Trip Report Back from our first visit to Cayman Brac.

[morecowbells]

Morecowbells,
Just wanted to know if you would return to the Brac and if you did so, what if anything would you do differently? Thanks

Definitely! I loved the cozy and safe vibe of the island. Years ago I injured my knee while skiing. While it really doesn't limit my activities, but the ease of the shore diving entry is highly appealing. Back in Feb, we visited St. Vincent. We booked a package through Serenity Dive. I don't remember the price, but we stayed at the Mariners Hotel and did 2 dives a day. Along with the package, we received a free breakfast(or a $25 meal credit) and 20% off meals at the on site restaurant 'The French Veranda'. It would be the icing on the cake to have a similar package deal with 'The Captain's Table' and Brac Scuba Shack in Cayman Brac

What would have done differently? Perhaps focused less on getting groceries. Sure I relied on them for breakfast and snacks. Lunch or dinner items were a little more tricky. In retrospect, I would have ordered more restaurant take out items for lunch leftovers and focused more on the grocery store delis and Pioneer Bakery(XXX tra patties!) as a source for lunch items. I was very happy with B and S car rental (perhaps a slightly better name than ISIS Car Rental that we use in Cozumel), our condo choice and Brac Scuba Shack. Those choices were perfect and I would not change a thing.

Despite Cayman Airways 'fluctuating' schedule, in the future, I would book the Brac to Florida route versus going through GC. The layovers and worrying about an additional connection were stressful and made for a long travel day. We absolutely hope to return soon!

 

[KathyV]

Definitely! I loved the cozy and safe vibe of the island. Years ago I injured my knee while skiing. While it really doesn't limit my activities, but the ease of the shore diving entry is highly appealing. Back in Feb, we visited St. Vincent. We booked a package through Serenity Dive. I don't remember the price, but we stayed at the Mariners Hotel and did 2 dives a day. Along with the package, we received a free breakfast(or a $25 meal credit) and 20% off meals at the on site restaurant 'The French Veranda'. It would be the icing on the cake to have a similar package deal with 'The Captain's Table' and Brac Scuba Shack in Cayman Brac

What would have done differently? Perhaps focused less on getting groceries. Sure I relied on them for breakfast and snacks. Lunch or dinner items were a little more tricky. In retrospect, I would have ordered more restaurant take out items for lunch leftovers and focused more on the grocery store delis and Pioneer Bakery(XXX tra patties!) as a source for lunch items. I was very happy with B and S car rental (perhaps a slightly better name than ISIS Car Rental that we use in Cozumel), our condo choice and Brac Scuba Shack. Those choices were perfect and I would not change a thing.

Despite Cayman Airways 'fluctuating' schedule, in the future, I would book the Brac to Florida route versus going through GC. The layovers and worrying about an additional connection were stressful and made for a long travel day. We absolutely hope to return soon!

I am excited to see that you can now fly directly from Brac to Miami! For a long time you could fly directly from Miami to Brac on Cayman Airways on Saturdays, but you had no choice but to go through Grand Cayman on the return trip. It would be great to avoid GCM if possible.

I am not a fan of MIA but it might be worth it to eliminate one stop during the trip home. Although we were able to fly United directly from GCM to ORD on our recent trip home in only 3.5 hours and that was really nice. More direct flights from Chicago to Grand Cayman would be good news for me.

I know that the Clearly Cayman resorts have been trying to work out an agreement with Cayman Airways to offer more direct jet flights on Saturdays to/fom the Sister Islands, bypassing GCM, and it looks like they've finally succeeded.

And that is also good news for travelers to Little Cayman, because they could leave an Otter based in the Sister Islands on Saturdays to transport travelers between LC and Brac to support the jet flights between CYB and GCM.

 

[BrackaFish]

Definitely! I loved the cozy and safe vibe of the island. Years ago I injured my knee while skiing. While it really doesn't limit my activities, but the ease of the shore diving entry is highly appealing. Back in Feb, we visited St. Vincent. We booked a package through Serenity Dive. I don't remember the price, but we stayed at the Mariners Hotel and did 2 dives a day. Along with the package, we received a free breakfast(or a $25 meal credit) and 20% off meals at the on site restaurant 'The French Veranda'. It would be the icing on the cake to have a similar package deal with 'The Captain's Table' and Brac Scuba Shack in Cayman Brac

What would have done differently? Perhaps focused less on getting groceries. Sure I relied on them for breakfast and snacks. Lunch or dinner items were a little more tricky. In retrospect, I would have ordered more restaurant take out items for lunch leftovers and focused more on the grocery store delis and Pioneer Bakery(XXX tra patties!) as a source for lunch items. I was very happy with B and S car rental (perhaps a slightly better name than ISIS Car Rental that we use in Cozumel), our condo choice and Brac Scuba Shack. Those choices were perfect and I would not change a thing.

Despite Cayman Airways 'fluctuating' schedule, in the future, I would book the Brac to Florida route versus going through GC. The layovers and worrying about an additional connection were stressful and made for a long travel day. We absolutely hope to return soon!

Some general observations from my biased view.
Pioneer meat patties are cheaper by the dozen and reheat well. While I love them, they are probably very unhealthy. Of course, I love everything from Pioneer Bakery.
Flying out of MIA is very nice. It usually takes less than 15 minutes to clear security for the F gates. If Cayman Airways is on time it puts you into the Brac in time to swing by Brac Scuba Shack and grab a tank and knock out an easy late afternoon dive. The main complaint I hear about the flight is that it is hard to get a flight into MIA from elsewhere that allows you to make the connection.

 

[KathyV]

Some general observations from my biased view.
Pioneer meat patties are cheaper by the dozen and reheat well. While I love them, they are probably very unhealthy. Of course, I love everything from Pioneer Bakery.
Flying out of MIA is very nice. It usually takes less than 15 minutes to clear security for the F gates. If Cayman Airways is on time it puts you into the Brac in time to swing by Brac Scuba Shack and grab a tank and knock out an easy late afternoon dive. The main complaint I hear about the flight is that it is hard to get a flight into MIA from elsewhere that allows you to make the connection.

I can see that, depending on where you are traveling from. The direct flight from MIA to CYB leaves at 12:10 PM ET. That would work for me because there are direct flights from Chicago to Miami that leave around 6 am CT and arrive at 10 am ET. So unless there was a delay, I would have plenty of time to connect to the direct CAL flight to Brac, but that might not be true for everybody.

I suppose they are trying to balance bringing people over to Miami from Brac early enough to catch their connecting flights home, without turning around and heading back to Brac too quickly, so that new visitors will have enough time to get to MIA and connect to Brac. It must be a tough balancing act.

 

[Aviyes]

I can see that, depending on where you are traveling from. The direct flight from MIA to CYB leaves at 12:10 PM ET. That would work for me because there are direct flights from Chicago to Miami that leave around 6 am CT and arrive at 10 am ET. So unless there was a delay, I would have plenty of time to connect to the direct CAL flight to Brac, but that might not be true for everybody.

I suppose they are trying to balance bringing people over to Miami from Brac early enough to catch their connecting flights home, without turning around and heading back to Brac too quickly, so that new visitors will have enough time to get to MIA and connect to Brac. It must be a tough balancing act.

View attachment 549444

I'll be playing the redeye friday night game, get in at 6:30 AM and sit around for 5 hrs until the flight. Not terrible, but not great.

 

[KathyV]

I'll be playing the redeye friday night game, get in at 6:30 AM and sit around for 5 hrs until the flight. Not terrible, but not great.

Sounds like a long day! In some cases it may be better to fly to Grand Cayman and connect to the Sister Islands because there are a lot more flights going in/out of GCM.

That is good for us when we can get a direct flight between Chicago and Grand Cayman, but it's always attractive to try and eliminate some stops, as our recent, very problematic flight (and boat trip!) from GCM to Little Cayman clearly demonstrated.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx for posting

 

[divezonescuba]

I wonder if I can change my flights?

 

[backprop]

I am excited to see that you can now fly directly from Brac to Miami! For a long time you could fly directly from Miami to Brac on Cayman Airways on Saturdays, but you had no choice but to go through Grand Cayman on the return trip. It would be great to avoid GCM if possible.

View attachment 549263

Are you sure about this? The flight time is listed as 2hr 55 minutes, which is much longer than usual. Edit: if you google KX122, you can see that the flight actually goes through GCM. It just keeps the same flight number for the onward trip. I don't remember which flight I took a few years ago, but it was the same setup. And despite being the same aircraft, you had to disembark with your carry-ons, go through security at GCM, and wait to get back onto the same plane.

 

[BrackaFish]

As backprop has noted, the Saturday flight from the Brac to MIA is still being sent through Grand. I am on the return flight on the 14th and I fully expect to have to do the “Hop off the plane, walk through the terminal and security and hop back on the same plane routine “. Annoying, but a small price to pay. As KathyV observed if they ever do get a direct flight, it will make for a really easy trip.