Getting to Cayman Brac from Houston

[grisher1]

Hello Everyone,
My wife and I are planning a trip to Cayman Brac in late April.I see there are no direct flights from Houston to CB and that our options are either Houston to Grand Cayman,then Cayman Airways from there OR Houston to Miami,then a direct flight from there into Cayman Brac.Not sure which would be better as I hear pos and cons for both.What do those of you with experience recommend?
TIA!

 

[js1221]

Flying into Grand Cayman means transferring to a small Twin Otter to get to Cayman Brac. It’s the flip of a coin if your bag makes it on the plane with you, or comes on a later flight. Going through Miami you’ll be on a 737, which means you don’t have the baggage issues you do with the twin otter.

 

[Doctorfish]

Coin toss. I personally would rather avoid MIA if possible. I've done the flight from GC to both Brac and LC many times and the bags are not "lost" but just delayed till next flight because of weight or room restrictions. When my bag has been delayed ( rarely ), it was delivered to my hotel early next morning. I think your bag is more likely to get lost coming out of MIA; then GC to Brac.

Further, the 737 flight from MIA to and from Brac isn't scheduled every day of the week, whereas GC to and from Brac is multiple times daily.


I highly recommend Cayman Brac Beach Resort, great AI dive hotel. Outstanding valet diving op.

 

[BrackaFish]

Hello Everyone,
My wife and I are planning a trip to Cayman Brac in late April.I see there are no direct flights from Houston to CB and that our options are either Houston to Grand Cayman,then Cayman Airways from there OR Houston to Miami,then a direct flight from there into Cayman Brac.Not sure which would be better as I hear pos and cons for both.What do those of you with experience recommend?
TIA!

As both @js1221 and @Doctorfish have said, it will depend on your plane preference and schedule. The direct MIA to CYB flight only goes on Saturday, so unless you get into MIA early, you might have to overnight in Miami. The Grand to Brac flights are on both Saab and Twin Otter. The Saabs don’t have a very good on time record and if full of passengers then sometimes luggage will arrive later. The Twin Otter is a fun flight if you enjoy small planes and sometimes you stop at Little Cayman first for about two minutes. Let us know what you end up doing. Be Safe

 

[diverswifey]

We went through GC several years ago en route to CB and it was fine- we also flew from GC to Little Cayman two years ago ahd those flights were fine also. I learned something on the 2022 trip I had not known (you may already be aware of this)- the Georgetown Yacht Club is about a 3 minute drive from the airport in GC- they have a free shuttle that will pick you up and return you to the airport so if you have a layover, be sure to take advantage of this chance to get out of the airport, have a nice lunch, snack, drink or whatever with a view and the use of a nice pool and pool deck area with locker/changing rooms. I would much prefer that to sitting in MIA ! George Town Yacht Club

 

[grisher1]

Thank You all for your replies and advice.I ended booking United to GC,then Cayman Airways to CB.There were better connection options this way vs going through MIA.We rented an Air BNB Condo at Carib Sands and will be diving with Brac Scuba Shack who will pick us up at the dock in front of our condo.We also plan on doing some shore diving.Will report back after the trip.
Cheers!

 

[AggieDiver]

One other thing to realize if you are bringing any duty free alcohol with you is that it will be in your carryon stuff on the United flight down to GC, but will need to be put into your check bags on GC. You have to clear customs and recheck your bags for the flight over to CB and you won't be allowed to carry it on through security when you go to board the GC-CB flight.

Oh and +1 on the Georgetown Yacht Club if you have a longer layover. Very chill place to hang out and get a meal and watch college football during a longer layover in the fall.

 

[divezonescuba]

Enjoy. Cayman Brac is my favorite place to dive in the Western hemisphere. Next time, you might want to consider staying at the Alexander hotel.




If this is your first time there, we have several videos on Cayman Brac. If you can get Liesel to take you to Little Cayman one day, Randy's Gazebo is well worth diving. Scotts dock is the greatest. I don't know anywhere else that you can do a wall, swim thru, wreck, and reef dive literally in the same place. Since you launch from the end of the drive on dock, you don't have to swim very far to the wall either. Another great dive is Hand Cuff reef on the north side if you have a car. The boats don't go up there.

I don't think anyone mentioned this. Cayman Airways has a tendency to keep cancelling the puddle jumpers all day, until they have a full flight. Then, they don't load your luggage because the plane is then too full.

Having experienced Cayman Airways on several trips, we always go thru Miami now on the 737. At least you know that you are going to get there.

 

[grisher1]

Enjoy. Cayman Brac is my favorite place to dive in the Western hemisphere. Next time, you might want to consider staying at the Alexander hotel.




If this is your first time there, we have several videos on Cayman Brac. If you can get Liesel to take you to Little Cayman one day, Randy's Gazebo is well worth diving. Scotts dock is the greatest. I don't know anywhere else that you can do a wall, swim thru, wreck, and reef dive literally in the same place. Since you launch from the end of the drive on dock, you don't have to swim very far to the wall either. Another great dive is Hand Cuff reef on the north side if you have a car. The boats don't go up there.

I don't think anyone mentioned this. Cayman Airways has a tendency to keep cancelling the puddle jumpers all day, until they have a full flight. Then, they don't load your luggage because the plane is then too full.

Having experienced Cayman Airways on several trips, we always go thru Miami now on the 737. At least you know that you are going to get there.

Thank You for the recommendations! We're hoping for the best with our flight from GC to Brac.The Alexander Hotel looks pretty nice.We'll check it out while we're there and may consider it for a future trip.We will have a car so will check out the shore dive sites you mentioned.
I see you're from Houston.What part?
Thanks Again,
Glen

 

[divezonescuba]

We in Pearland.

Another site that we enjoyed was radar reef on the north side. If you are willing to swim a bit, you can see the statue park.

The MV tibbets near Buccaneer reef is also a short swim out. Thats a great wreck.