Cayman Dive Spots

[msdker]

We will be traveling to Grand Cayman in September. It will be our 4th diving vacation. We have done St. Martin, Turks & Caicos, and the Florida gulf (yuck). We plan on spending a day doing two dives and would like to try a night dive for the first time. We might do a shore dive on our own and only snorkel at Stingray City.
What are the must see dive sites?
What operators are recommended?
Any other input and recommendations?

 

[jeffcali]

i'll be in the gc's in late august. so hopefully i'll have a dive log book full of great dive sites.

one thing i must note though...is that i'll be staying on the east end away from all the touristy spots. so all dives will be on that end of the island and not by 7-mile or gt.

a couple of sites that can give ya some info on sites and a dive op for ya too...check'm out and have fun...

www.divecayman.com
www.oceanfrontiers.com

 

[Drew Sailbum]

and note that only one site is given a full page photo treatment - Snapper Hole.

It is not a shore dive and no operator can guarantee this site, since it sits on the exposed eastern tip of the island. You need a day with minimal wind and no current running there.

 

[TedJ]

I've always enjoyed Snapper Hole.

BTW if anyone finds a left handed weight pocket from a Genesis BCD labelled B. Janssen at Grouper Grotto, I'm offering a $10 reward. Just drop it off at Ocean Frontiers and I'll pick it up next March. If Barbara see this she'll probably shoot me.

TedJ

 

[Washy]

We were in Grand Cayman back in June and the diving on the East side just blew us away.

We used Ocean Frontiers and they were just brilliant - I can't praise them highly enough.

The sites that I really liked were Shark Alley (we did indeed see serveral reef sharks), Fish Tank, Babylon, Andy's Wall and um (wish I had my log book with me)... Groupers Grottos is good with a lot of swim throughs (I seem to recall) also Turtle Pass.

We did Stingray city as part of a 3-tank safari with OF. I think you get more out of Stingray diving rather than snorkling but that's just my opinion.

There's good snorkerling at the Tortuga club dock and you can drift with the current downshore the 100 metres to the Reef Resort's dock. There are usually loads of grunts and tarpon under the dock...

..wish I was back there....

Enjoy your diving...

 

[LPR]

We stayed on the East end of the island (Morritt's Tortuga) back in Dec 2001 and did some boat dives with them. WAY TOO PRICEY (roughly $70/person for 2-tank dive)! Don't get me wrong... they were good experiences, but we couldn't enjoy that luxury our entire trip. There are so many wonderful walk-in dives such as Sunset House, Eden Rock, Turtle Reef, and Cobalt Reef... but all of these are on the West side of the island.

 

[worlddiver]

We highly recommend staying on the west end of 7 mile beach and rent a condo. No crowds beautiful beaches 10 minutes from shopping and restaurants and 5 minutes to Divetech. They have a 24 hours diving package that can not be beat. Two tank boat dive in the morning (they have a free pickup service) and free shorediving the rest of the time and their night dive is island known as the best. But it was the staff that really made the trip awesome, they went out of their way for their customers. This is all on the Northwall. I have stayed and dived on the east end but nothing can compare to the Northwall and easy of shorediving with Divetech. Talk with Nancy (owner) at Divetech. We spent weeks on email with her and she has a wealth of free information.

 

[kageki]

The best dive I ever had on GC was "Babylon" on the north shore. My buddy and i just did a shore dive as the wall isn't more than a couple hundred yards out. if you can swing it, rent some tanks and just DIY one day.

There isn't as much development on the north, and there's certainly less diving action so the spots are more virgin.

As the other people said, you can't dive GC without hitting up the east end. As i said, the prevailing currents in the Caymans bring the warm water and nutrients from East to West and there's less traffic than in West Bay, so it makes for some great stuff.

disclosure: I've made about 160 dives in GC. Most in west bay, quite a bit on the south and north, and less on the east.