Honeymoon trip

[jonhall]

Lots of great info has been provided and you can get more (different and the same) from other threads.
We were in GC over New Year's eve last year, the same time frame as your planned travel, so I felt obligated to share.

Stayed at Cobalt Coast resort on the northwest end in West Bay, which is maybe the only non-mandatory all-inclusive on the island. It was booked through our traveling buddy's vacation club less than a year out from our arrival. There were other rooms available the week we were there. It is not a fancy resort but has a small pool. Ithas ironshore, so no beach. Grocery store is a 10-12 min. drive. Diving is convenient as Reef Divers is the onsite dive op. Dive Tech is not far away and I like them a lot. Cobalt Coast is "isolated" from the rest of the island and we have stayed there both with and without a rental car. Since you want excursions, I would get the car. As mentioned in other posts, the time of year you're going has rougher water on the west, north, and east side of the island, but the dive ops will shuttle you to a location that takes you to the dive sites along Seven Mile Beach, which is fantastic and has the wreck, Kittawake, which is pretty popular. The dive ops will have a scheduled trip there. You may have a good day or 2 where the winds aren't kicking up the waves and you actually can dive/shore dive from Cobalt Coast's pier. There were 2 days where the water was calm enough to get on the boat there and then they hit sites on the north side.

Things to do from Cobalt Coast: We arrived on GC on New Years Eve. I booked a restaurant online, a couple of weeks before we left home, at Camana Bay where there was a big new year's eve party, with music and fireworks. Camana Bay (20 min. drive) has a movie theater, restaurants, and shopping. The Turtle Farm is about a 10 minute drive from CC. We got the ticket that allowed for the turtle farm and the beach area, which had one of the best snorkeling experiences I've done. Hell, which is not more than a post office, a few shops, and a few observation decks to see exposed coral, ia a 15-20 minute walk or a few minutes drive. Shore diving can be done along the coast close to where the Turtle Farm is from Macabuca, a pretty good restaurant/bar. Sundivers dive op is located there. Driving into town, Georgetown, takes about 20 minutes. For beaches, I'd head to 7 Mile Beach. I have a different take on driving in GC than others may have. As long as driving on the left doesn't bother you, your used to round-a-bouts, and you can remember a few landmarks, I think its pretty easy to get around.

Week 2 was spent on the East End at Compass Point Dive Resort/ Ocean Frontiers dive op. The drive from CC to CP is just under an hour. We booked this through Hotels.com (as I recall) and we dove on the days we wanted. Even including our car rental, we paid less that if we would have booked through Compass Point's website. It may be different now. They really make the diving routine easy. The water was rough a few days but they still went out after asking if anyone would like to stay on shore. There is a restaurant/bar onsite. Also not a swimming beach, but has a pool. Pretty sure there were vacancies here also during the week.

Things to do on this side include a botanical garden (10-12 min. drive), caves (12-14 min. drive), starfish beach, and bbq beach parties on Rum Point (both about 25 min. drive). There is a small grocery mart about 5 minutes down the road with enough to prepare meals on your own if you like, but there are also several good places to eat that are a short drive.

Don't think you can go wrong whatever you do. Have fun planning and more fun on the trip!

Sorry - I was typing this earlier and got distracted and saw you already booked your trip.

 

[Dish]

After reading through everything and contacting various resorts, I think we're leaning towards a week on Little Cayman and then a week at Compass Point on the east end. Both look to have great diving operations and accommodations without destroying the budget.

On that note though, I have a question: it looks like the drive from Compass to the city is 35-45 minutes. If we did want to pop over and do some city stuff, is that an accurate drive time? We're mostly looking to dive and relax so I don't think it would be an every day thing.

Jake,
That’s pretty accurate, but the drive is scenic and enjoyable. It’s no interstate.

Oh and have a blast! You’ll love it.

 

[diversteve]

You can book a Kittiwake dive with Ocean Frontiers but they use another company on the west side and you have to drive over to meet the boat.

Express interest in diving Babylon also but since it's NE may get blown out in winter - if they have a good weather window they'll try it. Happened for my b-i-l just after Christmas.Babylon makes most of the best of Cayman lists and I've see it on a top 50 Caribbean dive list.

In case you haven't found it yet - Scuba Diving Videos, Guide to Best Grand Cayman Dive Sites for a lot of good dive site videos.

Also I suggest calling before you drive around to shore dive the NW dive sites as they can be un-divable in winter also - when one isn't, sometimes the other two are - Reef Divers/Cobalt Coast is on the north side but Sundivers/TurtleReef and Divetech/Lighthouse Point are around Northwest Point slighty so sometimes more sheltered.

If you can work it out,Divetech boat dives Ghost Mountain as it's near there locaiton and it's an exceptional dive.

I kind of like Sunset House also - besides the statue/small wreck there's some nice reef structure sort of a little to the north of the saltwater pool (one of the entry points) Also the tourist subs from the cruise ships go by there regularly - fun to wave at them.

Know that Geprgetpwn is seriously congested when the cruise ships dock - some days there's 4-5 at a time in the harbor. They all leave around 4-5pm if you want to look around downtwon one day. Also consult a map if you're driving over one day as there's a main road that bypasses Georgetown (runs along the airport) and continues up the backside of Seven Mile Beach all the way to West Bay - saves fighting all the downtown and SMB congestion.

I personally would not make any effort to dive Eden Rpck it was tired 10 years ago and is about 1/4 mi. from the cruise terminal. Pretty beat up, picked clean by the cruise divers and a container ship flattened about 100 yds. of reef last? fall and collapsed one of the main swim-thru's. Also except for June when the silversides are in - mostly it's a lot of rock with a few wistful tarpon hanging around.

If you get to Turtle Reef go west - there's a tarpon cave along the mini-wall a few minutes swim.
Trinity Caves or Big Tunnels were also good west side dives.

 

[KathyV]

@Jake Great choices, I hope that you have a wonderful trip and great weather! Are you still planning a trip over the New Year or did you pick another time? You've got plenty of time but don't wait too long to book air travel because flights fill up fast during the high season; and flights to Little Cayman are limited. The airport is small and unlighted and can only accept small planes during the daylight hours - and the days are shorter during the winter months.

Even though it is only a short hop between GC and LC, the "wait to fly before diving" rule applies. The LCBR packages usually only include 2 dives the day before you leave for that reason.

Sometimes you can get a direct flight on a twin otter from GC to LC and sometimes you have to fly to Cayman Brac on a jet or a turboprop and then change planes to get to LC; we prefer a direct connection to LC but we have done both.

The GCM airport is undergoing renovations right now and recently the time required to get through immigrations and customs after you land on GC, especially on weekends, has been crazy long, especially during the high season. Hopefully the construction will be done by the time you get there and things will be better, but try not to cut the connections too close and try to avoid being on the last flight to LC, in case there are delays.

Does your package at LCBR include some beverages? Alcohol is quite expensive in Cayman and we usually pick up some duty-free liquor in the airport before we leave the US. Each adult is allowed 1 liter of alcohol duty free. That gets tricky when you are flying straight on to one of the sister islands, because you will have to recheck your bags and go through security again on Grand Cayman - at least that is how it works now, maybe it will change after construction is done. So you have to wrap the bottles well and put them in your checked luggage before rechecking. It's risky but it is a short flight.

Congratulations!

 

[Divetech Cayman]

Thanks a whole lot for the replies from everyone. I've officially booked Little Cayman Beach Resort for week 1, and Compass Point for week 2. It was a tough decision between that and Sunset (mostly because of the shore diving opportunity; we're all addicts aren't we?).

Now I'm sad that my dates don't line up with the UV night dive that Ocean Frontiers does. Guess we'll have to visit again.

Hi @Jake ,

we can offer UV night dives on Mondays and Thursdays if that would align with your dates? We could combine that with a Kittiwake dive on the same afternoon, either a 1-tank, or a 2-tank Kittiwake & Reef dive. Then you would only need to drive to the west side one time. You can also avoid rush hour this way, head out west to arrive mid-day, have a little 5 PM snack between your dives at Macabuca (my favorite for sunset!), and head back to Compass Point after your night dive. It is not an interstate as somebody else mentioned, but it is a good road and easy to drive even at night. Just give us a call at 1 877 946 5658 (toll free) or shoot us a mail at info@divetech.com and I’d be happy to inform you some more.

 

[AdivingBel]

Gotta luv SB...

 

[Jake]

Lots of great info has been provided and you can get more (different and the same) from other threads.
We were in GC over New Year's eve last year, the same time frame as your planned travel, so I felt obligated to share.

This was an amazing reply. Thank you very much. What did you think of the turtle farm? We read reviews on Trip Advisor and there are a lot of bad reviews about the treatment of their animals. Their own website makes it look really neat though.

 

[Jake]

@Jake Great choices, I hope that you have a wonderful trip and great weather! Are you still planning a trip over the New Year or did you pick another time?

December 27th arrival to January 10th departure.

Sometimes you can get a direct flight on a twin otter from GC to LC and sometimes you have to fly to Cayman Brac on a jet or a turboprop and then change planes to get to LC; we prefer a direct connection to LC but we have done both.

We were able to get direct flights both directions.

The GCM airport is undergoing renovations right now and recently the time required to get through immigrations and customs after you land on GC, especially on weekends, has been crazy long, especially during the high season. Hopefully the construction will be done by the time you get there and things will be better, but try not to cut the connections too close and try to avoid being on the last flight to LC, in case there are delays.

I wasn't paying attention and booked the inter-island flight that was about 2 hours after our international landed. I guess I was thinking about a normal layover where everything is transferred for you and you don't have to go through customs. Fortunately I realized my mistake the same day and they rescheduled us to later in the day with no extra fee or hassle. They said that if there's room on an earlier plane they'll put us on it. But, worst case we may have a 4-ish hour layover. Better that than a missed flight.

Does your package at LCBR include some beverages? Alcohol is quite expensive in Cayman and we usually pick up some duty-free liquor in the airport before we leave the US. Each adult is allowed 1 liter of alcohol duty free. That gets tricky when you are flying straight on to one of the sister islands, because you will have to recheck your bags and go through security again on Grand Cayman - at least that is how it works now, maybe it will change after construction is done. So you have to wrap the bottles well and put them in your checked luggage before rechecking. It's risky but it is a short flight.

I don't believe either of the resorts had more than a welcome drink included. But, you make a good point. I'm sure we could wrap at least one bottle up fairly well.

Thank you very much for all your help!

 

[diversteve]

Turtle Farm is the definitive word - most are grown for food or shell products.Wouldn't be for me personally...

Several times during hurricanes the pens have been over-run and some escape. So you're likely to see some at the Turtle Reef dive site just across the street since they come back to nest. Also the farm has a paid release program where you can set one free. I have not been there since Boatswains Beach was created so IDK what has changed since. Also please don't attend the captive dolphin tourist show nearby,,,

 

[Alucard]

I have no connection with the Turtle Centre (which is what is is called now). They don't regard the farming for meat (I have never seen turtle shells being sold, but maybe I haven't been paying attention) and the conservation efforts as mutually-incompatible, and they do release quite a few back into the waters each year. In spite of the local historical tradition for eating turtle meat (the most ready source of meat on and island that had no natural fresh water) while there, the main business there is for the tourists.

I have not been inside, but then again, I'm not a fan of zoos, either. I would much rather see the turtles in their native habitat and being a diver, I have that wonderful opportunity. Part of me wonders, though, if the Turtle Centre wasn't there, whether there wouldn't be as many turtles to see in the wild as they are....

I think everyone needs to do some self-examination about how they feel about zoos, and eating meat in general, and come to their own determination as to whether the turtle centre is worth a visit.