Hi bcornet,
I just posted most of this info on another Cayman thread, but let me list it here for the benefit of you and other posters:
We (family of 4, 2 parents, and 2 children, 18 and 20) just returned from Little Cayman (4 nights) and Grand Cayman (5) and had the best trip out of half dozen trips to the Caribbean over the past 4 yrs (also did a trip to Fiji in '05). There is spectacular diving on both islands, with Bloody Bay Wall on LC rating as probably our all time favorite dive site and island as well.
Little Cayman Beach Resort
http://www.littlecayman.com/ has rooms, as well as condos at The Club and Conch Club. It is an excellent place to stay with well trained, pleasant and courteous staff. We upgraded from a 2 bedroom at Conch Club to a 3 bedroom at The Club and felt it was one of the best places we have ever stayed in the Caribbean as well as East Coast U.S. beaches. Very convenient to walk to LCBR for meals, entertainment. Nice little grocery store in the island has plenty of food, and we purchased breakfast items, as well as snacks, and drinks. We rode bikes just about every where. After purchasing our groceries and drinks, the owner of the booze store gave me a ride with all of our supplies back to our condo.
3 bedroom 1 floor (upper) ocean front condo with porch was wonderful. Great views, nice outdoor hot tub and pool.
We ate breakfast and some lunches at condo and all our dinners at various resorts, which pick you for free. Food was very good at LCBR and we also ate excellent food at Pirate's Point (Gladys Howard studied under Julia Child), a great Friday buffet at Southern Cross, and Hungry Iguana, across the street from the airport.
LC is an amazing island with the Caribbean on one side and a long pond on the other which is the largest red footed bobie nesting site in Western hemisphere. 10 miles long and 1 mile wide at it's widest, with 100 residents and around 100 tourists. The entire island seems like one huge nature preserve. We rented a car the last day and spent a couple hours driving around the island on a well maintained road.
The diving on LC rocks!!! Reef Divers
http://www.littlecayman.com/diving/dive_shop.php has several 42' Newton custom dive boats that are the largest and most powerful on the island. All of the dive resorts are on the southwest side of LC and we were the only dive shop that was able to get out one day to the Bloody Bay Wall on the north side.
The sites on BBW and Jacksons Bight are unbelievable. The boat moors in 20 to 35' or so, while the stern is sitting over the 6,000 foot wall. Divers dive their own profiles, so you can dive on top of the wall, 100 or so feet down, or inside the wall parallel to the shore (which is never more than a couple hundred yards away), with very healthy coral heads, sand, turtles, rays, eels, reef fish, etc. The wall is breath taking, covered up and down with large, healthy, colorful hard and soft corals as far as the eye can see.
You leave the dock around 8:15 a.m., arrive back at the dock for lunch around 12:30 - 12:45 p.m., and leave for an afternoon dive around 1:50 p.m.
Nitrox is readily available and once you leave your equipment with the dive shop, the only thing you do is rinse your wetsuit, mask, and fins and hang them to dry in their large storage area, test your nitrox, and label your tanks. Pick up your suit, etc. in the morning and dive, dive, dive....
I can't say enough good things about our experience on LC! Even our children, who tend to prefer a fair amount of night life, thought LC was one of their favorite trips ever. They enjoyed bar hopping on their bikes, and even slept for a few hours one night on the hammocks at the end of the dock at the Club. It's a very safe, beautiful place with friendly people and incredible diving.....
