caycandiver
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Spending 3 weeks in Grand Cayman. Wondering if anyone has done trips to the sister islands or Cuba? Any suggestions for a short trip?
Cayman trips
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PatW
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I have been to Little Cayman twice. The diving on the northern part of the island is very good. You have the Bloody Bay Wall that goes to something like 7000'. The wall starts at depths of anywhere from 20' to 60'. The coral is good. There is quite of bit of small life to see. The marine sanctuary there actually has effective protection. There are numerous large Nassau grouper to see. You also see sharks and rays. The turtles there are very approachable. The visibility is usually very good. The seas are generally pretty calm. So if you can get over there, it is quite worth doing. However, you can probably see everything you see at Little Cayman at Grand Cayman. You will have the same selection of fauna and flora. As far as night life, restaurants and shopping at Little Cayman, there isn't any except at the resort you stay at.
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caycandiver
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Just found info that Island Air does a day trip over and back. $215 for flight, 2 Bloody Bay dives and lunch!
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I thought they weren't flying anymore just acting as a private FBO.
Are you sure about that price? that wouldn't pay for the gas.. No mention of it on their current site. Island Air: Cayman Islands: Private Air Travel: Charter Flights
If you're referring to this - that's from 2006. Island Air Cayman Islands BWI
Are you sure about that price? that wouldn't pay for the gas.. No mention of it on their current site. Island Air: Cayman Islands: Private Air Travel: Charter Flights
If you're referring to this - that's from 2006. Island Air Cayman Islands BWI
AggieDiver
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Cayman Air does hops from GC to LC, not Island Air. Be very careful about how you plan your diving and flying though, as the Cayman Air plane flies at anywhere from 7000-9000 feet on that hop and is not pressurized. Diving two dives then jumping on the plane back to GC would be a bad plan. Better to plan to stay and dive a few days and then fly back the next afternoon.
billinwilliamston
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You mean this one: Island Air, Grand Cayman Islands? I saw that a while back and got quite excited. General censuses here was that they no longer make that trip:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cayman-islands/369614-trip-sister-islands-recommendations.html
Damselfish
Contributor
are you committed to staying on GC the whole time - how long do you mean by "a short trip?" Day trips even if possible don't work with the diving/flying.
With 3 weeks there I'd definitely plan on staying for some days on LC or CB. Maybe I'd even do a week on each of the 3.
With 3 weeks there I'd definitely plan on staying for some days on LC or CB. Maybe I'd even do a week on each of the 3.
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Plus even when they did...
These people run a private charter to the Sisters - no idea what it costs. Probably cheaper to fly over and stay a few days instead. http://www.caymanprivatecharters.ky/customize_your_trip.htm - it's listed near the bottom.
These people run a private charter to the Sisters - no idea what it costs. Probably cheaper to fly over and stay a few days instead. http://www.caymanprivatecharters.ky/customize_your_trip.htm - it's listed near the bottom.
-hh
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You mean people actually choose to stay on Grand Cayman? I thought it was only a Cruise Ship dock
Yes, the dropoff is impressive, but it's not quite up to the hype of the Divemasters.
You can find a scan of a depth soundings map of the Brac here - depths are in meters, and the sounding line that's approx 2 miles offshore (1.5 inches north on the map) is the 1000m (3,300ft) line. I have Little Cayman too, but I still haven't yet digitized it or put it online.
For the drop-off immediately off of the wall, the inner sounding line on the above map is 200m depth (~650ft). If you're willing to swim 200-300m off the wall, the nearby soundings are 350m-ish; call it roughly 1000ft.
Well said, although there are some subtle differences. A few years ago, I was on the Brac and diving with some Instructors from Grand Cayman (they was taking a dive vacation to the Brac) who were thrilled to see Queen triggers. From my perspective, they're common on Brac/Little, but they claimed that they were locally rare on Grand, supposedly due to there being more development & human-based pollution. Ditto for some of the soft corals. I've not dived enough on Grand to really say if he is right or wrong.
A week each sounds like a pretty good plan IMO. Cayman Airways Express would be the obvious choice of transportation, and for a GCM-LYB-CYB-GCM triangle, I'd expect that to probably be only around $100/pp, based upon my current puddlejump tickets From Grand to the Brac (GCM-CYB), which were US$132.50 round-trip, for two.
Insofar as Cuba, I don't recall what the USA's regulations are right now for US Citizens. Even if it has liberalized some, I'm personally still not eligible due to employer-based restrictions. But I do know that US Customs keeps on asking if I've been anywhere other than Cayman.
-hh
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