GC / LC itinerary suggestions? Accommodation Recs?

[diversteve]

If due to flight times you needed to arrive GC in the afternoon and depart GC the following morning to LC, where would you suggest for accommodations that would be convenient to the airport and a place for dinner.

Also, what would be an ideal amount of diving days at LCBR?

There's not a lot around the airport - it's commercial. No airport hotel that I know of. And there's nowhere downtown to stay.

Probably the closest hotels would be on the south side of Seven Mile Beach along West Bay Rd.

There's a Comfort Suites and a nicer Marriott resort just past it - 2 miles from the Airport. They're on Expedia or the travel portals. Both have on-site restaurants. There's two at the Marriott - one is a slacks/collared shirt sort of place. The other is much more casual - I think we ate lunch there once. IDK anything about Stingers at Comfort.

There's also Sunshine Suites a mile further north. They have a poolside restaurant - Sunshine Grill - Trip Advisors #1 choice according to them.

Or head downtown about a mile+ to the south. The cruise port is there but the ships will be gone by 4-5pm and many of the shops/restaurants stay open later. There's a Margaritaville and Guy Harvey's Grille among others. You can also look for options by area here: Grand Cayman Restaurants Guide

You could also go 1/2 mile farther down to Sunset House - the dive resort. My Bar there is the divers bar with great sandwiches and a view. There's a nicer indoor restaurant there also and poke around the Cathy Church photo gallery if you're early enough. If you buy a print and Cathy is there - older short lady - ask her to sign it. And be prepared to talk diving for the next hour. She's nice.

 

[ranchonodinero]

Comfort suites is a bargain. If you are shore diving, lighthouse point is great with a mini wall and farther out the main wall. Eden rock has a lot of fun swim through but the reef is beat to hell. Sunset house has the mermaid statue and a landing craft. For boat dives consider ocean frontiers.
http://vimeo.com/102193509

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---------- Post added August 3rd, 2014 at 10:41 AM ----------

The video above is from two dives at turtle reef.

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[AggieDiver]

FYI, if you are having trouble getting Saturday flights and have some flexibility, Cayman Air is having a sale right now. We were able to book tickets for October on a Friday to Friday trip to LC via Tampa on Cayman Airways, plus flights from Houston to Tampa on Southwest for less than what we would have paid for two tickets on United direct to GC from Houston and from GC to LC on Cayman Air. If you have the flexibility to fly on a day other than Saturday, the flights are available to get you to LC without requiring an overnight on GC.

 

[Doctorfish]

Aggie, I don't understand your itinerary.
There are no flights direct from Tampa to LC. You have to switch planes. Cayman Airways can land jets at GC or the Brac but not LC.

 

[AggieDiver]

I didn't say I was going direct from TPA to LC, I said I was going on Cayman Airway from TPA to LC. We still have to change planes in GC. but we wouldn't have to stay there overnight, like we would if we wanted to fly on Saturday.

The way I normally fly from Houston to LC is to take United from IAH to GC, and then Cayman from GC to LC. The United flight usually gets in around 4pm, and we would usually take the 5pm flight from GC to LC. Unfortunately, the United flight later in the fall gets in at 4:40 and the last flight to LC is at 5, and United only flies on Saturday. In addition, for most Saturdays in October and November, Cayman Airways is sold out on the afternoon flights from GC to LC, with only the 8 am and 10:15(ish) am flights available. So there is no way to fly United and get to LC without having to spend the night in GC Saturday night. Even if you can find a flight setup on Saturday on another airline to get you from Houston to GC in the early afternoon, you can't get a ticket from GC to LC in the afternoon because they are sold out.

So we started looking at who flies to GC on other days of the week, and happened across a Cayman Airways sale going on for flights from TPA to GC on Friday (sale ended August 9). We would normally pay about $600pp for the tickets from IAH to GC, and about $150pp for the Cayman Airways GC-LC round trip. I was able to get the tickets from TPA to GC to LC on Cayman Airways for $380pp and we are flying Southwest from Houston to TPA for about $270pp, saving us about $100 pp on airfare over what we would normally pay. And I don't have to pay United's bag charges and worry about their gigantic fees if one bag is overweight.

 

[fisheater]

Little Cayman Beach Resort is hard to beat.

 

[Doctorfish]

Ah, now I understand. I've often had difficulties with Cayman Airways getting from GC to LC as well. Oversold flights, cancellation of flights and general disorganization.
LC Beach Resort is hard to beat. Brac Beach Resort ain't too shabby either.

 

[AggieDiver]

This is the first time I have run into this problem recently, but it is also the first time in a long time that we have not been flying in the August/September timeframe and buying tickets in April/May. Usually the 5:00pm flight from GC to LC is about half empty in mid-September (as is LCBR). I was all set to fly in on Saturday and spend the night at the Comfort Inn until I got the email from Cayman Airways about the fare sale and looked into the Friday to Friday itinerary.

 

[Hintermann]

If you are going to dive in the Cayman Islands. a visit to Little Cayman is a must IMO because the diving there is by some distance the best of the 3 main islands.

Can't speak fopr Grand Cayman but Little Cayman Beach Resort is the absolute best dive package place that I have ever stayed in. Superbly organised, easy to rach dive centre, nice rooms, plenty of good food and fun bar. The dive crew are very good and the boats are well maintained. It is not cheap, but far better value than several other dive resorts that I have been to.