I'd like to dive all three islands if possible. The family will be staying on 7 mile beach on Grand Cayman for 2 weeks, so I will probably want to spend at least 4 or 5 nights on GC to visit them. I am arriving a day earlier than the family though so my thought is to start out on either LC or CB first. I don't necessarily have a time limit on how long I can stay there as I can theoretically stay longer after the family is gone. That being said, the sooner I can wrap up the cayman trip, the more time I will have available for my "bucket list" LOB before I head back to work in September.
I'm open to suggestions! What do you think would be best?
I think i read somewhere that there are ferries between the islands that take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, but maybe i misread that. Wouldn't that be a better option if I'm trying to do all 3 back to back so I don't have to wait around for a day in between each?
You have 2 weeks so it makes sense to visit and dive at least 2 of the Cayman islands. There are no ferries so you will have to fly back and forth between the islands.
There are lots of excellent dive ops available in the 7MB area of Grand Cayman, and there is some great diving on GC. The 2 most popular Cayman dives are Stingray City and the Kittiwake wreck and most dive ops will take you to those sites, but they go on different days and at different times so you would have to work that out with your schedule. There are also several good shore dive sites available and renting tanks and weights is cheap, so perhaps you could work that into your family schedule; do you plan to rent a car? Keep in mind that you will need a buddy to shore dive.
If you stay in the 7MB area you can dive the Kittiwake, SRC, the West and South Sides and the popular North Wall - weather permitting. If you want to see sharks then your best option is to dive the East End, but it is not practical to try and do that from the 7MB/West Bay area. It's too far away and the traffic is bad. You would have to relocate to the East End and stay at a place like Compass Point to dive with Ocean Frontiers or another East End op. But you are sure to see lots of sharks in Cuba, so maybe that's not as important? We generally see some Reef Sharks and Nurse Sharks in Cayman but it is not as "sharky" as some other Caribbean destination. Lots of turtles though, and stingrays (and groupers around the Sister Islands.)
The 2 most popular diver-dedicated, all-inclusive resorts on the small, quiet Sister Islands are the Little Cayman Beach Resort and the Cayman Brac Beach Resort; we have stayed at both and like them a lot.
If you stay at LCBR they offer a half-day trip over to Brac for a couple of dives including the Tibbetts (Russian Frigate) Wreck, weather permitting. And if you stay at the CBBR they will do the same, offering a half-day trip to Little Cayman to dive Bloody Bay Wall, again weather permitting.
Of the two sister islands, the diving is best around Little Cayman (some of the best diving in the Caribbean IMO) as long the weather is good and they can get out to BBW. The weather is usually fine in August as long as there are no storms. It can get windy and rough anywhere in the Caribbean, including Cuba, when there are storms in the area.
I have a suggestion, the LCBR and the CBBR both use Reef Divers as their excellent dive op; and they have another location on Grand Cayman at Cobalt Coast Grand Cayman Resort, which also has onsite shore diving on the house reef. They are close to the North Wall and that is great diving. Cobalt Coast is a bit of a drive north of 7MB but there isn't much traffic in that direction.
Maybe you could contact the Clearly Cayman Resorts and arrange to do some dives at Cobalt Coast (shore dives, Kittiwake, Sting Ray City, etc.) while you are staying with family. And then book a stay at LCBR (if they have availability - it books up fast) or CBBR - and plan on taking the half-day trip over to the other island to dive.
They might offer you a good deal if you are interested in using all of their resorts - perhaps waive the single supplement or something like that? There are other resorts and dive ops on LC but they usually shut down in Aug/Sep for the slow season so LCBR is probably the only choice - and it's great.
But if that is not appealing, there are lots of excellent dive ops on GC that service the 7MB area, and then you can make separate arrangements for the Sister Islands. I am always trying to find the best pricing, and it might be convenient to have the Clearly Cayman Resort Booking agents (Reef Fantaseas) take care of all the arrangements and transfers.
Here is the link for the Clearly Cayman Resorts:
Clearly Cayman
