Help! First time to Grand Cayman

[Hesslerca]

We have been diving consistently since 1985 and usually do liveaboards but are finding ourselves financially constrained. So, we want 4 dives a day nitrox. Remote and away from any cruise ship or new divers. We are ok in an apartment if that will save us money. I hear the east end is best. We dont care about beaches but want a view of water. We are both rescue divers. Any ideas for places to check out and times of year?

Carol

 

[caymaniac]

I've done several liveaboards, go to Little Cayman, you'll be happy. Remember this is not the Pacific but LC has the best the Caribbean has to offer underwater. No crowds, virtually no shopping, quiet and worth at least one trip in your lifetime.
On Grand Cayman go to the East side, still quiet, not too busy. You can drive to (if you rent a vehicle) a mall (Caymana), downtown or Seven Mile Beach or Rum Point if you desire a day to explore

 

[Alex777]

So, we want 4 dives a day nitrox. Remote and away from any cruise ship or new divers. We are ok in an apartment if that will save us money. I hear the east end is best. We dont care about beaches but want a view of water.

You won't escape "new divers" on Grand Cayman or Little Cayman. That is simply "where the market is" for commercial dive operators. Other than the new divers thing, you can get what you want at Compass Point / Ocean Frontiers on the East End of GC. They do 4 dives / day, don't have cruise ship divers, and rent condos with a water view. Last time I was on Little Cayman (it's been a while), the dive ops were doing 3 dives a day not 4. All the dive ops offer nitrox. Everywhere in Cayman is relatively expensive, but you probably know that.

 

[AggieDiver]

Yeah, if you want 4 dives a day, you will have to do at least one as a shore dive if you go to LC, which means renting a car. If you are financially constrained, probably not the cheapest way to get what you are asking for. I usually recommend LC over Bonaire, but based on what you are asking for, Bonaire might be a better fit for your requirements.

 

[diversteve]

This may be the first time I've ever seen financially constrained and Grand Cayman in the same sentence....

The East End is going to require a car rental also due to the distance from just about everything except the few restaurants and one? food store out there. And it's about a 45min. drive back to town. Cars like everything else on Cayman aren't cheap. The Compass Point/Ocean Frontiers suggestion is a good one except they're the only operator in that area so tend to collect divers from the resort, nearby rentals - my buddy even drove over from Turtle Nest Inn in Bodden Town since it was closer than Georgetown. So possibly more of a mixed crowd than you seem to want.

Not that it's a given that you won't be with new divers but you could also look for something at the north end of Seven Mile Beach - the cruisers don't usually get that far north as Fosters in town, Red Sail and Cruisediver.net are either in town or own the cruise contracts. There's multiple dive operators who will dive the North Wall from nearby marinas - probably the 2nd best diving on GC. And almost all the condos in that area on Seven Mile Beach are oriented with waterviews. Almost every complex website shows the "view" from the property, some on vrbo.com show the view from your deck. If you did want a beach, it's a nice one in that area.

If you do it's also worth looking into dive operators in that area that cater to smaller groups. Many go with 6-8 divers guaranteed maximum even when the boat is rated for more. So your odds of being with other experienced divers are much greater than the "cruise ops" who can have upwards of 16-20 during busy times. CITA requires a DM for every 8 divers but I prefer not to have to wait while the other groups exit/re-board when diving. Most of them can be found here: Cayman Islands Tourism Association - Things To Do In Cayman, Cayman Culture,Cayman Islands Watersports

My personal suggestions would be Indigo, Neptunes or possibly Living the Dream for what you want. Maybe Wall to Wall but they might pickup cruise traffic from their shop near the port. There's a dozen other advertised small group ops also.

Since you mentioned financial constraints - what about shore diving? Generally boat dives on GC run in the 2/$100+ range - buying multiple day packages gets some discount. So at 4 dives day you're probably looking at something in the range of $180PP/day of diving. Almost makes the Cayman Aggressor a better deal...LOL. We did a week on Cayman and rented a car twice. Once to drive up to Turtle Reef and once to go south. Andy's is at the airport and on SMB - they'll pick you up. There's also local bus service (small vans) running all over GC daily so you have access to shops/restaurants etc. They go by pretty often till at least dark. I don't know if you could bring gear on it though - maybe 1 bag each? The locals do bring groceries.

Several days where we did 4 tanks/per day a car would've mostly sat around - if you stay on SMB many of the diveops have van shuttles running daily and pick up is included in the price. Ours would drop us off first for lunch, drop the other divers and then pick us up again for the 1PM dives.

If you rent a car another option is to find something in the West Bay/NW Point area. The real savings in that area - or north SMB - is the shore diving. Three shore dives in that area are IMO among the best, Turtle Reef, Lighthouse Point and Cobalt Coast. Turtle Reef is on the Cracked Conch (restaurant) property with SunDIvers on site. There's a mini-wall there and the North Wall is a longer swim out. Ollen as Sundivers works with Happy Fish Divers for boat diving.

The other two locations might even be better, Cobalt Coast is the semi-AI dive resort and Lighthouse Pt. is a small condo complex. Both have Divetech on-site for diving and I've read there's now a restaurant at LP as well. Divetech does some fun dives, the West Bay Express is a scooter dive between their locations and they even offer things like rebreather tryouts. They also are in an optimal position to get to some of the more NE dives that are too far for Georgetown based shops.

Another option in that area is Bonnie's Arch condos - a small complex on the north side. There's only a few rentals in there - on vrbo.com. They have private ladder access to the Bonnie's Arch dive site from the property. Turtle Reef and the Divetech properties are nearby also for boat diving. If there's more of you than it appears, Coconut Bay condos are another option - IIRC all are 2-3 bedrooms. About 200 yds. from Turtle Reef and they have ladder access to one of the Hepp's sites. The owner of Stingray Watersports owns a couple of those units and offered to provide tanks for us also if we boat dove with him.

Most Cayman shore dive sites are owned to the waterline by someone so you rent tanks on-site - most won't allow you to bring yours on-site or remove theirs. So for the few other sites - Smith's Cove south of Georgetown is one - rent from Eden Rock in town or Divers Supply in West Bay. Eden Rock being 500' from the cruise port you may want to do that at odd hours. In case you're planning a June-Aug trip, Devils Grotto there is spectacular when the Silversides are in. If not it's pretty barren - just you and a few hopeful Tarpon.

I agree with AggieDiver also - except for the ABC chosen. I'd pick Curacao instead since it's often cheaper to get to - many flights to Bonaire go thru there first, has the same great shore diving - with a bundled package you could boat dive mornings and shore dive afternoons for very little additional cost besides car rental. Unlike Bonaire there are condo complexes all along the coast on named dive sites - most having an on-site operator as well. Farther west or farther east of town most condos are on short cliffs above the water - a lot of the beter dive sites/beaches are in coves between them.

We rented in Lagun once and 5 of us were literally the only guests in a 12 unit "apt'. Great views, breezes but a 60' vertical drop to the water. Playa Lagun 2 blocks away has 3 condo complexes and 2 dive operators surrounding the cove/beach. Restaurants are a drive from that area though. Boat dives are about the same price on either island and there's a lot more non-diving things to do on Curacao. Either should be substantially cheaper than Grand Cayman. Diving is all small stuff on either island.

 

[diver 85]

+1 on heading on to LC--........

---------- Post added March 11th, 2015 at 12:19 PM ----------

diversteve--------funny you mention Bonnie's Arch...In fall of '93, wife & I were 10 minutes from buying a condo in there.......Backed out due to all the people on GC, woke up that morning & there were 6-SIX- cruise ships parked in the port that morning & we liked to never have made it thru Georgetown to get to BA condos to 'close the deal'.....Backed out(heard also that morning they were not gunna allow any new registered cars on the island-- ie it was 'now maxed out' & you'd have to get a list--ie as 1 vehicle was 'totaled out' another one could take it's place).....Waited instead & next summer bought on the beach @ Roatan----------back in it's day--the 80's & 90's ---Bonnie's Arch was a great little dive....

 

[Doctorfish]

One way to economize as well as enjoy GC is to rent a condo at the north end of seven mile beach or further north near Turtle Reef. Can't remember the name of the small condo development just north of Turtle Reef facing out to Hepp's Pipeline, but it would allow for shore diving right offshore or by a short walk to Turtle Reef or Lighthouse. Most of the west side operators offer pick up and drop off for their morning boat dives as well.

If you are going to GC, I would not fore go the boat diving as the dramatic walls are not easily reachable otherwise.
It is possible to swim out to the wall from Cobalt, Turtle Reef and other shore operations but the wall in these areas is not as dramatic as from the boats.

Someone will undoubtedly tell you that you can reach Babylon from shore but quite a long swim, weather dependent and requires a car to get to.

Another Cayman option would be to stay at Brac Beach Reef Resort. They often have a special offer on their packages during shoulder and low seasons. They only provide 3 tanks per day, but that seems adequate for most people.

Bonaire, Curacao, might be less expensive but no wall diving.
What about Coz ?

 

[Alex777]

<< Can't remember the name of the small condo development just north of Turtle Reef >>

Coconut Bay?

 

[Damselfish]

This may be the first time I've ever seen financially constrained and Grand Cayman in the same sentence....

^What they said.^ If budget is a big consideration, especially if you want 4 dives a day, I'm not sure Cayman is the best choice. The Cayman Aggressor is actually one of the more cost-effective options there if your priority is to get in lots of dives. If you can live with 3 a day, at certain times of year you can catch relatively good deals at Little Cayman Beach Resort, though of course that means another flight. Even Compass Point on the East End occasionally offers some pretty good deals (for Cayman) that include a car, but I don't know if that would fall in your budget either.

I'll grant you can save lots if you get a good deal on a GC rental, cook in more and avoid the expensive restaurants, and do mostly shore diving. But IMO doing mostly shore diving on GC is too much of a compromise - if you skip boats you're not going to get to most of the stuff that made diving there famous to begin with. So I don't think it makes sense over destinations where boat diving is cheaper and/or shore diving is mostly similar to the boat diving. There is some good shore diving on GC, and I think it's a great thing to do in the afternoon after a 2 tank boat in the morning. You can rent someplace up near West Bay which is away from the cruise ships and busy areas, choose a good West-end op that does the North wall as much as possible, and shore dive in the afternoons. If you want to do the East End, which I agree is best, that will be all boats. So morning and afternoon 2 tank boats to get in 4 dives, or reclaiming your gear and driving back to the West End a lot where all the practical shore diving is. Which I'll bet you won't feel like doing more than once or twice.

If you're looking for someplace you haven't been, where have you been? I agree with considering islands like Bonaire or Curacao where you can shore dive a lot and not miss much by skipping boats. (People tend to have a strong preference for one or the other - mine is Curacao - depending on what your priorities are. There has been lots written around here about both.)

 

[diversteve]

Can't remember the name of the small condo development just north of Turtle Reef facing out to Hepp's Pipeline,

If there's more of you than it appears, Coconut Bay condos are another option - IIRC all are 2-3 bedrooms. About 200 yds. from Turtle Reef and they have ladder access

Probably too big for both of them.

These condos offer 2300 square feet of living space with three bedroom units and 1200 square feet for the two bedroom units. The design is the same as the oceanfront units for the three bedroom / 3.5 bath condos