Grand Cayman vs Cayman Brac vs Bonaire

[Allie Hutch]

I'm trying to decide where to take my January or February 2019 dive trip. I think I have it narrowed down to

• Grand Cayman - Compass Point Dive Resort
• Cayman Brac - Cayman Brac Beach Resort
• Bonaire - Buddy Dive Resort

Would love to hear anyone's opinion on why they love or don't love any of these places. I think generally what I've seen is we probably can't go wrong with any of them.

Things we look for:

• Dive by valet type service
• Weather
• Beach access for swimming / snorkeling (shore diving would be awesome as well)
• Ideally all inclusive so we don't have to worry about food
• Other things to do easily besides diving - we like to dive in the mornings and go and do other things (hiking) in the afternoon
• Not a ton of tourists / crowds - prefer off the beaten path a bit

Price wise - all 3 places are relatively comparable. At least not enough of a difference to be a determining factor

Cayman Brac

• Pro - includes 3 meals a day
• Con - additional flight required to get there from Grand Cayman - doesn't have a beach suitable for swimming right on the property

Grand Cayman

• Pro - beach access, includes a rental car for other exploring
• Con - only includes breakfast

Bonaire

• Pro - rental car included for other exploring, shore diving galore, beach access
• Cons - only includes breakfast, looks like Jan/Feb is high season

It looks like the diving is amazing in all 3 places. I am a relatively new diver - only about 30 dives - most of those are volunteering at the local aquarium. Should have about 20 ocean dives by the time we do this. My partner has been diving for 20 years. Neither of us want to go deep - around 60 - 70 feet is plenty. My favorite thing is always the turtles. He likes to go lion fish hunting.

Places we've been diving together already:
Costa Rica
Belize
Kauai (next month)
Maui - this was only snorkeling not diving - I wasn't certified yet

 

[BoltSnap]

Little Cayman and staying at the Little Cayman Beach Resort is the best choice in the Cayman's. Diving is much better than Cayman Brac for sure and even better than Grand Cayman. I have visited all three Islands several times with groups in the past.

Bonaire is great and is probably much less expensive with diving accessible from shore but it is very different diving from the Caymans. I am not sure of how the winds will be in the Caymans that time of the year, you may have high seas some of the time you are there. Bonaire is the same, flat seas more or less, the whole year. Personally, I'd go to Bonaire first. Little Cayman is awesome too.

 

[tkaelin]

Can't go wrong with any of your choices. Have been to Bon 4x staying near Capt Dons/Buddys but not at Buddys. Been to GC many times and CP 3x. Love CP. LC once and not at LCBR.
On what you are looking for

• Dive by valet type service. CP Yes. LCBR yes from what I read. Buddys/Bon no.
• Weather - Weather likely to be fine all, but best chance of good weather Bon.
• Beach access for swimming / snorkeling (shore diving would be awesome as well). No beach to speak of onsite at any of the three. GC has the best beaches but would be a 30 min drive from CP to 7MB or 15-20 to Rum Point. Shore diving most prevalent and available in BON but no beaches except Lac Bay. Some shore diving in GCM but mainly in West Bay which is about a 45 min drive from CP. Don't know about shore diving at LCBR, but small beautiful beach at Point of Sands.
• Ideally all inclusive so we don't have to worry about food. Don't get why people prefer but since you do while CP only includes B, lunch and dinner is served on site and there are restaurants nearby including Tukka mins away which is wonderful. Buddys has restaurants on site and others nearby.
• Other things to do easily besides diving - we like to dive in the mornings and go and do other things (hiking) in the afternoon
  
  All have some topside activities. If I were planning on diving mornings only and wanting to spend afternoons exploring I would put LC last on the list, it is the smallest of the three and has the least topside options. You go to LC to dive - early and often. Pretty much the same with Bon. GC would have more options for spending afternoons not diving​
• Not a ton of tourists / crowds - prefer off the beaten path a bit..
  
  All locations would be a bit off the beaten path. No crowds at any of the three locations. Going downtown GC and 7mb another story, but CP is out of the way and quiet on the quiet end of the island. ​

Have fun

 

[tkaelin]

oops misread the LC Cayman Brac part. Sorry. Doesn't change things much on my response. There may be a bit more to do topside on Brac than LC and there is supposed to be very good shore diving on Brac

 

[drrich2]

Most of my Caymans diving was via live-aboard, plus 2 dives on a cruise ship stop. 8 1-week trips to Bonaire. A few thoughts:

1.) Shore diving is more work, but you can dive when, where & how you wish. Good for promoting independence.

2.) If you eat somewhere with a decent onsite restaurant, you can eat there for meals and 'make it A.I.' Last Buddy Dive Resort stay, I ate the breakfast buffet, had PB&J sandwiches +/- canned fruit cocktail for lunch then ate at their restaurant for supper. The Plaza is A.I., if that's a big deal.

3.) Bonaire is often criticized for not having much 'big stuff.' You will likely see tarpon, maybe big green moray eels, maybe tiger grouper, maybe cubera snapper, some barracuda (often small, but a few big), and most of the sea turtles were small but a few are big. I don't see many rays on Bonaire and found them skittish, but one trip saw 2 big southern stingrays in ~ 15 feet of water over sand, so it may be I've not been looking where they are.

4.) Caymans I saw much the same (don't recall whether I saw cubera snapper), but also Nassau grouper, yellow-fin grouper, more tiger grouper than on Bonaire, queen trigger fish, more rays (both southern & eagle), reef & nurse sharks (have not seen a single shark diving Bonaire yet), and more diversity in dive sites.

5.) As others said, Bonaire being below the hurricane belt & far south doesn't vary much in water temp.s or conditions. Winter trips are fine. Maybe a degree or two lower but still warm.

6.) Topside on Bonaire, you can drive through the donkey sanctuary, drive around the coast viewing waves hit the shore, drive through the park up north (actually nice, and work getting out & taking pics here & there), and if adventurous, there's kite surfing at Lac Bay and you can kite board. I think there's some sort of mangrove kayaking (Trip Advisor could probably give you a 'things to do' list, and Bonaire is a cruise ship stop so they've got offerings for tourists). I suspect Grand Cayman's topside excursions will appeal more.

7.) Bonaire - airfare's expensive.

8.) Caymans - stuff other than airfare and car rental are said to be expensive.

9.) If you plan to hike, be warned Bonaire is hot, arid, has persistent breeze, has strong tropical sun, and up north it's hilly (even mountainous) and even ignoring the scads of cacti those plants have more thorns than I knew there were in the world.

I love Bonaire & the Caymans. If I were just boat diving, I'd go Caymans because they're got more variety and big stuff. But I love shore diving, and the independence and freedom of shore diving Bonaire I've found nowhere else. I've got an SDI Solo cert. & a redundant air source, so I'm not even constrained needing a buddy's cooperation anymore.

My question is what are Cayman water temp.s in Jan. or Feb., and how much will that matter to you?

Richard.

 

[al248005]

My question is what are Cayman water temp.s in Jan. or Feb., and how much will that matter to you?

Richard.

The water temp on Cayman Brac the first week of January was right at 80-81 which was also the topside temp.

 

[Damselfish]

I would say you can't go wrong. If you do regular dive trips you may want to hit them all eventually (along with Little Cayman Beach Resort, or one of the other small AIs on LC.) I might have a slight preference for Bonaire in January for the temps and conditions, if we still went there (we got bored with it.) But I'm not sure if anyplace on Bonaire does valet service.

Another place you might want to consider, if you haven't already, is Cobalt Coast (northwest coast of Grand Cayman, another quiet area.) It would seem to mostly check your boxes. It's now the same group as LCBR and CBBR, and has the valet diving and AI. They do morning boat dives, leaving your afternoons free to tour/shore dive/whatever. They don't have a real beach, more of a man-made patch of sand between the pool and the ironshore with chairs and umbrellas, but it's something. In theory they have shore diving on-site (or you could swim from the dock), though due to the location it gets blown out sometimes and that is probably more likely in January than summer. But if you want to do other things in the afternoon anyway and aren't set on shore diving every afternoon you might not care too much. Apparently the resort has gotten a bit tired and they are starting to do some updates, I don't know how much that part matters.

There is shore diving on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, but not directly from the AI resorts. and if you're doing one of the AIs shore diving is not all that practical. The resorts have beaches, but not really swimming beaches. (IIRC Compass Point is pretty much the same, there is sort of a beachy area, but it's not a swimming beach.) Little Cayman actually has a decent amount of stuff to do if your idea of an an afternoon activity is something like a hike (basically if you're self-entertaining and not looking for shopping and submarine tours.) I find it a great place to simply take a long walk on the beach, or anyplace. LCBR has stuff on site like bikes to use, kayaks to rent, a basketball/tennis court, ping pong, darts, game/exercise room, small spa. There's a little museum down the road and the booby pond across the street, and some good bird watching. GC certainly has more things to do, but I've never I've never wanted for things to do on LC. I haven't stayed at CBBR but imagine it would be much the same.

 

[RTee]

Just came back from a week at CBBR. (12-19 Jan)

Additional flight from GC is relatively minimal in cost but depending on airplane type can have an impact on luggage allowance. Further info on Cayman Airways website. In our case we landed in GC at 1330hrs and finally arrived at CBBR at 2130hrs or so.

You are right about no having access to the ocean for swimming.

I found CBBR to be top notch place and similar praise for Reef Divers.

Valet Dive Service. First morning, we still had to bring everything to the dive shop and rush to complete additional paperwork. So this was no different from other places I have been at. Really they only things you do not carry to the boat is BCD and Regs. Still responsible to rinse and hang neoprene/skin items, fins, mask, camera, etc. Quite frankly I like setting my rig up so this was not an added value.

Due to the wind and sea conditions, all but one dives were done on the South side. If you like to see healthy coral formations and walls, it is great. Now I don't know if it was because of the weather but beside the three or four reef sharks and the friendly Nassau Groupers, we did not see much compare to let's say Cozumel or Bonaire. In fact this observation was also made by my brother, a non diver, who happen to peruse my vacation pictures.

Lionfish hunting, I dont think you can do it in Bonaire unless you are dive staff and I can tell you that the only one who could do it at CBBR were the DMs.

Diving...only one DM in the water. DM is last one in and first one out . You are free to follow him/her. For the week I was there, we were 12 on the boats and only the last day we went up to 15. Plenty of room on their boats.

Water temperature range from 79 to 81F. I saw people dive in rash guard, skins, 3 mm and 5mm (that would be my wife). My avatar...me diving with rash guard and Sharkskin on my last day to ensure my wetsuit would be dry the next day...I was very comfy but during the week I saw people shivering topside during SI in cloudy and windy conditions.

Returning to Bonaire in Feb 19 for 24 days. Two weeks at an Ocean front property inside Hamlet Oasis compound as part of a group of 10 and 10 days with my wife renting a one bedroom condo beside Dive Friends at Hamlet Oasis. During the latter I will pretty much stick to the house reef(s) and probably a 3 day boat package to ckeck dive sites around Klein. This will be my third time to Bonaire. Liking to take underwater pictures, I have to admit that Bonaire, for me, is probably the best place to dive on my own terms in terms of place and time, (shore diving). I love doing night dives...before sunrise. Gives you another perspective.

 

[tkaelin]

I love doing night dives...before sunrise. Gives you another perspective.

Yes! Another convert. Used to love night diving in the evening but discovered early AM night dives. Works well for early risers. Nice report.

 

[KathyV]

Just came back from a week at CBBR. (12-19 Jan)...I found CBBR to be top notch place and similar praise for Reef Divers...Valet Dive Service. First morning, we still had to bring everything to the dive shop and rush to complete additional paperwork..

Maybe because you got in late you missed the opportunity. Every time we've stayed at Cayman Brac Beach Resort, we've gone to the dive shop to check-in during the afternoon on the day we arrive. They always give us numbered mesh bag with instructions to put our gear inside and leave them outside our door in the morning. Then they came and picked up our gear in the early hours and it was set up on the boat when we boarded.

After diving we leave our gear on the boat and put our mask, fins, and snorkel in the mesh bags, dunk the bags in the rinse tank and hang them to dry along with our wet suits - it's efficient and easy.