Hidden Gems in Grand Cayman

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daval

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Location
Mississauga, Ontario
Hey Folks,

My buddy and I are going to Grand Cayman for the first time from March 18 - 26. We are staying in the 7 mile beach area.

We are trying to do this trip as inexpensively as possible, so we are looking for advice on hidden gems on the island.

Places to eat that are very good, yet very inexpensive. Cheap car rentals (we might want a car for just a day or two to explore), and other such suggestions.

Also looking for some shore diving suggestions, as well as cool things to see and do on the island when not diving.

Thanks!

Dave
 
Some food ideas-
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=605916
http://www.caribbean-on-line.com/travel-forums/viewtopic.php?p=496
(Keeping in mind the hurricane may have affected some of these sugestions.)

Car rentals on Cayman are cheap for the Carribean, a pleasant surprise on an expensive island. (Or again, at least they were pre-hurricane!) Are you only shore diving 1-2 days when you might have a car, or how are you getting there?

My favorite shore diving is at Divetech's shop at Turtle Reef next to the turtle farm. Sunset House shore diving is ok but not nearly as good IMO. There's also Eden Rock facility but I've never gone there. I don't know if you can walk in and rent tanks at the Divetech shop at Cobalt Coast and dive there, but I think Turtle Reef is a better shore dive anyway. (At least for a short swim. You can swim out to the N wall from Cobalt Coast but it's a distance. Or rent a scooter but then it's no longer cheap.)
 
Staying on the west side, there are some restaurants (and other places to eat) which are locals favorites.

Georgetown
Corita's Copper Kettle is a lunchtime favorite among the business community. It offers relatively cheap local fare. Located between the old library building and the Bank of Butterfield.

Fort Street Market is a convenience store with a good hot food counter. Pay by the weight fo your selection, so plan accordingly. Located on (duh!) Fort Street, one block off the waterfront.

Champion House II on Eastern Avenue (near the southern end) offers local fare and is quite affordable by local standards. Great place for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Seven Mile Beach
Chicken Chicken! in the West Shore Center is great! They serve up roasted chicken with Caribbean style sides. Yummy!

Lone Star on West Bay Road does have some reasonably affordable sandwiches and wraps. Good lunch stop.
 
Trying to do an inexpensive trip on the most expensive island in the Caribbean? We did it 2 yrs. ago. Some options:

Lunch at My Bar at Sunset House. Great sandwiches under $10 US. Plus you can dive there. Get your picture taken with the Mermaid in 50fsw. Also check out the Cathy Church U/W Gallery/School in the basement of the main house. It's about a $10-15 cab ride from the middle of SMB.

There's a sandwich shop in the first strip mall on the ocean side of the main road just south of Treasure Island. Nothing over about $6-8 US. Really good food. While there check out the divestore in the same plaza, it may be the best one I've ever been to.

We also had a good meal at Athena in front of Treasure Island, but it was pricier.

There's a KFC just past the turn towards SMB coming from the Airport. Also there's A Burger King in Georgetown. And a Hard Rock Cafe - fairly reasonable with a great view.

Other diving: Turtle Reef on the North End, you can rent scooters for about $40 to get out to the wall, or just swim along the mini-wall 40yds. offshore. I've read it's the better of the two Divetech locations for shorediving since the wall by Cobalt Coast is farther out. A long ride by cab from SMB though, it's in a pretty remote residential neighborhood, the only thing nearby is the Cracked Conch restaurant upstairs.

You should definitely do the Stingray City dive. It's really a memorable experience.

We dove Eden Rock in north Georgetown, it's a nice facility but the dive is pretty marginal. Too many tourists over the years since they're the closest divesite to the cruise ship port. And it ends in about 40' unless you want to swim under the Jetskis/Cruise Ships(can't - just kidding) farther out in the harbor.

We rented a car to go up to Turtle Reef, I think from Andy's. They'll pick you up on SMB. If your place has a kitchen and you're planning to do some cooking, the main Market(Hurleys?) is just 2 mins. from the airport, so you might want to stop there on your way to SMB. Prices are really high since everything is imported.

We did the whole trip with a 2BR condo on SMB, not including airfare for about $1500pp. Including food and 4 days of boatdiving.

Diving is the main attraction on Cayman. There's also the Turtle Farm, now called Boatswains Bay or something like that. They advertise in PADI Sport Diver. Also there was supposed to be a waterpark with a wave machine being built near there, not sure what happened to it post-Ivan.
 
Chicken! Chicken! blows KFC away in food for the price, and flavor. It's like a Caribbean version of Kenny Rogers Roasters - rotisserie chicken, not fried, and great choices of side dishes.

When you go to Turtle Reef, there's a Subway shop across from the Esso station in the little shopping center nearby. You'll pass right by it on your way from Georgetown to Turtle Reef. You can even get a Jerk Chicken Subway sandwich there (I have not seen this option in any other Subway I've visited). It's a good place to get a lunch between dives if doing a 2 tank dive at Turtle Reef. It was there in November / December 2003, Drew may know if it's still there or not.

Ther's also a Corita's(?Corrina's?) Silver Kitchen with inexpensive local fare lunch specials right at the split in the road - another good lunch spot from the Turtle Reef area (Drew, am I remembering the name right?). It's by the beach at the West Bay boat launch area.

Budget can have competitive car rental rates to Andy's sometimes - I know we rented Budget one trip and the second trip a car was part of the weeklong package at Cobalt Coast for the special we booked in Nov. / Dec. 2003 (I think that one was from Avis).
 
My sons and I enjoyed Coconut Joe's across from the Marriott. Prices were pretty good and sitting outside under the trees was relaxing.
 
Thanks a lot folks, we'll definately check some of these places out.

I can't wait!
 
Take your alcohol of choice with you.

The Cracked Conch had very reasonable food (free!!) at a Happy Hour (Think it was Friday)

Shore Dive

Eat in. Supermarkets are not a lot more than the US if you are selective.

The Lighthouse is reasonably priced at Lunch,great food and great location. Lunch at Cobalt Coast is good as well.
 

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