Cayman Travel Advice

[jakatz]

I am returning to Grand Cayman next year for eight days, arriving Saturday at 12:30 pm and leaving the following Sunday at 1:20 pm. I am thinking about spending three or four days on Little Cayman, where I’ve not been before, and wondering if it makes more sense to go directly there and return to Grand Cayman mid-week or spend the beginning of the week in Grand Cayman, then go to Little Cayman mid-week? I don’t know how high the inter island commuter planes fly and how that would affect my no fly time period, but I do want to maximize my diving. I would appreciate any advice with making this a two destination dive trip.

 

[BDSC]

You will love Little Cayman. Well, you will love diving at Little Cayman. Not much else to do there but the diving makes up for it.

The inter island planes don't fly that high and if you only flew that route, you could dive the same day you fly. So if you flew from GC to LC in the morning you could dive that afternoon.

I will tell you that there are a limited number of seats/flights going from GC to LC and Saturday is the most popular travel day. Usually the morning flights have plenty of space because the afternoon flights fill up with folks flying from the States to GC and then on to LC. If it were me I'd look at flying to LC mid-week. Leave one morning and dive that afternoon. Just make sure you don't wait to long to book your flight back from LC to GC. So if you leave LC on that Sunday to come home book that segment as soon as you know that's what you are going to do. There are several morning flights that will get you back to GC in time to catch your flight back to the States.

Finally I will say that if this is strictly a dive trip, I'd spend the entire time on LC. IMO, diving LC is as good as it gets in the Caribbean.

 

[Damselfish]

The inter island planes don't fly that high and if you only flew that route, you could dive the same day you fly. So if you flew from GC to LC in the morning you could dive that afternoon.

The problem is flying after diving, not diving after flying. So naturally if you fly to from GC to LC in the morning, or anyplace else for that matter, you can dive that afternoon.

The flights from Grand to Little fly too high so you do want to observe flying after diving rules. (The flight from Little to Brac might be ok as it's very short, but not sure.)


My advice for making this a 2 destination trip is, don't. You've already been to GC, so if you only have a week make this a LC trip. I think it's best to have at least 10 nights to make it worth splitting up the trip. (My very first Cayman trip was 5 nights on each, and we regretted having to leave LC after only 5 nights so we came back 6 months later and did just LC. Not that I don't like GC, but the overhead of moving midweek makes you lose too much dive and relaxation time.)

 

[Doctorfish]

Ive taken the flight from GC to LC many times. They fly around 8-10,000 feet depending on conditions. and the planes are not presurized. No question you would lose a day of diving. The best bet would be to do GC or LC for a full week and dive the other island another time.

 

[bractime]

If you are going to the Caymans for diving then I would spend the week on LC. I am a regular visitor to the Brac and I much prefer the vacation time spent on the sister island to that of GC. I have known a number of folks that had gone to GC for years and once they went to the Brac they kept coming back. LC has the best dive of all three islands. So if this is a dive trip spend the week on LC and enjoy some of the best walls in the world.

 

[AggieDiver]

As others have said, the planes fly at or above 7500 feet and are not pressurized, so plan at least an 18 hour no-fly interval after your dives before flying between the islands in either direction. If you decide to try to do a two island trip, you are going to miss at least the afternoon dives on the day before you fly and the morning dives the next day while you are flying between islands...then you have the same thing right before you leave to fly home...so you end up missing several dives and will just wind up wishing you had spent more time on LC anyways.

With that said, I agree that if you are going there just to dive, go to LC for the whole week. The diving really is that much better there. The only reason I could see going to GC would be if you just had to go shopping or get some nightlife in or if you had a non-diver with you who wanted other forms of entertainment.

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

I would agree with many of the posts. If you are going to the Caymans to dive, go to LC or Brac (in that order). If you want the night life then GC is the choice. As for flights, we always fly Cayman Airways when we can as they have no bag fees, great for divers. Flights to LC can be problematic as flightsfrom the US will usually land in GC or Brac with LC the next stop after a plane change. Big jets don't land on LC. If you do choose to do multiple islands, you will loose dive time on your travel days. Even if you get an early AM flight from GC to LC, check in time at the resort is 3PM. We were just on LC this past October and the walls are simply amazing. On a couple of dives, I just hung out in the blue and bobbed around looking at the Great West Wall....

We have a small group trip headed back to LC in Oct 2013 and I can't wait to get back there....diving, food, people...the best of Caymankind.