My husband and I just returned from a wonderful 2 week visit to the Cayman Islands. We are both avid divers and have been there once before, returning after diving several other Caribbean islands.
We split our trip between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman, to get the best of both worlds. Grand Cayman has all the wonderful restaurants and other attractions but also all the traffic, congestion and modernization. Little Cayman has the very best diving but virtually no other attractions.
We dove 6 days in Grand Cayman, 4 days with Neptune's and 2 days with Ocean Frontiers.
Neptunes takes only 8 divers and really goes out of their way to accommodate them. We had a few specific sites we wanted to see, 2 on the north side and 2 on the west side and except for 1 day with really rough seas on the north side, they were able to take us to all of the sites we wanted to see. Two of our absolute favorite sites were Black Forrest and Big Tunnel. The shallow dives were also good but not nearly as dramatic as the wall diving. They have a very fast comfortable boat and leave from 2 different locations so even the most exotic sites are never more than a half hour away, some much closer. They charge $80 for their 2-tank dives, which is about the same as most companies on that island. Last time we went with Red Sail since they were right at our hotel but there is no comparison between Neptunes with 8 divers and a huge cattle boat like Red Sail charging over $100, and that was a couple years ago so they may be even higher now.
We did 2 days with Ocean Frontiers on the east side of the island. I have to say that this was the only disappointing part of our whole trip. They have large comfortable boats but they pack 20+ people on them and the water on that part of the island is quite rough. I would not mind all that if the diving was so much more spectacular but it is really not any better than the west side, and not as good as the north wall. Also, they charge $110 PER PERSON, making them the highest priced company up there with Red Sail! Add to that gratuity and (EXPENSIVE) gas and time to drive all the way over to east end and the two of us ended up spending OVER FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS just for 2 days of 2 tank dives. No way was the crowded boat, rough water and long drive to get there worth that much money! They were not flexible at all about taking requests for dive sites, saying everything was weather dependant. What we actually found is that they do a lot of dive training and they tend to pick their dive sites to best suit their training schedule, much like Divetech, who we dove with last time and would never dive with again.
Southern Cross Club in Little Cayman was easily the best diving of the entire trip, if not anywhere in the Caribbean, and we have been diving in Turks/Caicos, Honduras, Aruba and Bahamas. NO COMPARISON. Bloody Bay Wall in Little Cayman is so dramatic and starts so shallow that even the safety stop is a joyful swim around a gorgeous reef in 15 feet of water with beautiful reefs and sealife, making the dives last for up to an hour! We stayed at Little Cayman Beach Resort last trip and they were good but Southern Cross is at least 20% less, has MUCH better food, MUCH better accommodations, and gives a lot more diving flexibility.
So to sum it up, based on our experience of diving all parts of Grand Cayman and two places now in Little Cayman, heres what I would recommend for anyone visiting the Caymans:
Spend at least part of your vacation on Grand Cayman if you enjoy fine dining and other activities. Dive with Neptunes and request a mix of north and west wall diving. AVOID Ocean Frontiers and Divetech!
Spend as many days as possible on Little Cayman at Southern Cross Club. You dont have to request Bloody Bay Wall, they take you there every day to different sites. And all of the sites on Bloody Bay have their own unique features.
For all the places we have been diving, Little Cayman is by far the best, mostly because of Bloody Bay Wall, where even the safety stop is one of the best dives you will ever do.
We split our trip between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman, to get the best of both worlds. Grand Cayman has all the wonderful restaurants and other attractions but also all the traffic, congestion and modernization. Little Cayman has the very best diving but virtually no other attractions.
We dove 6 days in Grand Cayman, 4 days with Neptune's and 2 days with Ocean Frontiers.
Neptunes takes only 8 divers and really goes out of their way to accommodate them. We had a few specific sites we wanted to see, 2 on the north side and 2 on the west side and except for 1 day with really rough seas on the north side, they were able to take us to all of the sites we wanted to see. Two of our absolute favorite sites were Black Forrest and Big Tunnel. The shallow dives were also good but not nearly as dramatic as the wall diving. They have a very fast comfortable boat and leave from 2 different locations so even the most exotic sites are never more than a half hour away, some much closer. They charge $80 for their 2-tank dives, which is about the same as most companies on that island. Last time we went with Red Sail since they were right at our hotel but there is no comparison between Neptunes with 8 divers and a huge cattle boat like Red Sail charging over $100, and that was a couple years ago so they may be even higher now.
We did 2 days with Ocean Frontiers on the east side of the island. I have to say that this was the only disappointing part of our whole trip. They have large comfortable boats but they pack 20+ people on them and the water on that part of the island is quite rough. I would not mind all that if the diving was so much more spectacular but it is really not any better than the west side, and not as good as the north wall. Also, they charge $110 PER PERSON, making them the highest priced company up there with Red Sail! Add to that gratuity and (EXPENSIVE) gas and time to drive all the way over to east end and the two of us ended up spending OVER FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS just for 2 days of 2 tank dives. No way was the crowded boat, rough water and long drive to get there worth that much money! They were not flexible at all about taking requests for dive sites, saying everything was weather dependant. What we actually found is that they do a lot of dive training and they tend to pick their dive sites to best suit their training schedule, much like Divetech, who we dove with last time and would never dive with again.
Southern Cross Club in Little Cayman was easily the best diving of the entire trip, if not anywhere in the Caribbean, and we have been diving in Turks/Caicos, Honduras, Aruba and Bahamas. NO COMPARISON. Bloody Bay Wall in Little Cayman is so dramatic and starts so shallow that even the safety stop is a joyful swim around a gorgeous reef in 15 feet of water with beautiful reefs and sealife, making the dives last for up to an hour! We stayed at Little Cayman Beach Resort last trip and they were good but Southern Cross is at least 20% less, has MUCH better food, MUCH better accommodations, and gives a lot more diving flexibility.
So to sum it up, based on our experience of diving all parts of Grand Cayman and two places now in Little Cayman, heres what I would recommend for anyone visiting the Caymans:
Spend at least part of your vacation on Grand Cayman if you enjoy fine dining and other activities. Dive with Neptunes and request a mix of north and west wall diving. AVOID Ocean Frontiers and Divetech!
Spend as many days as possible on Little Cayman at Southern Cross Club. You dont have to request Bloody Bay Wall, they take you there every day to different sites. And all of the sites on Bloody Bay have their own unique features.
For all the places we have been diving, Little Cayman is by far the best, mostly because of Bloody Bay Wall, where even the safety stop is one of the best dives you will ever do.
