Trip Report Little Cayman Feb 2023

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

So, what did you think of your trips to L.C. vs. the 2 spots on G.C.? Any particular reason you'd recommend the east end of G.C. vs. L.C.? I ask about the east end since it is away from Georgetown and Seven Mile Beach, so it's away from some of the topside attractions that people value G.C. for.
From my perspective, @Doctorfish summed it up nicely and covered all the bases.
We tend towards the quieter locales in general so being away from SMB suits us. My son and I stayed at Compass Point/Ocean Frontiers and my gal & I stayed near Rum Point twice...once a little east and once south of it (near the Kaibo Beach restaurant). The diving was a few years pre-Covid so I don't recall details but do remember that the diving was very good, lotsa life, nice reefs, and Ocean Frontiers ran a very good op...they took care of everything.
After grabbing our rental car, we would stop at Foster's near the airport to load the fridge for some meals. About half the time we'd cook in and the other half we would pop over to Kurt's Corner (now the Caboose), Tukka, Eagle Ray's, the restaurants on Rum Point proper, and Kaibo Beach Restaurant...so plenty of casual to nicer options as an alternative to the AI route.
My take is East End diving is definitely worth considering when looking at GC, LC, CB trips.
PS. Some great snorkeling along a stretch of reef from Sea Lodges condos west to Rum Point. I great guide can be found here (thanks @Testudo!): TESTUDO’S SNORKEL GUIDE: Rum Point Barrier Reef
 
I just re-read your review and I'm starting to plan a late Nov/Dec trip and GC/LC/Brac are on the table, along with possibly St Croix or St John. From various reviews the Caymans seem better for a dive focused trip, and we do enjoy the quieter places so LC & Brac are looking like good contenders. Flights from DC are surprisingly less pricey to GCM it seems. We stick with United which has its pros and cons so other options may vary. After doing the Twin Otter flights to/from St Eustatius with the loud craziness that is St Maartin airport, I appreciate the added hassle of the island hop, but tend to think it's worthwhile to get away from the tourist hordes in the busier places.

Southern Cross Club looks perfect for us, can you or anyone share insight on whether the price differential is worth the upgrade from Little Cayman Beach Resort, for example?
 
IMO, not worth the differential. LCBR rooms are quite nice, the food, though buffet, is quite good and the diving is the same. Even if you take an oceanfront room at LCBR, still significantly less PP than Southern Cross.
Southern Cross boats might be a little less crowded but the LCBR boats are Newton 46, and even if there are 18 divers aboard, there is still plenty of room. Dive schedules are more or less the same.

The bar at LCBR is a little more lively and if you are interested in photography, there is a photo shop on site offering courses and gear.

From a price perspective, Brac Beach Resort checks off all the boxes. Same management and setup as LCBR. The pool area is magnificent and the diving is very good. If the weather allows, they go across to Little Cayman once per week so that the customers get a taste of Bloody Bay Wall.

I actually prefer the Brac but my dive buddy prefers Little Cayman.
Southern Cross, Little Cayman Beach Resort and Brac Beach resort all are outstanding. You can't go wrong.
 
Southern Cross Club looks perfect for us, can you or anyone share insight on whether the price differential is worth the upgrade from Little Cayman Beach Resort, for example?
Hi @LDBuckley, as I've not stayed at LCBR I don't have the firsthand experience on which to base a comparison but as I'm sure you've seen in this thread and others, many people have good things to say about LCBR. Seems like no matter your choice you'll be in good hands...happy travels.
 
My wife and I were just at SCC in late June. We’ve done three trips to LCBR (last one was January 2018, but reviews I’ve read since then suggest it’s pretty much unchanged).

I think it depends on what you care about and how much the cost differential means to you. The differences we noticed between the two places:

1) Flexible arrival/departure dates. LCBR made (in our view) the unfortunate decision to force Saturday to Saturday bookings. With SCC, we were able to arrive on a Monday and left the following Tuesday because that was what worked best for our schedules. Additionally, other people have had challenging travel experiences when trying to make it from Grand to Little (or vice versa) with all of their luggage during busy times. For us, this is a huge plus of SCC.

2) Nicer/bigger rooms. SCC has a few different types, so your mileage may vary depending on what room you pick. We stayed in one of the “deluxe king bungalows.” It had a nice sitting area with a couple of chairs and a coffee table and then a cute little napping/reading bed that was built into a window area. We also had a large private patio with a couple of chairs and, as the original review in this thread observed, an outdoor shower. LCBR rooms felt more motel-ish to me. Their beachfront rooms have balconies, but they’re not very big. Having the extra space at SCC was especially nice in late June when daytime temps were in the mid/upper 90s, but it would be less needed at other times of year when the temp/humidity is not as oppressive.

3) Smaller/more boutique vibe. SCC has only 14 rooms. LCBR has 40. There were a couple of small groups of 4-6 people at SCC while we were there, but no big dive shop groups that you often find at LCBR. That’s fewer people at meals, fewer people rinsing/hanging gear, fewer people queuing at the bar, etc. We were also celebrating an anniversary, so we appreciated the smaller feel.

In terms of how this impacts the diving experience, it’s a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. SCC has two boats. When we first arrived, the older of the two was out of commission and so they took out around 14 people on the newer boat. That was a bit crowded. Once they got the second boat fixed, they split it to be approximately 10 on one and 6 on the other. It was nice not having to share a site with lots of people, which is what I see as the main drawback to 18 divers on a boat, but SCC’s boats are not equal in terms of quality. The older one is a single engine and so you’ve got a longer commute out/back to the dive sites, which are already 30-40 minutes away. The exhaust also seemed to blow back into the seating area, which was unpleasant. Overall, I’d probably score this as a push.

One potential downside to the smaller size at SCC is that the third PM dive isn’t guaranteed. SCC requires 4 divers for the afternoon dive to happen. Even with 16 divers at the resort there were a couple of days where it didn’t happen because of lack of interest. There was no talk at all of a night dive (but we saw an LCBR boat head out at least one evening for a dusk/night dive). So if you’re hung ho on getting in as much diving as possible, that could be an important consideration.

4) Some platted dinners. As I think the original poster noted, there are buffets on three nights for dinner at SCC. The other four nights are all plated dinners. We thought two of them were very good, one was good, and the other was just okay. SCC does buffet only for all breakfasts and lunches. At SCC there were some good buffet days and some not so good days (cold cut sandwich station, running out of a protein at lunch). I don’t remember any bad buffet days at LCBR, but it was 5+ years ago. Overall, for us, a slight advantage to SCC here. Depends on how much you care about platted dinners.

Ultimately we were happy with SCC, glad we gave them a try, and would look to them first for the next time we return to Little Cayman — particularly if the Saturday/Saturday requirement would cause us to leave extra vacation days on the table.
 
@Doctorfish @gratefulmjc @RCB1882 Thanks very much for the very helpful info. It sounds like all 3 offer a great experience and ideally I'd visit all 3 at some point. As an FYI if you hadn't heard, Clearly Cayman just emailed out a $400 off special for select weeks in December this year. Pricewise, those packages look compelling for an early December trip, especially as United's nonstop to GCM is cheap from DC on non-holiday weekends.

On the other hand, the schedule flexibility and the fact that we're considering bringing my mother in law for snorkeling and a discover scuba day may lead us towards SCC for a 2 BR bungalow. While I am fine with good buffet now and then, plated dinners are also nice as the Mrs is a vegetarian.

Thanks again for the replies and knowledge, it's been fantastic to discover this community and benefit from so much insight. I've been telling colleagues at work it's a great community and it's never too late to learn - I was 46 when I certified a few years pre-covid, and despite never being one who enjoyed swimming I loved the sport almost immediately. If only the warm water didn't require a flight.
 
RCB 1882 certainly did a good job on his review above.

To be clear, the ocean front rooms at LCBR, although not as nice as SCC, are quite spacious, and have private balconies or patios. Unfortunately no outdoor showers.

The resort is happy to provide vegetarian meals and deal with other dietary requests as long as informed in advance. even though they serve buffet style, one night they served tuna which was blackened and not to my taste, and they seared some for me with just olive oil, salt and pepper. I happen to like their jerk chicken and again, they made up some for me for lunches on two days. Their deserts are particularly impressive. Always a variety of fresh cakes, pies, usually ice cream and one night they even did Bananas Foster. I think because they are larger than SCC, they have more food variety in their menu.

I agree, the non ocean front, pool view rooms at LCBR are motelish. Also, if in a downstairs pool view, you can hear every footstep from the room upstairs, and some of their conversation. Ocean front is a few hundred dollars more pp, and well worth it, if your budget allows.

Reef Divers, the dive op at LCBR took two of us out for an afternoon dive one day this spring, even though no other guests on the boat. I think they need 6 minimum to arrange a night dive or a trip over to CB to dive the Russian Frigate. Reef divers boats are big, fast and well equipped.
I may sound like a travel agent but I am not, I just really like LCBR and their sister resort on the Brac.
 
I’m in the southern cross fan club. The most we have ever had on the boat was 8 including us. Rooms are significantly better and outdoor shower is sublime. Food much better. Value for the added expense? To us it’s a hard yes, limited vacation time and well my wife is worth it. RCB nailed it. Most here will say lcbr and when I was 20 I might have agreed. Now I’m older and like some of the nicer things than just a hotel room and buffet food.
 
As an aside, Mike did his 11,111th dive in May. While I don’t know how many were in the waters off Little, it is certainly several thousand, and he and his staff have impeccable local knowledge. There is great chemistry among the staff at SCC. We will miss Pirate’s Point, which closed this year, but (with full props to LCBR) look forward to returning to Southern Cross.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom