Little Cayman or Cayman Brac?

[TravelDave]

I'm planning a trip for a group of guys (4-6 of us) and we're trying to figure out destination. A couple of guys are thinking Saturday to Thursday, and the rest of us are thinking Saturday to Saturday. We've done east end of GC a couple of times and are looking for something different. Little Cayman and Cayman Brac have come up as possibilities, so I have a few questions.

1) For Little Cayman, are there good options besides Little Cayman Beach Resort? The group is looking for something pretty low-maintenance (the less work the better), so the all-inclusive approach is better than house rentals.

2) For Brac, are there good options besides Brac Reef Resort?

3) What are key differences between LC and Brac? Is dive quality equivalent on the two?

4) For a "guys trip", is one place better than the other?

5) Assuming it's either LCBR or BRR, is the food pretty good? Any need to go off-resort for meals? Are there other restaurant options on the islands?

6) Sounds like there's not much life off-resort. How are the bars at the resorts?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Dave

 

[keyshunter]

On LC, Pirates Point and Southern Cross are also excellent. On Brac, Brac Reef is the only game in town for an all inclusive. All inclusive does not include bar drinks-this is not Coz. Diving at both islands is excellent. Food at both LCBR and Brac Reef also is very good. Pirates Point food is excellent. There is not much "night life" on either island. Bars are about equal, and there are several "off campus" bars on each island. Be forewarned, at both LCBR and BBR, while almost everything is priced in US dollars, the bars are priced in CI--25% higher than US$.

 

[BDSC]

First off I've been to both resorts you have mentioned and they are excellent! The Brac Reef resort is all practically brand new because it was totally rebuilt after the 2008 hurricane. They just reopened at the beginning of 2010. We are going back in May. All the rooms at the LCBR were also upgraded a few years ago and are also very nice.

The food is simply outstanding. I have been to Pirates Point on LC and thought it couldn't be beat but the food I had at the LCBR was just as good and a lot more varied. The food at the Brac Resort to me was better than either of the other two. I'd say the food at the Brac Reef Beach Resort was the best food I've ever had at any resort be it a dive resort or other.

As far as diving, I'd give the nod to Little Cayman but just a nod. The diving at either is excellent and I think some of the best in the Caribbean.

Not a lot of night life in either island compared to a place like Grand Cayman. I'd say the bars at the hotels are probably about as active as any but couldn't swear by it.

I do think the LCBR is offering a pretty good summer/fall deal from $1344 that includes all meals, 7 nights in a pool view room, 12 dives, and all taxes, transfers, and service charges. You could add on afternoon dives but I don't know how much that would be. The dates for this is August 1st - October 31st.

If you guys could dive the first week of May I could get you in on a really good deal at the Brac.

BDSC

 

[PatW]

I have been to Little Cayman Beach Resort twice. It is very well run. The dive operation is very good. The drying shed is right next to the dock with tanks for getting the salt out of your gear. It is nice and convenient. The staff are friendly. The dive shop is good. They have a pool and places to sit out by the pool. There is a small open air bar next to the pool. It is pleasant to go down there and have a drink during the evening. There is fishing, kayaking and bird watching on the island. As I recall, one can catch small tarpon on the lake on the island with fly fishing. If you are into fishing, that would be a blast.

The food is buffet style. The food is really pretty good.

There is virtually nothing on Little Cayman. There is a little general store which sells wine and liquor just a "short" walk down the road. I think there is one (1) restaurant on the island. When I was there (August when everything is shut down except for LCBR), it did not look that open.
If you are into night life, shopping and restaurants, Little Cayman is not a good place to go. I understand that all of that stuff is on Grand Cayman.

At Little Cayman, you pretty much dive Bloody Bay Wall on most dives. The visibility tends to be 70'+, sometimes there is a little current, usually things are pretty flat, so it is easy & fun diving. The conditions are near optimal when I have been there. The wall starts at anywhere between 25' and 50' depending on the site. Since the wall is north facing, it does tend to be in the shade. There are swim throughs, coral heads, and quite a bit of interesting stuff. The park is well protected from fishing so you will see many large Nassau grouper. The turtles tend to ignore divers so you can get very close to them, if you are so inclined. Most of the time, the boat will anchor in reasonably shallow water so you can do your safety stop at a coral head gawking at the critters instead of being suspended in the water column.

There are a couple of other dive resorts on the island. From what I have heard, all are highly regarded. LCBR seems to be a bit more oriented to diving and it is not working at being a luxery place. I think if you want luxery, you go to the upscale dive resort (I don't know its name but it is easy to figure out).

My wife has been to Cayman Brac. Cayman Brac has much more going on as far as the island goes. That is from my understanding, Cayman Brac has restaurants and shops. My wife did not like the dive selection at Cayman Brac at all. I think they dove the Keith Tibbets 3 times.

If you like diving wrecks, potentially repeatedly, and you like more options for night life and shopping, Cayman Brac might be your choice.

 

[-hh]

...
1) For Little Cayman, are there good options besides Little Cayman Beach Resort? The group is looking for something pretty low-maintenance (the less work the better), so the all-inclusive approach is better than house rentals.

LCBR, Southern Cross, Pirate's Point ... I don't think Sam McCoy's reopened. Some of these don't have a PM dive, if that makes a difference to you.

2) For Brac, are there good options besides Brac Reef Resort?

Not really. There's the Alexander Hotel, but you'll need to drive down to Brac Reef's Reef Divers every morning (& afternoons), rather than a short walk from your room.

3) What are key differences between LC and Brac? Is dive quality equivalent on the two?

IMO, dive quality is equal - similar viz, similar critters, etc, but the dive terrain differs a bit. To oversimplify:

LC has steep walls with very shallow (but thus, low profile) shallows in the northside's Bloody Bay area, which morphs to slightly deeper craggy steep walls with sand on the inside & spot reefs (Jackson's Bight). LC's southside is typically in the Southwest corner and have similar craggy walls (swimthru's), but they start deeper; southside reefs are hard corals...IIRC, more spot reef than spur/groove reef.

For the Brac, the northside walls are similar to LC's SW corner walls, plus big sand chutes. Northside reefs are more often spur/groove than spot, and have longer slopes where you can get up into the hardpan if that's your interest. Southside reefs are hard coral (like LC) but more often spur/groove and often have big relief, which makes for more swim-throughs. Southside walls on the Brac are generally steep & deep to the top, with some huge relief on its swim-throughs - - basically can think of them as a bigger version of LC's Jackson Bight walls, plus since they're southern-facing, the view of the wallface off the dropoff isn't hidden in shadow.

4) For a "guys trip", is one place better than the other?

Depends on what the guys want. There's more opportunities on the Brac to seek out dominoes games with locals, for example.

5) Assuming it's either LCBR or BRR, is the food pretty good? Any need to go off-resort for meals? Are there other restaurant options on the islands?

The resort food at both places is fine...watch your waistline. For outside restaurant options, LC is pretty much the Iguana or another resort (Pirates Point, most likely) and for the Brac, there's several places to consider, most of which I'd say are not superior to the resort buffets...unfortunately. We've been renting a house the last few years and have tried nearly all of them...my #1 off-site recommendation would be a trip over to the North side to Aunt Sha's for an order of "(Daily Fish) Cayman Style".

6) Sounds like there's not much life off-resort. How are the bars at the resorts?

Fine, although they can be pricey at times, due to high taxes on alcohol. A case of beer at the local liquor store usually costs me around $55 or so. BRBR does have a cheap happy-hour at times that's worth attending.

...There is virtually nothing on Little Cayman. There is a little general store which sells wine and liquor just a "short" walk down the road.

Its been several years, but the last time that I was in the LC liquor store, I was amazed at seeing some really nice (oh, and expensive) French wines in stock.

My wife did not like the dive selection at Cayman Brac at all. I think they dove the Keith Tibbets 3 times.

FWIW, I find this comment of so many dives on the Tibbets to be very surprising, particularly if (I'm assuming) this was only a one week dive trip. In any event, there's some nice reef in the surrounding area for those who don't care for the wreck. For example, crossing the sand to the west, there's a parallel coral ridge that heads out towards the drop-off; around 30-40ft short of its end, there's a pretty window ("Margo's Corner", named after Margo McElroy).

If you like diving wrecks, potentially repeatedly, and you like more options for night life and shopping, Cayman Brac might be your choice.

For wrecks on the two islands, hmm.

• Brac/north: 356 Russian Destroyer (aka "Capt Keith Tibbets")
• Brac/north: Cayman Mariner (now in 2 pieces) Workboat at "East Chute". Easy to skip if not interested.
• Brac/north: Kissammee tugboat - near Scott Dock and now hard to find since they're using a new mooring location.
• Brac/south: Prince Frederick (19th century real wreck) - anchor chain piles; mast; ribs. Shallow water on exposed southside makes it a hard one to score a visit

• Little/south: Soto Trader .. real wreck; not far from the South Hole Sound inlet.
• Little/south: Yellow Rose ... real diveboat wreck. Only engine blocks remain.
• Little/south: (can't recall) ... another real diveboat wreck; again, only an engine block and easy to overlook

Plus there's also been a few modern wrecks that have been since removed, as well as several dive sites that have ancient anchors somewhere on them, both on Little and the Brac.

-hh