Recommendation for dive hotel/resort grand cayman

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I will also check out cobalt. I’m just miffed that their website isn’t iPad optimized, so I can’t check availability...:( and I’m too lazy to walk across the room to get my Mac :)
 
If you stay along the SMB corridor pretty much all the ops will pick you up and there are lots of great condos but you would have to get yourself to shore dive locations. You might also look at The Grand Caymanian. We have guests who stay there and the love the units. The beach isn’t great and it is set back well of the road behind a golf course but has a pool and Divetech may have specials as that is where they have their shop/office.
 
If you stay along the SMB corridor pretty much all the ops will pick you up and there are lots of great condos but you would have to get yourself to shore dive locations. You might also look at The Grand Caymanian. We have guests who stay there and the love the units. The beach isn’t great and it is set back well of the road behind a golf course but has a pool and Divetech may have specials as that is where they have their shop/office.

This may be the winner simply due to a mix of price/pool/location and divetech being there. As we have 20+ dives sat onwards, we may settle for 2x tank dives in the AM from boat.. when you say you have ‘guests’ what do you mean? Do you run an op?
 
We may opt for the grand cayman, forget about the shore dives as divetech are also situated there, or pickup from there etc...but I imagine most pickup from most places.. as long as there is a dock. I’m just lazy and don’t want to haul gear/Nauticam/strobes etc.etc.
Grand Caymanian has been discussed recently and sounds like a good deal for what you get. Note that while Divetech is there, they don't typically have boats leaving from their dock on the sound there. (On some other thread someone said they might do it for a group booked there.) So you'd be getting driven to wherever the boat is leaving from, same as lots of other places you could stay at. Most pickups on Cayman are land pickups where they drive you to a dock someplace else, not dock pickups. I'm not sure there are any docks at all along SMB itself. But there are some ops that do pickups some places on SMB, directly from the beach. So you might look into that if walking out to the boat is more important than on-site shore diving. (Note that even places with docks, there's no guarantee their boats will leave from their own dock, it's dependent on conditions, and possibly destination.)
 
Grand Caymanian has been discussed recently and sounds like a good deal for what you get. Note that while Divetech is there, they don't typically have boats leaving from their dock on the sound there. (On some other thread someone said they said they might do it for a group booked there.) So you'd be getting driven to wherever the boat is leaving from, same as lots of other places you could stay at. Most pickups on Cayman are land pickups where they drive you to a dock someplace else, not dock pickups. I'm not sure there are any docks at all along SMB. But there are some ops that do pickups some places on SMB, directly from the beach. So you might look into that if walking out to the boat is more important than on-site shore diving. (Note that even places with docks, there's no guarantee their boats will leave from their own dock, it's dependent on conditions, and possibly destination.)


Ugh... good tip though, thanks... I really am extremely lazy...and spoiled :) it is great that you even get a pickup, but I’d prefer to walk to a dock and get collected if possible. Cobalt and lighthouse just went back up the list :)
 
Ugh... good tip though, thanks... I really am extremely lazy...and spoiled :) it is great that you even get a pickup, but I’d prefer to walk to a dock and get collected if possible. Cobalt and lighthouse just went back up the list :)

The Cobalt package with Reef Divers includes valet diving so they haul most of your gear. We visited the property recently and they have made some very nice improvements. The air conditioning has been replaced in all of the rooms and each room has individual AC controls. Some of the rooms have been remodeled but not all of them (yet) so ask for a newly remodeled room.

The pool and deck have been remodeled and they have added a hot tub. They have also added a nice prep and support area for the shore diving. The property is on ironshore but they have a small beach area.

The have a nice big dock and the dive boats leave directly from the property - unless they get winded out. When that happens they shut down the shore dive and usually take divers by van to the nearby West Bay dock to board the boats; but in May you are not as likely to get winded out - that happens more commonly in the winter.

I have dived with Reef Divers at Cobalt Coast but we haven't stayed there, but we have stayed and dived at their resorts on Little Cayman and Cayman Brac and we really like their operations and the valet diving. Their package prices include airport transfers, taxes, hotel service charges, accommodations, diving, and meals.

They offer an optional drinks package but I haven't tried it. The dive shop tips are not included. I imagine that they would transfer you to the harbor to get on the Aggressor since they offer airport transfers but you would have to confirm that. Since you will only be on GC for a few days and want to spend most of your time diving, it would be an easy option, and you could probably do a night dive as a shore dive on their house reef.
 
Started a conversation with you but in a nutshell most ops especially the smaller ones do valet service, if you want a couple days of a 2T and throw in a night dive there is no reason to stay at a dive resort. The many condo properties along SMB will have nicer pools and beach and you will have lots more dining options. We actually do beach pick up and unless the conditions are snotty it is not often that we are restricted. Biggest time of year that happens is winter when we are all pretty much tucked around south and drive guests to Red Bay — no one will leave their boats on the the west side if conditions go belly up nor do any of us want divers in miserable conditions when they don’t have to be. It’s supposed to be fun!! There are places like Cayman Reef Resort on central SMB and many condos along northern SMB where you can have the best of all worlds.
 
If it were me, who also hauls a Nauticam about, I'd opt for some place that has rinse tanks on site. CC, LHPT Not sure about Grand Caymanian..Holiday Inn whatever they are calling themselves these days. As Caydiver mentions, pick up from anywhere up and down the beach by a dive op easy. Some will store your gear and rinse it and have it on boat for you, but you still have your camera to haul and rinse. I'd avoid a "beach pick up", know some ops offer this docking pontoon type boats on the beach. At CC you either get loaded onto van and brought back to rinse tanks or leave from dock, with rinse tanks on site. Same with Divetech at LHPT. Check with them regarding rinse tanks at GC.
Coconut Bay also has good rinse tanks on site, as well as Sunset House.
 
Most places have rinse buckets available. We have a camera bucket on the boat (I know RSS does as well) and really wouldn’t be surprised if lots of others do as well depending on boat style. We now have a flattop Newton that runs right up on the beach so there is plenty of room for it. But even colleagues that don’t have facilities at the dock. I do remember many years ago when we didn’t want anyone touching any of or gear or equipment and not trusting how often water was refreshed letting it all have a good rinse in a huge bathtub in the old Hyatt. Happy memories Thankfully I have learned a lot since those days!
 

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