Question Little Cayman Beach REsort vs Cayman Brac Beach Resort?

[Jaan]

We will be there with you. You should be fine as a vegan. They usually have multiple options available and if you tell them your likes, they will usually bend over backwards to make sure you get what you want.

hey @DirtFish and @AggieDiver looks like we will be moving our Brac trip. Back to choosing between Brac and Little Cayman.
How was it? I know brac does one day out at LC for the wall. I wonder if that is enough.
Maybe we just have to do both

 

[Hoag]

I was just at Cayman Brac (CBBR) for a week, and it was great. I have a trip report here, that has a discussion on shore diving. Basically, while there may be shore diving at some locations on the island, there is none right at the resort nor is it offered by CBBR. If you want shore diving, you would have to go off-site and make the arrangements yourself.

Normally, they try to get to Little Cayman at least once during the trip, but weather prevented us from doing it. From what I have heard, (and again, weather prevented us from going to Little Cayman so this is only a rumour) it is about a 20 minute boat ride to get from Cayman Brac to Little Cayman and they try to get you there to dive Bloody Bay Wall followed by a shallow dive one morning and possibly stay for lunch at LCBR. Of course, this is dependent on a number of factors and YMMV.

 

[Stoo]

The resorts are very similar (I have been to both) but the diving on Little Cayman is magnitudes better than Cayman Brac.

My understanding is there there is shore diving on LC, but you need a car to get to it. The wall is very close to shore, and definitely swimable, although we opted for all boat diving. It's just easier.

 

[BoltSnap]

the diving on Little Cayman is magnitudes better than Cayman Brac.

Yes, this is very true. If I had to do it again, there will be no reason to go to Cayman Brac at all.

 

[scubadada]

The resorts are very similar (I have been to both) but the diving on Little Cayman is magnitudes better than Cayman Brac.

My understanding is there there is shore diving on LC, but you need a car to get to it. The wall is very close to shore, and definitely swimable, although we opted for all boat diving. It's just easier.

Yes, this is very true. If I had to do it again, there will be no reason to go to Cayman Brac at all.

I have a different take. I have spent 2 weeks on Little Cayman and a week on Cayman Brac. I find the two locations quite complimentary and am very glad I have done both.

I was somewhat disappointed in both as Reef Divers offers just 3 dives per day, 2 morning and 1 afternoon. I would prefer to do 4 dives when on a diving vacation. If I return, I am considering Cayman Brac and would likely choose to do 2 morning boat dives and a couple of afternoon shore dives. Brac has 26 shore diving sites, and you can obtain cylinders and a flag from CBBR or Scuba Shack. You would need a car rental Shore diving on Cayman Brac?

 

[AggieDiver]

hey @DirtFish and @AggieDiver looks like we will be moving our Brac trip. Back to choosing between Brac and Little Cayman.
How was it? I know brac does one day out at LC for the wall. I wonder if that is enough.
Maybe we just have to do both

I think it really boils down to what kind of diving you like and at least a little about how much of an air hog you are. We did a week at LCBR in October and did make the trip over to dive the Russian Warship one morning. At least during our trip, they did not do lunch at the other resort, and the divers coming over from Brac did not come in and have lunch at LCBR. I think that had at least a little bit to do with Covid and trying to avoid mixing divers from the two resorts, so maybe over time that will change.

Here is my take on Brac. It is great diving. The topography is general spur and groove formations with fingers reaching out from the shallows towards the deep. While there is plenty of shallow stuff to look at, the sites are generally a little deeper than what you find on the north side of LC. The diving on Brac is very similar to the south side of LC. With us only doing the Russian Warship, I don't have an opinion on the current overall health of the reefs and fish, but the resort has had a major upgrade in the recent past and it has a nicer pool area than LCBR.

Here is my take on Little Cayman. It is great diving. The topography on the north side (where most of the dives take place if the weather cooperates) has two modes; sheer wall with shallow (20-40' tops) or inner wall and outer wall separated by a wide flat sand boulevard parallel to shore. I LOVE the Jackson's Bight section of the bloody bay wall where there is an innerwall and outer wall separated by sand. It is pretty much my favorite type of dive site topography and on LC, the depths are very shallow, making it ideal for an air hog like me. My impression of the conditions there in October (having been diving there ~10 trips since 1995) is that it was as healthy as I have seen it in at least the last decade. We saw multiple different reef sharks in a single dive and saw reef sharks pretty much every day. That has never happened in all of our diving there. Prior to this trip, it was rare to see a reef shark more than once or twice in a week, and it was nearly always the same shark (tagged so there was no mistaking which one you were seeing).

The one drawback to LC is that there is not a lot to do out of the water other than bird watching. So if you are the type that only wants to dive morning and then explore in the afternoons, or if you have non-divers with you, it is probably a bit lacking in other things to fill your time. Brac doesn't have a lot more to see and do, but it does have some. Either way you really can't go wrong with either place. The hospitality, food, and dive operations at both resorts are top notch and I would gladly go to either place on any day ending in a y.

 

[Stoo]

Yes, this is very true. If I had to do it again, there will be no reason to go to Cayman Brac at all.

We've been to LC a few times and consider the wall there the best in the Caribbean. We did a week on the Brac, but it was during the summer so the water was stupid warm, and there was some sort of red algae covering everything, and I doubt that that's typical. I think Cayman Brac is still better than many places, but since the OP asked for a comparison with LC, that's what he got.

Many people I know that have been to Cayman Brac have told me that the best day of diving they had there, was the day they travelled to LC!

Little Cayman is one of only two places in the Carribean I'd return too, the other being the outer cayes of Belize.

 

[BoltSnap]

Many people I know that have been to Cayman Brac have told me that the best day of diving they had there, was the day they travelled to LC!

Exactly !

For me and my friends who been there, the only reason to visit Brac is to dive the Kibetts wreck, nothing else compared with LC. You only need to do that once however.

 

[wildbill9]

Been to brac three times, went to little cayman. Never considered brac again. JMHO Bill

 

[Janie88]

My husband and I have been to Brac Reef Resort 3x, the last time was 2014 prior the renovation. From the pictures I've seen it looks really beautiful. However, we were never able to dive Bloody Bay Wall. Someone posted that if you stay on Brac you get one day to go over to Little and dive Bloody Bay Wall - it is NOT a definite thing and is totally weather dependent. The weather never permitted us to go from Brac. So....we are booked for Little for this coming September. The price is $300pp less at Brac, but again, I really want to dive Bloody Bay Wall.