Grand Cayman topside recommendations

[lauratm]

I'm thinking of heading down to Grand Cayman for the 1st time. My husband and I are divers while our friends are not. Are there enough things to do topside for the non-divers for about a week? We hear the diving is fantastic and the threads have been very helpful - I know as divers we'll certainly enjoy it. Any advice would be great!

How do the Cayman's compare to the US Virgin Islands?

 

[dashark]

The best thing to do there topside is nothing at all. just chill on the beach. They can do some shopping in town and go to the turtle farm, but, just enjoying the beach is the best bet.
As for the diving, make sure you do at least one day of diving on the east end! By far the best diving we did on the island...
Enjoy!

 

[RJP]

Just got back from Grand Cayman. Non divers will be bored to tears unless just sitting on the beach is their thing.

Shopping in town? Feh! Takes ten minutes to walk Georgetown from one end to the other. How many stores selling Movado's for MSRP do you need to go into?

 

[ianr33]

In reality not much to do that is not water related. If your friends like snorkelling there is plenty of that. A Stingray City trip might be fun for them. Maybe an Atlantis submarine trip? Gardeners might enjoy the Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Gardens.

I am told that eating out at fine restaurants is a Cayman tradition but my back pocket does not stretch that far.

You could always send them on Timeshare tours and insist that they take the vouchers for free dives

 

[lauratm]

Which dives on the east end did you do?

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Turtle Farm is much nicer in their new location, take a drive around the island to Rum Point, hit the Botanical gardens on the way back/to (but pretty hot to walk around and not for everyone), parasailing & jetskis on SMB, and yes there are lots of very good and very expensive restaurants but there are some good cheaper places too. Obviously Stingray City Snorkel tours, we also went deep sea fishing there once and I they have some glass bottom boats or submarines. Catamaran dinner trips....

Diving is pretty good, nice wall dives. One of my favorite spots was Tarpon Alley, we swam around some coral and there were huge schools of them in clusters. Tons of turtles, never saw any sharks, saw one eagle ray.

 

[dashark]

Which dives on the east end did you do?

I would have to look in my logbook to remember the names. However, we dove to the north of compass point. Both dives were on the wall, of course. We were very impressed.
We didn't see any sharks there either. Althought the DM's said that they had seen a few that week.
The new turtle farm location was pretty neat. they have a huge lagoon type swimming pool area there that looked pretty cool.

 

[scubawife]

Which dives on the east end did you do?

My favorite East End wall dives:

Three Sisters
Jack McKenny's
The Maze
River of Sand
Babylon

My favorite East End reef dives:

Cinderella's Castle
Grouper Grotto
Snapper Hole
Dragon's Lair
Ironshore Gardens

 

[ianr33]

The wall dives on the East End were what lead me down the "tech" route.Always seems such a shame to be in such an amazing place and only be able to stay for 15 minutes or so.
I could dive there every day for the rest of my life and I dont think I would ever get bored.
In my dreams I live on Cayman,own a rebreather and do 300 foot wall dives a couple of times a week.

 

[Turtle Gal]

Your buddies could always go to the Turtle Farm, The Butterfly farm(when I was there you could always go back many times if you keep your ticket) they can see new butterflies hatch. Queen Elizabeth garden, and they could go to Stingray city and snorkle, Snorkle at the Turtle Reef shop, lots to see, Your friends will want to stay away from shopping in town when Cruise ships are in Port, Alot of people and the traffic can be a mess. There is a museum that they can check out, I forget the name of it, But very nice. Atlantis Sub ride is nice, you can go topside if you get sick to your stomach. If your buddies don't snorkle now maybe they should, there is alot to see in the water,I didn't dive my first 2 times to the Caymans, And Im not a great swimmer, Snorkling doesn't mean going in to deep water to enjoy it. I think they will have fun, Enjoy, Turtle gal