Hello again. Where do I start. We've just returned from 2 weeks in Bonaire, and it was outstanding. I want to return again and again, and ... there are so many other good places for diving, too.
When would we travel to the Caymans - probably summer of 2012. There will be 2 adults (a bit more than middle aged) and we'd want to visit for 10 days/2 weeks. Usually when booking a dive trip I look for hotel/dive packages. I don't see those in the Caymans, unless I'm looking in the wrong places. The hotels all seem to be resorts - and very expensive! Are there any simple hotel rooms/lower scale condos or studios (around $100 or less nightly) available on the islands? Also, I notice that shore diving is offered. Do you know if it's comparable to shore diving in Bonaire? Is shore access more or less difficult? Is there a lot of surf? Any pictures of the shore lines?
You won't find much of anything for $100 a night in the Caymans (which is why I asked what's reasonable). I know you can rent a 1 bedroom timeshare with a full kitchen at Morritt's for around that much from one of the owners. Check the Morritt's forum at:
Morritts Tortuga and Grand Resorts Forum :: Index and see what's available and
www.morritts.com for general info about the resorts. There are summer deals, but I don't think they come out until a little later in the year.
At risk of overgeneralization, the 'expensive' hotels are on Grand Cayman, whereas Little Cayman and the Brac are a bit less expensive. For the past few years, I've been renting a house (nothing fancy) on the Brac for IIRC $1800 for 2 weeks, although most properties run higher. Typically the best value will be one of the turnkey hotel-room+food+dive packages, such as at
Brac Reef Beach Resort : for $2800/couple, one gets the room for a week, MAP (breakfast+dinner), 6 x 2tank AM dive trips, airport transfers, tax, etc.
The 'cost' of going to the Sister islands hits in a couple of different areas:
1. financial cost of an additional airline flight on Cayman Airways (only carrier): expect it to be around $150pp-RT (occasional airfare sales) if you have to buy it alone.
2. additional time for the flight, plus there may also be some baggage hassles if you book on the daily Twin Otter turboprop instead of the non-daily 737 flight.
3. limited alternatives for non-diving stuff, such as few offsite restaurants. Of course, if you're on the hotel's inclusive package, this is usually less important.
I have been to Little Cayman Beach Resort three times now...I understand that Cayman Brac has good diving and some options for eating out and so on.
The Brac does have some food options, but unfortunately, I'd not really call most of them all that good. For a first-time visitor preferring a mostly laidback trip, I'd recommend sticking with a package with a meal plan at Brac Reef, as the supermarket shopping for a Condo/House isn't particularly great either. We've been going to the Brac annually for over 20 years now and their economy had been getting pretty thin from Divi shutting down even before the island got whacked hard by Hurricane Paloma (Category 4) in 2008. There's two 'fine dining' restaurant table service places on the island, one at each of the two hotels (BRBR, Alexander's). The next tier is probably BRBR's dinner buffet, BRBR's bar menu, Aunt Sha's Kitchen and Captain's Table. Next tier down from there are pretty much a sandwich shop, fried chicken or pizza from the supermarket grill, or greasy takeout joints...if you want something simple and a green salad, you'll be living off of the BRBR bar menu. Its not bad for a one week visit, but we usually go down for two weeks and it quickly gets repetitive.
Hi! We are planning our first trip to GC as well and have a lot of questions. First, timing- July or November would be the best time for us, however, we are worried about it being hurricane season. Is one of these months better than the other in terms of weather and diving conditions?
I'd not worry about hurricane season for either of those months.
I've only been down once in July ... found the diving conditions to be great, due to low winds and flat seas, but the same also made it uncomfortably hot the rest of the day...one just wanted to hide in A/C rather than to be outside (taking an afternoon walk, going birdwatching, etc). November is cooler (water's still pretty comfortably warm) and the winds typically stay up, which makes for more choppy sea conditions; an IMO much better time of year to be outside in the afternoon, and easier to sleep at night with the windows open instead of buttoned up with the A/C running. We've spent most of our visits in the Sept/Oct timeframe, followed by April/May. These two periods are shoulder seasons (cheaper flights) and are pretty similar: the fall has a higher hurricane risk than the spring, but it also has warmer water temperatures.
We have been to Bonaire twice within the past year and absolutely love the easy shore diving there. We heard that GC has shore diving as well, but can't seem to find any information on how/where to enter and how to go about using equipment and tanks. Is it easy to do with a rental car?
I think that to broadly generalize, we would say that the main "dropoff" in Bonaire is usually close enough to shore such that it is a practical swim distance and the intended destination of a Bonaire shore dive. This isn't the case in Cayman. Cayman shore diving is more typically going to be out onto a ~50fsw reef that's still a good distance from the "Wall" dropoff. As such, divers who want to dive a wall are going to hitch a ride on a diveboat, rather than to do a 1/4 mile each way swim. There are still shore diving entry/exit spots around, but they're mostly used by the local Caymanians - - often to go out hunting on snorkel during lobster & conch seasons - - and as such, aren't well marked like they are for the visitors on Bonaire.
This forum is a great resource for answers about the Caymans. We have been traveling to Little Cayman for more than 15 years and have found June to be the best month. It is just the start of hurricane season and we have yet to have issues with hurricanes. I can't speak for the diving in Grand anymore as it has become a pass thru for us on the way to LC. Whatever you choose to do you will for sure enjoy the Cayman Islands. Good luck.
I know how that is! I recently registered my 100th takeoff or landing at GCM ... and all of it has been in-transit either to LC or the Brac. We really need to do an actual overnight visit to Grand Cayman one of these years
BTW, the password for the Free WiFi at the Hungry Horse restaurant at GCM is "cheeseburger".
-hh
