Cash,visa,or travels checks
- Thread starter ca1badptc
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True...sort of (Drew explains it better below):ca1badptc:
Sunset House, Divetech Turtle Reef, Divetech Cobalt Coast, Eden Rock and (I think) Don Fosters downtown - all are on private property. The resorts have spent money developing their facilities and access to their divesites - adding dive docks, ladders, steps, seapools etc. for divers to access the water since they're mostly located on ironshore. So it's expected(required?) that shoredivers using their facilities pay a minimum charge for tank rentals at each location.
There are also public access sites - Cemetary Beach is one. But there are no faciliities there so you'll have to rent tanks from the diveop in West Bay.
Most of the "beach" entries along SMB don't have a reef close enough to swim to.
Absolutely. Cash, in CI$ or US$ is readily accepted anywhere in Cayman. There are many ATM's throughout Grand Cayman for withdrawls, and most offer a choice of currecnt to withdraw.ca1badptc:
Major credit cards are widely accpeted. VISA, Master Card, American Express, and Discover are all generally accepted anywhere that takes credit cards. Charges are processed in US dollars. If goods or services are priced in CI$, then the merchant converts the price to US$ before charging. What you see on the charge slip is what will appear on your statement - no foreign exchange fees from the credit card company.
Currency conversions are mostly uniform throughout the islands:
For goods priced in CI$
- if you pay in US$, the exchange rate applied is US$1=CI$0.80
For goods priced in US$
- if you pay in CI$, the exchange rate applied is US$1=CI$0.84
Rule of thumb... pay in whichever currency the item is priced in.
The only way to a better exchange rate is to bring US$ traveller's checks and exchange them for CI$ at a local bank. For traveller's checks at a bank, the rate of exchange is US$1=CI$0.82 You can spend traveller's checks at most any merchant, but they will only give you US$1=CI$0.80 as an exchange rate.
Tipping is appreciated. The amount is up to you.
Absolutely untrue! The territorial waters and shore up to the mean high water mark are Crown property and free and open to the public.
People do have private property rights for lands between the roadway and the mean high water mark. Property owners can restrict those who access the shore across their property. Shore diving operations to use this provision to deny access across their property to those bringing in tanks from elsewhere. No big deal, tank rentals are cheap and you don't want to have to drag them around with you anyway. And for the minimal cost of renting a tank you get to use the shower and rinse facilities after the dive. Good deal.
For those looking to acess teh shore elsewhere, there are several marked points for public right-of-way access to the shore. Look for the brown informational signs.
For tipping the dive masters/boat crews we recommend/suggest 10-20% of the cost of the diving or dive package. I usually ask the operation manager how they'd like it handled. Some places keep a 'pool' of all tips which is divided under whatever system they use, others have you give it to whoever is in charge of the boat crew who divides it up. Remember there are a lot of behind the scenes staff that make sure your tanks are full, equipment properly handled, boats are kept running, etc.
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