Trip Report Grand Cayman (7MB) November 2022

[Skeptic14]

I recently returned from my 3rd Grand Cayman (GC) Seven Mile Beach (7MB) trip and have assembled an array of information from the trip in this somewhat lengthy report/review.

Background

This trip was a family beach vacation combined with some diving for me, the sole diver in the group. As such, the focus and details of this report will probably be most useful to those traveling with non-divers, particularly if young children are part of the non-diver contingent.

Why do we continue to return to Grand Cayman and 7MB? Seven Mile Beach has been considered to be “one of the best” beaches in the world by numerous publications at various times. This assessment seems accurate; the sand is very nice, the water is a beautiful turquoise blue and best of all due to the geography and predominant winds for that area of the Caribbean, the beach is nearly always calm and therefore very kid-friendly particular for smaller kids.

The diving is pretty good too with typically very good visibility, not very challenging dive conditions and of course the “famous” wall dives on all sides of the island are well known. Add in that there are some good shore dives available as well and it has a reputation for being a good Caribbean dive destination.

The combination of it being a safe island with a nearly unbeatable beach with good diving makes it a fairly easy choice for combo family/diving trips for us.

COVID

Grand Cayman had a significant reaction to the pandemic. Traveling to the island was basically impossible for non-residents for an extended period and the phased re-opening was very slow in comparison to other tourist destinations. We went to GC in May of 2019 and despite wanting to return sooner didn’t considering it until quarantining and periodic testing had been completely lifted. We finally booked when entry/exit testing only was still required but fortunately all COVID restrictions were lifted by the time of our trip. It was a relief not needing to worry about any extra travel logistics with young kids as well as not having to worrying about false or actual positive test result upon return.

Upon arrival, I was quite surprised to see virtual no masks being worn on the island. The mandate had only been recently lifted and my expectation was to still see them in use due to the perceived high concern for safety regarding the pandemic on the island. Instead, whether airport, restaurants, shops or just out and about they were virtually nowhere, and the few I did see mostly seemed to be worn by folks that were clearly tourists. I found this a pleasant surprise, things seemed pretty much normal and as they were on our trip in 2019.

Accommodations

We stayed at Plantana on 7MB for the second time and once again were very happy with the choice. Plantana is located on the northern half of 7MB which is less crowded and further from the cruise ship traffic down in George Town. The beach was never crowded, some mornings we had it completely to ourselves. Where Plantana is located makes it possible to walk to restaurants and shops or take a very short car ride if the little ones are tired. One difference since our 2019 visit was that Fosters (one of the grocery chains) had moved from W Bay Rd to Camana Bay, a slightly further drive but still less than 10 minutes.

The Plantana itself provides the typical amenities you’d expect. There are ample beach chairs and umbrellas. The pool isn’t overly large or fancy but it too was never crowded and there were always plenty of chairs and tables available. There are plenty BBQ grills around the grounds and a hammock on the beach as well. There’s also a dive gear rinse area that is handy.

The units all have pictures online so that if you’re picky regarding the unit amenities it’s very easy to see exactly what you are booking. The way the condos are oriented most units have at least a partial ocean view but there are a few with garden view that are a little more economical. Most units are 2-bedroom but some of the 2-bedroom units have a den area with a door that worked great as a 3rd bedroom for our youngest that’s still in a crib and has an earlier bed time. All of the units have a decent sized patio that’s screened and great for enjoying the view. The condo full kitchens are helpful for meals particularly if you have young kids. Preparing meals was just as convenient as it is at home and stocking the fridge with groceries helped save on eating costs for a full family and was convenient.

The units also have washers and dryers which with young kids is once again very handy. There were no apparent shortcomings are obvious areas of improvement for Plantana as a whole and we preferred the unit we stayed on this trip 32, vs the previous unit 5, just slightly.

7MB

I’m not aware of any obviously better options in the Caribbean when it comes to beaches. Where Plantana is located there was never crowding on the beach and the sand on 7MB is pretty nice and soft, although it isn’t quite as soft, white and powdery as the FL Emerald Coast quartz sand beaches.

For us the biggest selling point is probably how calm and thus friendly for little kids the beach is always. The final 2 days of our trip the wind picked up to 20-25 MPH and it had virtually no impact on the enjoyability of the beach. The winds are nearly always out of the East and the beach faces the West so it’s protected. Our 2-year-old had no issue getting in and out of the water alone even on those days. This compared to the typical expectation of breaking waves on rough days at beaches makes this beach tough to beat for the little ones.

An additional benefit regarding 7MB being in the lee to the predominant wind is that sargassum being present is pretty anomalous as opposed to other Caribbean beaches somewhat regularly being impacted by sargassum.

The only imperfection I can think of is that snorkeling off most of 7MB is not good. There are plenty of good snorkeling spots elsewhere on the island but nothing special on 7MB itself.

GC in General

If you are not aware, expect everything to be expensive, including groceries. A dozen large eggs was $12 USD as example. We prepared breakfast in the condo all week and tried to limit eating out to just a single meal per day but alas, GC is not very economical.

We ate Chicken Chicken once and I’d say this is the most bang for the buck. The food is good and the quantity was such that we had ample leftovers. We ate Ragazzi twice; their pizza is good and pasta dishes also very good. The burgers at Seven Mile Burger were also good and of course we ate at Sunshine Grille which never disappoints and a must if you’re staying in the area. We also ate at Abacus in Camana Bay like on a prior trip. The regular menu is very good but the kid’s menu was expensive and pretty disappointing. Fortunately, our kids were not aware of how pitiful their chicken tenders were!

We’d initially considered doing Starfish Point for the kids but decided the long drive from 7MB with a 2-year-old was probably not a great idea. So instead, we did the Turtle Farm which perhaps for some is controversial but for young kids is still a good way I think to introduce interest in wildlife. Our kids thought it was cool seeing the turtles up close and the water slide and pools were also a nice break from the usual beach activities. If you do have young kids and go, try to arrive before the cruise ship excursions which seem to arrive around 10AM. We had it nearly to ourselves until the cruisers showed up. It wasn’t extremely crowded even then, but definitely more so than when we arrived at 8:30.

Travel to and from GC via Owen Roberts was uneventful and customs/immigration were fairly quick for us. We rented a mini-van from Marshals, our first time using Marshals (previously we used Andy's and Budget) and I think we'll stick with Marshals going forward. We had a lot of luggage with 2 young kids and my dive gear so the mini-van worked great and was a good price all things considered. I was prepared for driving on the left from previous trips and it didn't take long to be comfortable with it again.


(continued - Next The Diving)

 

[Skeptic14]

The Diving

The quality and enjoyment of a dive is subjective and based on personal preference and relative to personal dive history. Without knowing what a person is comparing a dive trip too and what they’re looking for from a dive, a review filled with adjectives isn’t super helpful.

So, for me, the variety and quantify of fish and marine life is most important to find a dive enjoyable. Specifically, I’m interested in medium to large creatures and really enjoy fish schools and schooling behavior. UW photography, specifically wide-angle, is a big part of diving for me so having plenty of subjects to both observe and then also photograph is important to me. I’m not particularly interested in tiny critters and macro; on the occasions I’ve spotted or had a nudibranch pointed out to me, I wasn’t overly excited.

The reef also matters, diving over bare sand would be boring; having sponges, fans, coral and structure and interesting topography absolutely enhances a dive. However, for me more marine life is preferred over more “reef”. I guess the best way to sum it up is that the reef (sponge, coral, fans) is the background while the fish, eels, turtles, etc are the foreground. And I prefer an abundance of foreground.

As far as dive conditions, warm, high visibility and low current waters that allow a nice leisurely experience is my preference. As far as depth, if there’s a ton to see at 20’ that works for me. Very shallow dives can limit some creative types of wide-angle shots but I have no interest in diving deep for the sake of depth if there’s nothing worth seeing. Some of my all-time favorite dives have been less than 50’ of depth. If there’s something worth seeing at 80-90’ let’s go; but simply doing it because you can go to that depth seems like a waste of gas, especially if there is less to see at the greater depth.

My first dive destination after certification was Grand Cayman and with the limited diving I’d done to that point (less than a dozen dives along the FL Panhandle) I was easily impressed with the diving. The visibility was great compared to the Emerald Coast, the water warm, low current and dives like the Kittiwake, my first wall dives, stingray city all made lasting diving memories. By the time I returned for my 2nd trip to Grand Cayman in 2019 I’d dived Kauai and Maui and much more along the FL Panhandle (Destin, Pensacola, Panama City) but still had a favorable impression overall with the GC diving. On the 2nd GC trip there were a couple dives that I recall being busts; they had very little marine life and just not much to observe on the dive. I did the lighthouse point shore dive for the first time on my 2nd GC trip and remember noting it as the best dive of the trip mainly because of the mini-wall providing ample interesting structure and the amount of marine life was higher than on the other dives.

Then in ’20 and ’21 I did trips to Key Largo for the first time and that completely reset my expectations regarding marine life quantity on dives. It was so eye opening how little fish I’d seen the previous year in GC on the North Wall by comparison that my plan was to stick entirely to the West side going forward when diving GC. The North side of GC is known for the more sheer wall drop-off and the West for more fish and marine life. Lighthouse point, my favorite dive on GC due to amount of fish, was a West side dive and my hope was that it would be more indicative of all dives on the West side.

Trying to dive just the West side with boat operators is tough on GC because most dive the side that makes the most sense for the weather. It also depends on where the operator can dock their boat. Certain times of the year also tend to lead to diving the West side, and it worked out that late November, when our trip was, was forecast for some decent easterly winds. Also, Living the Dream (operator I’ve used previously and did again this trip) now has a location near George Town with a dock.

So, all of my dives this trip did work out to be on the West side; the higher fish/marine life side. I started with lighthouse point again and it was once again a very good dive and probably my favorite for the week; turtles, octopus, tarpon, barracuda, good fish schools, the interesting mini-wall reef structure, nice sponges and coral, peacock flounder, lemon stingray, large rainbow parrotfish, and a lot (compared to previous trips) of large lobster. A large Nassau grouper made a brief appearance before hiding in the reef expertly; probably why it was so large. Both tanks were enjoyable, the visibility was good, probably at least 50-60’, there was a little current but not too much. I haven't checked my computer, but water temps were around 83. Dive tech accommodated my request for 100cu’s with nitrox and provided an analyzer. Both dives were planned for and ran about an hour.

The only other dive from the week worth mentioning was the Oro Verde. It was a good dive as well; close to as good as lighthouse point. It didn’t have quite as much marine life as lighthouse point, but much more than all the others. The scattered wreckage and the reef were sufficiently interesting as background and multiple large porcupine fish, stingray, nurse shark, a couple nice schools and plentiful usual reef suspects rounded out the dive. I would be excited to do that site again.

On the other hand, now after 3 trips I can say I have very little interest in additional wall dives that GC has to offer. And because it’s pretty much guaranteed I’ll be headed back to GC for future family beach trips, I want to figure out if I can avoid half of boat dives being wall dives; I'll probably need to explore other operators as the norm for most seems to be wall/reef, and with my preferences and marine life expectations now, the wall dives on GC just aren’t great.

I’ve now seen 1 shark in 3 trips to GC, vs diving the FL emerald coast where 75% of my dives probably had a sandbar/bull. And while I’ve only seen nurse sharks in Key Largo so far on my 2 trips, the count on those two trips was in the multiple dozens.

So overall, I’d say the West side GC diving was good, but not great. The good dives were very good, but the other dives were pretty bad. I’d be inclined to stick with just shore diving along the West except that’d be more expensive for me than boat diving. I’m the sole diver on these trips and thus have to get a guide since I’m not solo certified and I don’t think GC allows solo diving anyway. That added cost makes it cheaper to do boat dives, but from my experience 2 shore dives on the west side would be better overall than 1 wall and 1 reef from a boat. So, when my wife says it’s time to go back to GC next time, I’m hoping that either I will have found a mostly equivalent beach somewhere else with perhaps fishier diving or that I can figure out a way to avoid the GC wall dives that are mediocre at best and instead double up on the reefs.

That does beg the question; are the Little Cayman wall dives vastly superior or just a little better than GC? I doubt LC is in the cards for me in the near term, as the additional island hop with a couple little ones in tow is not worth it for them, but I am curious overall if it’s a much different story regarding LC walls or if I’m just not into wall dives.

As far as the operators, it was of course Dive Tech at lighthouse point and I went with LTD for the boat dives, both were good. Both pick you up along 7MB and drop you back off. Both had me back each day before noon which is great so that I could have lunch with my family and start the afternoon activities. Grace Bay on Provo would be a good alternative beach for my wife and kids, however everything I’ve read says that boat diving from Provo means not returning until more like 2pm, which eats up too much of the day. I rented a BC vs bringing my own since I have lots of camera gear to lug too; both operators provided good gear; LTDs was brand new gear. LTD prides themselves on their large boats and small groups and that was still the case, 7 divers I think was the max and the Newton dive boats are tough to beat. Both operators accommodated my request for 100CUs. LTD does the tank swaps between dives which is nice, it’s not necessary but does mean I can get to snacking and review pics sooner during the safety stop.

GC is probably not known for being an economical choice for diving and if you stay on 7MB that’s probably even more true. However, there are probably a few ways that one could save on costs when diving GC. I have no experience yet with the East End which is also an option, and perhaps a cheaper option than the 7MB area. But even along 7MB the Sunshine Suites seems like a very good option that is not too bad at all price wise. It’s located near a large public access point for 7MB that can be walked to easily and the onsite restaurant is very good. The room rates can be had for around $250 and they offer various discounts, including teachers and FL residents.

LTD also now has their Ocean Cabanas open on the NW side, north of 7MB. They look fantastic, and the prices are very good. They don’t have a dock for dive entry yet, but when I asked, they said they had approval and were getting the process of construction underway. I think you get unlimited shore diving with the Cabanas and once the dock/dive entry is constructed that could be a very good option, they’re basically right on the same lighthouse point site as Dive Tech; the mini-wall dive along there is very good.

There are other options similar to that, that are not on the beach and shore dive packages that can make diving GC more economical but unfortunately aren’t great options for those like myself mixing a family beach trip with dive trip where being directly on 7MB is desired for the non-divers.

(continued - Next UW Photography and the pics)

 

[Skeptic14]

UW Photography

Wide angle underwater photography is a big part of my diving; schools, big subjects and reef scenes are typically what I try to shoot. Lighthouse point was a great site in that regard and I found myself with plenty of interesting things to photograph. Overall, however, there were far more opportunities for photos diving Key Largo than this GC trip. On some of the dives in GC this trip I had less than a dozen pictures taken for the entire dive, probably stemming from a combination of not a lot of marine life to observe and photograph as well as overtime I’ve become more discriminate about what constitutes a legitimate worthy photo-opportunity.

Currently at most I get 2 dive trips in a year and typically only get one. Having such large breaks between diving and uw photography means losing skills. Usually, 20 or so minutes into the first dive my buoyancy and trim are sorted back out. And by the 2nd dive it’s finally sunk back in just what getting close means for UW photography.

Positioning strobes, and composing shots is pretty lack-luster initially too but by the last dives that’s much improved again. It is difficult to make much overall improvements diving so infrequently but, I was able to capture a few decent shots on this trip.

While not super interesting or creative, here’s a sampling of the fish from the dives captured as a basic portraits/fish pic:







Generally, getting close to most subjects in GC seemed more difficult than I recall from Key Largo. Despite attempting very slow approaches, from different angles and trying to head off schools via shallow angles of attack I got a ton of fish tails. Even the peacock flounder wasn’t extremely cooperative and showed me it’s tail before I was very close.



But one particularly tight ball of schoolmaster and gray snapper hung around for a few attempts and I was able to eventually get a bit more than tails.



The reefs in GC do have some pretty nice sponges and they weren’t nearly as challenging getting sufficiently close to for shots.





A couple examples of some of the fishiness of lighthouse point; more so than all the other dives I did on GC but not to the level common for the sites in Key Largo or the Emerald Coast.





Obligatory Guardian of the Reef picture



Not easy to tell from the picture but this was a quite large southern stingray. Also worth noting that because of the lack of diving (and feeding) during COVID there are no longer stingray at Stingray City, at least of late.



I encountered several hawksbills at lighthouse point, always a nice sighting for a dive. Also on a wall dive we got a glimpse of a turtle on the edge of visibility briefly. Not quite like Maui and greens though.



And a few more fish, squirrel fish are pretty good at posing in coral; I also tried a few opportunities at small soldierfish groupings but they’re much less accommodating and I struck out.





I’m very tempted to upgrade my UWL-04 (basic WAL) to the WWL-1 but with the infrequency in which I get to dive it seems like a lot of money to just have sitting in my closet. There are two main motivations for this; first, the UWL-04 is not an extremely sharp lens on the edges and it’s not zoom through. A lot of times this isn’t a big deal, particularly when diving Key Largo; the sites are shallow, thus good ambient level so a smaller f/stop for better sharpness even with moderate shutter speed is fine. But to get the background light levels desired at the greater depths in GC means bringing down both the shutter speed and not going as small with the aperture. The second reason I’d like to replace the UWL-04 is it’s too wide. Which probably sounds absurd for UW photography. Wider obviously means being able to get even closer, right? But the reality most of the time is that how close you can get isn’t going to always be dictated by your lens but by the subjects. If 2-3 feet is all the subjects are going to allow, you’re better off with a less wide (130 WWL-1 vs 165 UWL-04) lens so that you are filling the frame better. Going back to the UWL-04 not being zoom through also cements this issue. That’s my theory anyway, that most of the time I’d be better off with the WWL-1 that isn’t as wide but is an overall better lens.

(continued - Next Summary)

 

[Skeptic14]

Summary

I’d like to find something similar to 7MB to add to the family beach trip rotation (right now it’s FL Emerald Coast or 7MB GC) and with hopes for some fishier, more interesting diving on average. However, my wife and kids love 7MB and obviously the diving in GC is better (albeit not fishier) than the FL Panhandle diving so it’s the #1 choice currently.

Safe island, great beach, decent diving.


I previously suggested my wife research St. Croix from a beach trip perspective but that didn’t seem to meet all the criteria. I’m curious how Curacao would compare from a beach and dive stand point.


And finally, how I rank the West/North GC diving with the other diving I’ve done, best to worst:

1 - Key Largo/Tavernier (16% of total dives, fishiest by far)

2- Maui (5% of total dives, lots of turtles, pretty fishy/variety)

3- GC (20% of total dives, biggest variation in how good a dive can be)

4- FL Emerald Coast (55% of total dives, nearly as fishy as KL, not much as far as reefs, low vis, but plenty of interest fish to see, and sharks most dives)

5- Kauai (4% of total dives, such low amount of dives hard to compare really, good but would rather dive Maui if flying to HI from east coast)

 

[tkaelin]

Thanks for posting. Key Largo ranked higher than GC for quality of diving is a bit surprising. Glad to hear Chicken Chicken still in business. Looking at the prices where you stayed and other places we have stayed before. GC may not be worth the expense for us.

 

[Wants2divemore]

Thanks for the great trip report and photos.

 

[jonhall]

Nice report and pics!

Have you thought about staying on the east end to change it up. The right time of year, the diving conditions are great - worse case scenario, you go to 7 MB to dive. Although there's no Turtle Farm (on my list of the best places to snorkel in the Caribbean - Turtle Lagoon), there is Starfish Beach, as you indicated, Botanical Gardens, Caves (not for scuba), nice beaches, snorkeling, and some good places to eat. A car rental would still be necessary.

 

[Skeptic14]

Thanks for posting. Key Largo ranked higher than GC for quality of diving is a bit surprising. Glad to hear Chicken Chicken still in business. Looking at the prices where you stayed and other places we have stayed before. GC may not be worth the expense for us.

Hey @tkaelin to some extent it's personal preference. I was very impressed by the diving I did in Key Largo the previous 2 years and it's a bit surprising when I read some consider it not very good. That's one of the reasons I tried to describe what I'm looking for in dives and how exactly the GC diving missed the marks when it did in the report.

And of course our memories can trick us, particularly when nostalgia or recency bias come into play. But the last few years of diving for me look like this:

'19 - Grand Cayman
'20 - Emerald Coast FL
'20 - Key Largo
'21 - Key Largo
'22 - Grand Cayman

With the back-to-back and recent diving for both locations it really was easy to compare and know which was more fun and I look more forward to doing again.

I think I'd probably rank Lighthouse point in my top all time dives. I've done that dive 4 times and it's been fishy, had a good variety of marine life observations each time, has very nice sponges and coral and the mini-wall is a pretty impressive and dramatic reef structure.

However, only 1 of the GC wall dives was close to being as good (Tarpon Tunnels) and while at the time of the first trips some of the other dives were pretty good, they've now been bumped due to the experience from diving Key Largo in particular.

I do think it's safe to say that in general, the West/North GC diving beats Key Largo with:

- better visibility, the shore dives typically have 50-60 or better and the wall/reef dives even better.
- bigger reefs with more structure, topography, vertical layers than Key Largo
- more variety of coral and not even close regarding sponges

However, it's no comparison and Key Largo wins hands down with:

- variety of fish seen on average dive
- quantity of fish seen on average dive
- quantity of big things sighted (turtles, eels, rays, sharks)

And I could go back through photos, but my memory is telling me that as far as sea fans Key Largo was as good or better, particularly compared to this GC trip where I didn't see a lot.

From my experience the last 4 years, the average dive in Key Largo is going to provide way more fish and marine life observations with decent reef structure than the average dive on the West side of GC.


GC, at least around 7MB is expensive. From a strictly diving standpoint, there are probably more economical ways to do better diving in the Caribbean. I think if it wasn't a family beach trip destination for me, I'd try one of the stay and dive packages that are offered along the NW side iron shore. The shore dives there are some of the best on the island. Then you could try to throw in a day or 2 of boat dives, if you could get an operator to avoid the walls and double on the "best" west side reefs... that from my recent experience would provide the best diving for the West side of GC.

I've never stayed or dived the East End, because of the beach/top side requirement. I've read the diving is better, but I don't know how or by how much. I do think the East side is much more susceptible to being blown out though.

 

[mi000ke]

Nice write-up!

Regarding snorkeling the west side, the snorkeling off SMB can actually be pretty good in a few places. Governor's Beach is just a few feet south of Platntana and has an interesting (although not large) reef not too far from shore. Look for the white buoy. There is a another nice reef in front of the private residence next door to (south of) the Meridian that starts about 150 yards off shore and goes out to just pass the 200 yard channel marker (we use the marker buoy as a target when swimming out). There is another smaller reef just about 25 yards north of that one, so we usually do a two-fer. We've seen lots of sharks, turtles, rays, lobsters, and the usual cast of marine characters. We have a place at the Meridian, and on non-dive days I usually check out this reef. And finally Cemetery beach - about 2 miles north of Plantana - is another popular snorkeling site and again you have to swim out about 200 yards. There is parking on the street and a path next to the cemetery leading to the beach. And if you are getting in the car anyway to drive up to Cemetery, it's worth keeping on going to Macabuca restaurant (good food, by the way) where you can climb down the ladder next to their outside bar and snorkel Turtle Reef. This is also a popular shore dive site.

 

[Skeptic14]

Nice report and pics!

Have you thought about staying on the east end to change it up. The right time of year, the diving conditions are great - worse case scenario, you go to 7 MB to dive. Although there's no Turtle Farm (on my list of the best places to snorkel in the Caribbean - Turtle Lagoon), there is Starfish Beach, as you indicated, Botanical Gardens, Caves (not for scuba), nice beaches, snorkeling, and some good places to eat. A car rental would still be necessary.

Thanks!

The impression I've gotten, admittedly not based on extensive research, is that there's less from a topside standpoint and beach compared to 7MB on the East End. Plus the east end is more susceptible to weather and sargassum I think. However, I will add it to my growing list to further research.