Hey all,
Recently had the opportunity to visist Grand Cayman for a week of vacation - ok mostly diving, and wanted to gush about what an awesome place it is...
Stayed at the Spanish Bay Reef & Resort - which has an awesome reef right there. A large outcropping of huge sandbags kept you from having to worry about the ocean waves/currents as you were getting situated. The near reef averages 45-55', across a sand flat a second coralhead down to 70' leading down to the edge of the wall at 120' where it disappears into the abyss. This was maybe 100 or so yards off shore. I've had longer surface swims at the quarry. Plenty of marinelife, conch, fish, rays right there.
The dive shop is run by Resort Sports Ltd, the resort had unlimited daytime shore diving. Nice folks - very helpful. The only downsides: 1, can only dive when the shop is open - (no shore night dives unless you pay for two instructors with surface support) and 2, last tank leaves the shop at 4pm, so they can close up at 5pm, and 3, the boat dives are run out of the sister resort on 7 Mile Beach, so you have to tote your gear on a bus/van. These are really only minor annoyances.... not real complaints.
Went out for a few boat dives with them as well. The boat crew/dm's are a good bunch. No regiment about time in the water, so we were all free to dive according to our computers/air consumption. (I've been on some boats where they're on a schedule - something akin to "45minutes from when the first person hits the water"... no rushing here. Very relaxed operation out to have safe fun.
The last two days we did a shore dive each with Dive Tech at Turtle Reef and Eden Rock at, you guessed it, Eden Rock. Both are great outfits, drop off yer c-card, grab the tanks and hit the water. Turtle Reef had a moderate/strong current, everything else was like swimming in an aquarium.... Eden Rock has awesome cavern/swimthroughs in 35' of water. Crystal Clear visability and I managed with swimtrunks and a diveskin top picked up at the local Diver's Supply.
Spanish Bay is an all-inclusive resort on the far North West of the island by Hell - kinda remote, we rented a minivan so getting around town wasn't an issue. Apparently this was the off-season and there were maybe 10 other folks there the entire time of our visit. Got to meet a few really nice folks who we ended up running into the whole time. Food was awesome, staff was courteous and care-free. A fun time and I'll definately return the next time the opportunity presents itself.
Recently had the opportunity to visist Grand Cayman for a week of vacation - ok mostly diving, and wanted to gush about what an awesome place it is...
Stayed at the Spanish Bay Reef & Resort - which has an awesome reef right there. A large outcropping of huge sandbags kept you from having to worry about the ocean waves/currents as you were getting situated. The near reef averages 45-55', across a sand flat a second coralhead down to 70' leading down to the edge of the wall at 120' where it disappears into the abyss. This was maybe 100 or so yards off shore. I've had longer surface swims at the quarry. Plenty of marinelife, conch, fish, rays right there.
The dive shop is run by Resort Sports Ltd, the resort had unlimited daytime shore diving. Nice folks - very helpful. The only downsides: 1, can only dive when the shop is open - (no shore night dives unless you pay for two instructors with surface support) and 2, last tank leaves the shop at 4pm, so they can close up at 5pm, and 3, the boat dives are run out of the sister resort on 7 Mile Beach, so you have to tote your gear on a bus/van. These are really only minor annoyances.... not real complaints.
Went out for a few boat dives with them as well. The boat crew/dm's are a good bunch. No regiment about time in the water, so we were all free to dive according to our computers/air consumption. (I've been on some boats where they're on a schedule - something akin to "45minutes from when the first person hits the water"... no rushing here. Very relaxed operation out to have safe fun.
The last two days we did a shore dive each with Dive Tech at Turtle Reef and Eden Rock at, you guessed it, Eden Rock. Both are great outfits, drop off yer c-card, grab the tanks and hit the water. Turtle Reef had a moderate/strong current, everything else was like swimming in an aquarium.... Eden Rock has awesome cavern/swimthroughs in 35' of water. Crystal Clear visability and I managed with swimtrunks and a diveskin top picked up at the local Diver's Supply.
Spanish Bay is an all-inclusive resort on the far North West of the island by Hell - kinda remote, we rented a minivan so getting around town wasn't an issue. Apparently this was the off-season and there were maybe 10 other folks there the entire time of our visit. Got to meet a few really nice folks who we ended up running into the whole time. Food was awesome, staff was courteous and care-free. A fun time and I'll definately return the next time the opportunity presents itself.