This was our second trip to the Caymans and our first to Grand Cayman. We stayed at the Sunshine Suites and dove with Dive Tech. Sunshine Suites is located across the street from the Westin on 7 mile beach. Sunshine is a nice place to stay. It is clean and friendly, but nothing particularly special, other than their restaurant. The AC worked well and the bed was comfortable. The pool is clean and pleasant, with a relaxing space around it. There is a fairly busy by-way next to the hotel, but we never heard it while inside our room, which is nice. Rooms come with a kitchenette. The continental breakfast included with the room was fine, I'd say a step down from a Holiday Inn or similar with a limited selection of fruits and bread. Coffee drinkers can be assured that the coffee is good.
The best feature of the hotel is that we had complimentary access to the Westin resort and their beach amenities. We do not typically spend a lot of time on the beach, but this made it easy and comfortable to enjoy the beach after diving because there are umbrellas and chairs already set up and beach towels at our disposal. That being said, I am not 100% sure if this is included for all guests or just some. When my wife asked at the front desk to confirm this service, the receptionist had to look up our room number to make sure. My advice is to be sure to ask.
Dive Tech was a great operator to go with and we definitely recommend them. They took care of the entire reservation, including airport transfers. They picked us up each morning at the hotel and drove us to Lighthouse. (bring a cup of coffee for the DM picking you up and you just might make their day) This time of year, it seems as if all operators from the northern part of the island need to dock at the Kittiwake pier due to the surf being too rough for their own docks. Not a big deal, as we all just piled into vans and drove 5 mins. There was a bit of herding cats here as getting everyone into the vans and the gear into the pick ups seemed like a challenge.
The boat was nice and roomy and the dive sites very very close. If you are accustomed to Cozumel, these boat trips will be very fast-- wet suits go on right away. The DMs did a good job of guiding and we never felt pressured to be too close to the group, and we simply hung in the back. We don't mind following, but I also felt that if someone wished and demonstrated competency, a buddy pair could just do their own profile as long as they were back on the boat in 55-60 mins. Also, the SIs were relaxed and never felt rushed.
Highlights were: USS Kittiwake, Round Rock, Slaughter House Reef, and Trinity Caves. We did 10 dives in three days of diving and liked just about every one of them. We saw some beautiful spotted eagle rays on multiple dives as well as many turtles and some morays. One swimming moray was incredible and was visible for a good 60 seconds. The coral is very healthy, too. One dive was a shore dive at Dive Tech which we definitely recommend. We would likely had done another out to the "big wall," but the shore diving got blown out that day, which was our last. (boat diving was never a problem) The good news is we ended up booking two tanks for that final afternoon seeing that the seas would likely not cooperate with a shore dive and we were the only two divers on the boat. (a cheeky two) This may be common for GC, but there are definitely places where two divers are not enough for a boat trip and we really appreciated that we could get two more tanks in on our last day rather than have a disappointing way to end the trip.
Our two favorite places to eat due to the good food and reasonable prices were Eats and The Sunshine Grill at our hotel. The happy hour at Sunshine was a good way to get reasonable drink prices and the fish tacos and hamburgers are pretty awesome. I hear breakfast is very good, but we always ate the continental that was included, rather than the breakfast at the grill.
We had a great time and would definitely recommend a visit. It would be a good place to go with non-divers as the beach is really nice. If we return, we will definitely go with Dive Tech. If we have a big enough group, I could see us staying at Dive Tech's Lighthouse Point location. However, being by 7 mile was great, too.
The best feature of the hotel is that we had complimentary access to the Westin resort and their beach amenities. We do not typically spend a lot of time on the beach, but this made it easy and comfortable to enjoy the beach after diving because there are umbrellas and chairs already set up and beach towels at our disposal. That being said, I am not 100% sure if this is included for all guests or just some. When my wife asked at the front desk to confirm this service, the receptionist had to look up our room number to make sure. My advice is to be sure to ask.
Dive Tech was a great operator to go with and we definitely recommend them. They took care of the entire reservation, including airport transfers. They picked us up each morning at the hotel and drove us to Lighthouse. (bring a cup of coffee for the DM picking you up and you just might make their day) This time of year, it seems as if all operators from the northern part of the island need to dock at the Kittiwake pier due to the surf being too rough for their own docks. Not a big deal, as we all just piled into vans and drove 5 mins. There was a bit of herding cats here as getting everyone into the vans and the gear into the pick ups seemed like a challenge.
The boat was nice and roomy and the dive sites very very close. If you are accustomed to Cozumel, these boat trips will be very fast-- wet suits go on right away. The DMs did a good job of guiding and we never felt pressured to be too close to the group, and we simply hung in the back. We don't mind following, but I also felt that if someone wished and demonstrated competency, a buddy pair could just do their own profile as long as they were back on the boat in 55-60 mins. Also, the SIs were relaxed and never felt rushed.
Highlights were: USS Kittiwake, Round Rock, Slaughter House Reef, and Trinity Caves. We did 10 dives in three days of diving and liked just about every one of them. We saw some beautiful spotted eagle rays on multiple dives as well as many turtles and some morays. One swimming moray was incredible and was visible for a good 60 seconds. The coral is very healthy, too. One dive was a shore dive at Dive Tech which we definitely recommend. We would likely had done another out to the "big wall," but the shore diving got blown out that day, which was our last. (boat diving was never a problem) The good news is we ended up booking two tanks for that final afternoon seeing that the seas would likely not cooperate with a shore dive and we were the only two divers on the boat. (a cheeky two) This may be common for GC, but there are definitely places where two divers are not enough for a boat trip and we really appreciated that we could get two more tanks in on our last day rather than have a disappointing way to end the trip.
Our two favorite places to eat due to the good food and reasonable prices were Eats and The Sunshine Grill at our hotel. The happy hour at Sunshine was a good way to get reasonable drink prices and the fish tacos and hamburgers are pretty awesome. I hear breakfast is very good, but we always ate the continental that was included, rather than the breakfast at the grill.
We had a great time and would definitely recommend a visit. It would be a good place to go with non-divers as the beach is really nice. If we return, we will definitely go with Dive Tech. If we have a big enough group, I could see us staying at Dive Tech's Lighthouse Point location. However, being by 7 mile was great, too.
