, I’m glad I experienced it. The abundance of dive sites assures you’ll have something new to see on every dive. I liked the overall dive experience better in other countries and there are certainly more affordable diving options in the Caribbean. If you’re a more advanced diver, I recommend a charter (or a guarantee from a dive shop) to the best dive sites. If you’re traveling with people who don’t dive or want a variety of activities, Grand Cayman has plenty of options for everyone to find something they like.

Check out this video of our dives in the Cayman Islands!

P.S. Diving has unexpectedly become a big part of my life. From growing in a new skill to discovering the incredible underwater world, it’s been life-changing. Check out all my other diving posts here.

Don’t miss the adventures! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Bloglovin’. You can also subscribe to the exclusive email list.

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Take me back to the beach! I’ll be saying that for a while since the heat of the Caribbean sun is now a memory. But at least I can look back at all the good things we ate! During our five-day trip in the Cayman Islands, we island-hopped between Little Cayman and Grand Cayman, eating very well all the way.

Dishes to Look For in the Cayman Islands

Because of the Islands’ past, you’ll see influences of Jamaica and Britain in its cuisine. You’ll find spicy foods, stewed meat, and plenty of seafood cooked in a variety of ways. The cuisine is very similar to other Caribbean islands and destinations. Here are some dishes to look for:

• Cracked Conch – Breaded and fried conch
• Conch multiple ways – You can also find conch in ceviche or fried fritters
• Slow-Cooked Stew with fish, beef, or pork
• Turtle Stew – This is a popular, traditional dish with the locals
• Jerk Chicken – Chicken with a spicy, traditional glaze
• Johnny Cake – I first found these deliciously fried puffs of dough in Belize
• Rum Cake – A popular Caribbean dessert, many times warmed and topped with ice cream

Local Beers

You’ll be able to find Cayman Island Brewery beers in many places. The brewery on Grand Cayman is open to visitors. Caybrew and White Tip Lager are both lagers and perfect for drinking on a hot day. They have more varieties, so keep an eye out!

Little Cayman Restaurants

Little Cayman is tiny! There is one restaurant not attached to a hotel on the island – Hungry Iguana. There is also a grocery store with options for snacks, microwave meals, fresh vegetables, and more.

Our meals were included in our package at Pirates Point Resort. Dinner is open to the public and reservations are required because the seats in the dining room are limited. At full resort occupancy, they probably have room for four outside guests.

Pirates Point Resort’s chef is fabulous! All meals are buffet-style, and breakfast and lunch are “come when you want” while we all sit down together for dinner. Here’s a sampling of what we had for each meal:

• Breakfast: veggie omelette, sausage, bacon, fresh fruit, English muffin
• Lunch: cod wrap, fresh fruit, cucumber and tomato salad, kale salad, chickpea salad, chocolate chip cookie
• Dinner: tuna steak, grilled squash, grilled snap peas, mixed greens salad, key lime pie, red or white wine

Grand Cayman Restaurants

Grand Cayman is considerably larger than Little Cayman. Being a destination for a variety of cultures, there are plenty of options and almost every cuisine you can think of here. These are some of the restaurants we tried, all in the West Bay area.

Vivo
This restaurant was right next to our dive shop and the only quick option to fuel up between our morning and afternoon dives. Thankfully, we loved it! They call themselves an “alternative restaurant,” and provide vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options. On two visits we enjoyed the lionfish cakes, beetroot carpaccio, coconut ceviche, falafel bites, Big Bap sandwich (looks like a burger but is a falafel patty with fried eggs), and the lionfish sandwich.

Liberty’s Restaurant
Whenever we mentioned going here or told people we ate here, they were surprised and asked us how we heard about it. It’s a low-key spot with local Caribbean food. We ordered a Caymanian fish plate and a jerk chicken plate. They came with rice and beans, plantains, and coleslaw.

Calypso Grill
We ate at Calypso Grill for dinner our first night. We started with lobster bisque and the fishcakes. I had grilled mahi-mahi and Boyfriend got the snapper Montecarlo. While this restaurant was recommended to us by a few locals, our experience was underwhelming, and I would rather recommend you go to the next place I talk about, which is next door.

Catch
We dined here for a leisurely lunch and was the only other table on the patio. For drinks, my Caribbean gin and tonic was very light and refreshing. For food, we started with the local crudo, mahi-mahi with mango, which I liked a lot. We also enjoyed the hearty jerk chicken entrée.

Macabuca
A favorite restaurant in the area, Macabuca is an ocean-front tiki bar and its sister restaurant next door, Cracked Conch, is a little more formal. Fun fact, they are also a shore diving location, so you’ll enjoy watching divers get in and out of the water. Here we enjoyed the conch platter that served conch three ways: ceviche, fritter, and cracked conch. I then enjoyed the burger while Boyfriend had the fish and chips. We ended with one of my favorite things we ate in the Cayman Islands – warm rum cake with vanilla ice cream and walnuts.

Additionally, here are some notable restaurants I had bookmarked and recommended by locals.

• Casa 43 – It’s a Mexican restaurant, which wasn’t a first-choice for us visiting Texans but we heard they have the best margaritas.
• Hemingways – This is a happening restaurant on the beach with Asian fusion cuisine.
• Island Bites – This food truck serves Mexican-influenced dishes.
• Cimboco – Caribbean food by the beach.
• Anchor & Den – Located at a Marriott, this restaurant serves a variety of food.
• Chicken! Chicken! – Get your chicken!
• Cayman Cabana – Place for seafood and ocean views

It felt like a quick trip, especially since a few of our meals were already decided. I always make sure to try the local food wherever I visit, and the Cayman Islands did not disappoint! I liked the kick of the jerk sauce and I tried to get as much seafood as possible. I’m pretty sure food tastes better when you’re by the ocean.

Have you ever had Caribbean food?

P.S. Check out eats from these other Caribbean countries: Honduras and Belize.

Keep up with my food adventures! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Bloglovin’. You can also subscribe to the exclusive email list.

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