Why is Little Cayman diving considered better?

[scubadada]

...Does anyone think that the marine life, especially the mobile marine life (i.e. not coral or sponges) on Little Cayman is significantly better than that of Grand Cayman?

Personally, I do not. I think the diversity on the East end of GC is actually greater. I like seeing the Reef Sharks, especially at the "Corner" 55 Dive Sites on the East End of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. I find the walls and shallow sites have more variety. The Little Cayman walls are the best, GC North wall 2nd best.

 

[KathyV]

...Does anyone think that the marine life, especially the mobile marine life (i.e. not coral or sponges) on Little Cayman is significantly better than that of Grand Cayman?

You see more (friendly) groupers on LC and CB but I see more tarpons around GC - and perhaps more turtles on GC - but turtles are plentiful throughout the Caymans. All 3 Cayman islands offer great dive options.

 

[tkaelin]

If you are wrestling with one or the other have you considered both? I am planning a trip now for next June splitting time between CB and GC. Possibly 5/5 nites. Provides the opportunity to see CB with 4 days diving and 5 more on GC.


. . . and PS with a family of four we will be able to do 10 nites family four divers with 9 days shore diving for the same or less than a 7 nite/6 day dive trip to Bon. But I digress.

 

[Trailboss123]

Personally, I do not. I think the diversity on the East end of GC is actually greater. I like seeing the Reef Sharks, especially at the "Corner" 55 Dive Sites on the East End of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. I find the walls and shallow sites have more variety. The Little Cayman walls are the best, GC North wall 2nd best.

@Ironborn - I concur with @scubadada -- Also, I may be beating a dead horse here - but I think you should head out to the East End for your November trip and start the process of earning some Green Shorts (turn that into a 3-5 year mission!)
Return in the future and do an Agressor Live Aboard to all 3 islands at the right time of year. A time that enhances your weather chances for getting out to all 3 islands and you will then have another completely different dive vacation experience. It will be as if you went to a completely different Caribbean country (sort of). You probably would not duplicate any of the same dive sites between these two trips.

Whatever you decide: Enjoy, stay safe and let us know what you decided and how it went. I thoroughly enjoyed your Bonaire trip report and how you shared your experiences -- So, I know I will enjoy your next trip report. All the best to you!

 

[Ironborn]

If you are wrestling with one or the other have you considered both? I am planning a trip now for next June splitting time between CB and GC. Possibly 5/5 nites. Provides the opportunity to see CB with 4 days diving and 5 more on GC.

My original plan was to go on the Cayman Aggressor IV in the hopes of covering all three islands in one trip, but it is full that week. I only have one week and would thus not have enough time to cover both islands by land.

 

[Ironborn]

@Ironborn - I concur with @scubadada -- Also, I may be beating a dead horse here - but I think you should head out to the East End for your November trip and start the process of earning some Green Shorts (turn that into a 3-5 year mission!)
Return in the future and do an Agressor Live Aboard to all 3 islands at the right time of year. A time that enhances your weather chances for getting out to all 3 islands and you will then have another completely different dive vacation experience. It will be as if you went to a completely different Caribbean country (sort of). You probably would not duplicate any of the same dive sites between these two trips.

Whatever you decide: Enjoy, stay safe and let us know what you decided and how it went. I thoroughly enjoyed your Bonaire trip report and how you shared your experiences -- So, I know I will enjoy your next trip report. All the best to you!

@scubadada and @Trailboss123, thank you for the input, that was exactly what I needed to hear. At this point, I will probably go to Grand Cayman, unless some other users can make the case that Little Cayman has significantly better mobile marine life (e.g. more numerous, more diverse, more unique, etc.) than Grand Cayman. The mobile marine life is key for me, and the other selling points of Little Cayman are not compelling enough to outweigh the disadvantages (an extra flight, fewer options, and a smaller number of dives in general and night dives in particular). I am now in the process of narrowing down my options on Grand Cayman.

 

[tkaelin]

Agreed. With a just a week I would stay on one island. I have been diving GC since the early 80's and frankly do not see the allure of a liveaboard to sit at dive sites a couple hundred yards off shore, but I degress yet again. Did you say whether you are traveling alone or with family etc.? The best diving by boat I have had on any of the islands consistently is staying on the East End of GC, staying at Compass Point diving with Ocean frontiers. If flying solo you can do 4 dives a day, 2 tank am and pm. To qualify my statement, never been to Brac, been to LC once. Loved LC but I also love diving with OF. They give you the options of the North Wall, East and South sites.

 

[large_diver]

Just came back from LC 2 weeks ago - 2nd trip (both to Little Cayman Beach Resort). The diving is very, very good - really enjoyable mix of the gorgeous northside walls, sand flats and shallow hard pan for macro/juveniles. Even with a brush from rain/wind from Hurricane Harvey, we got over to the north side for diving every day we were there. The other allure of LC is the super mellow vibe - there is really nothing to do there other than dive, eat, sleep, and read a book in a hammock (or perhaps SUP or kayak). Permanent population on LC is < 200 people. GC is very developed, has cruise ships, etc....although East End helps you get away from that. Brac is quieter than GC, but somewhat more developed than LC (population is somewhere 1,500-2,000 I think). If you want very good diving with max relaxation and a feeling that you've really "gotten away from it all" - LC is hard to beat, making the extra flight worth it, IMHO. In past trips I've definitely looked for options that have 4-5 dives/day...but I really enjoyed doing 3/day (sometimes 4 with a night dive) and relaxing a little bit more in between.

 

[howswedeofme]

I haven't been to Brac or Little Cayman yet, but GC is our favorite diving because of the plentiful mobile marine life and varied topography. The only place I've been so far that I found far more impressive is Saba. To the extent you may be interested someday, Saba seemed to combine the varied topography like GC with the even more plentiful marine life of Bonaire, but also had larger marine life than we saw in Bonaire because it's surrounding reef has been a marine park since the 80s. We saw at least a dozen sharks and probably 40 turtles that week. But back to the topic at hand - the East End has phenomenal diving. I love the topography at Ironshore Gardens and we were able to see quite a few sharks. It is easier to get to the North Wall if the weather cooperates, which is also great diving. I also really enjoy the shore diving up in the West Bay area, which is quite a long drive from the East End but might be worth a morning/day trip. We have already been to GC twice in the past four years and are going again this year.

 

[backprop]

I have dived Brac and LC twice. After the first round, I felt they were different but roughly equivalent, with LC having the wall and more larger marine life like stingrays, eagle rays, and sharks. But I loved Brac diving and found it clear, colorful, and diverse.

This year, I noticed that the Brac, with a few exceptions, had a ton of green macroalgae all over the reef. Left to right, top to bottom, it was absolutely smothered. Has anyone else noticed that? That limited the visible coral and it also seemed like there were fewer fish. It was better (but not great) off the west side and further east over by Greenhouse.

Little Cayman sites, on the other hand, showed no such algae growth, and we were really lucky to see lots of eagle rays, turtles, sharks, and larger schools of fish. It may have just been our luck lining up, but LC won hands down.