TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums Cayman Islands Trip Report (4-11 Feb 2012)

This was my 1st trip to GC. I have done several trips to the US and British Virgin Islands, so I've been fortunate enough to be in the Caribbean many times.

That said, and as Testudo had cautioned - GC is entirely a different experience from the VI, and it was. But I'm ready to go back to either.

First - preparing for the trip. I cannot say enough about the help from TTOL and especially Testudo. Thanks again.

Day 1: We arrived Sat 4 Feb, and had made arrangements with McCurley for 1 car to be at the house, 1 at the airport. 4 of us took 1 car from airport to immediately go shopping for groceries and supplies. 2 other adults & 2 children and all the luggage caught a ride in McCurley's van to the house. It was dark by the time we shoppers arrived at the house.

We had rented Great Escapes, a 5 minute walk down the road from Rum Point. The lagoon out the back of the house, and bay across the road out the front door. A fantastic, quiet location, and the house met every need, with a pool in the back yard.

Day 2: No one ventured very far from the house as we appeared to be tired from traveling, so settled in to simply relaxing near the house, venturing to the shallow bay for a long walk up to the next point from Rum Point. Not many fish, but the occasional sting ray.

Day 3: Still settling in to island life, some went to the beach at Rum Point, and a couple of us went snorkeling off the rocks up from Rum Point. I never did make it all the way out to the reef, but there were some fish around the rocky point. A windless sail in the house HobieCat up the back lagoon out around the point to the bay before dinner and it was time to relax in the pool.

Day 4: Finally ventured out of the immediate area and caught a boat at Rum Point to Sting Ray City and a brief snorkel by a reef. I think Sting Ray City was my highlight of the trip. I've never ventured in to any pool style tourist attractions with turtles, stingrays, or anything. Being out a mile or so from shore standing on a sandbar watching the stingrays swim right past me and into me - razing a fin/wing just in time to rub right past me - was simply amazing. For dinner we headed along the north shore to Over The Edge for a fantastic fish dinner - Cayman style, with a full moon. I can eat a lot, but I couldn't finish the dinner, but I did finish the fish and most of it. Very nice place, good food, and not expensive like the 7 mile area.

Day 5: We all headed in both cars to 7 Mile Beach for the day. It is a good 45 minute plus drive from Rum Point down to BoddenTown and then on through George Town and up 7 mile, where we headed to Cemetery Beach for snorkeling. This was a good location, but again - time and not wishing to swim alone kept me from venturing all the way out to better coral and fish. Lunch at Beach Suites on the patio for what some think was the best fish and chips they've ever had. Then it was on to a public beach for the kids. It was never crowded on 7 Mile in the areas we were in. Just wonderful sand and sun. I just walked and walked.

Day 6: I started the day trying to see just how far out I could walk in the bay across the road but down from Rum Point. With mask and snorkel, I kept looking under the water for slight rises to walk to and kept going further and further out "to sea" - finally stopping when I got to my 6' high neck. I had seen several others walking quite a way out from shore, so I had to see how far one could go. The soft white sand occasionally gives way to sea grass, which I swam over. But I had to stop as I was due to leave for a condo tour (Reef Point) on East End. The timeshare presentation was educational about the island, but I am not a time share buyer, instead we took them up on the free snorkel trip. I cannot recall the name of the snorkel outfit, but it right down the beach from the Reef Resort. A very small operation that meant 3 couples went out for the snorkel trip, plus someone to run the boat and then Apollo our snorkel guide. Apollo was fantastic, even taking my camera down to get a close of fish under a deeper coral head. It was a 2 hours snorkel trip. It was fantastic, two stops, 1 - general float through various shallow coral, and 2 - deeper water around a maze of coral heads. I cannot say enough about this outfit, as it is low key, friendly and small groups. Happy hour at the Reef Resort beach bar was good, and the food delicious. And much cheaper than the west end of island.

Day 7: Morning relaxing around pool with kids, afternoon short hike on Maestic Trail down from the northern end. Too hot out to keep going. But I was waiting for the evening adventure, which was the Bioluminescence Tour by kayak at night going out next to the Kybo Yacht Club. This was something I had not heard of before and it was quite educational. Having never kayaked before and going out "to sea" in the total black night was at times unnerving, and trying to follow the group was a challenge getting the two of us to coordinate adequately enough to go in a straight line - but we hung in there and were surprised at what one can see in the water at night. It was worth it, but it was a lot of work - everyone else in the group were experienced kayakers, so I think we held everyone back. It was an experience!

Day 8: Pack up - have lunch - and head to airport, where of all things the 3 year old and 5 year old had to go through a second security check in a private room - I never knew 3 and 5 year olds were being profiled as security risks.

Summary: Great time, great location, great house, good snorkeling, great stingray experience, good weather. There is a lot of money in GC, as evidenced by the mansions/villas that set so empty, for so much time. Next trip we are looking at northern end of 7 mile at a condo on the beach.

I haven't uploaded photos yet, but will soon - simply Google "robtwander" and you will get to WebShots.com and all my other albums.

If anyone has questions, let me know - but I'm still learning about GC.

BobA

Great report, thanks.

Thanks for the trip report! Stingray City truly is an amazing place! If you don't mind, could you post a note when you get your pictures online? Appreciate it!

Photos have been uploaded, Webshots.com / robtwander / Grand Cayman Feb 2012.

I'll get around to captions eventually.

Thanks for the pictures. I figured out how to find them eventually! The house looked very neat. Was it very buggy?? I was surprised at the screen porch around the whole back of the house.

I never did figure out how to see your pictures
We have reservations for the same time period next February 2013. What was the weather like? Any restaurants you would definitely suggest? We went to St Thomas this past February and liked it so we can't wait to try the Cayman. Any suggestions/info you can give would be appreciated.

Glad you enjoyed the trip! Just arrived Saturday and have been experiencing some unusual winds. Northern Seven Mile Beach is a great place for when you make a return visit.

Here is the link to the photo album.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/582691561wGWbpY

I'm surprised anyone has difficulty finding my photo albums, I typically just tell people to google, robtwander and up pops a series of albums. For a while even my TTOL trip reports from BVI popped up on the list. Once on one album, you can click on the rest. Thanks to Carol for actually providing the REAL link.

As to places to eat, I cannot expand past what is in the trip report because we ate pretty much every meal at the house.

The place was never buggy. But it may be at times, as there were mosquitto coils on stands on the screened porch, never used them. Never noticed bugs day time or night time. Never used the bug spray I always pack.

This trip was more a family outting than an adventure, nothing like island hoping by bareboat in the BVI. Thus the lack of adventure photos, just the usual setting around snap shots.

I'll get captions in eventually.

Originally, I had some problem finding the link, that's why I posted it.

Bugs are often a function of how much rain there has been, as well as how much wind. I just wondered if it was buggy, because of the lagoon there, as you often get bugs from somewhat stagnant water.

Loved the photos as well.

Testudo