We stayed 3 days on LC followed by a week on Brac. Here are my notes and pictures!
LITTLE CAYMAN:
- Our bags made it to Grand Cayman, but we had a tight connection due to a delay, and although WE made the flight, our bags to LC did not. The Cayman Airways ticket agent should have probably asked the baggage guy to hustle our bags along, but she didn't. Oh well.
- Arrival into LC airport is awesome. The airport building is smaller than our living room! My new favorite airport in the world!
- Checking into LCBR was a breeze - efficient, friendly, etc. Emma took our luggage receipts, and said she'd take care of it.
- She also opened up the gift shop so my wife could buy a swimsuit for the next morning's dives. AWESOME service!
- They had a Sunday free rum punch party with free appetizers. I like how all the key resort players introduce themselves and give you a heads up on what's happening on the island.
- Rooms were great - we had two queen beds - no big deal, but we would have preferred a King.
- We skipped the lunch option, and had great breakfasts and dinners. Interesting options, and quite tasty.
- Reef Divers provided rental BCDs, wetsuits for us at no charge since our bags weren't there yet with our dive gear. Nice.
- After the morning dives on the first day, we went to our room and our bags were delivered!
- Reef Divers' boats are very clean and organized.
- Pre-dive white-board orientations are a great idea.
- They do things a bit different: dive with the DM if you want, or on your own. We are OK with this since most of our recent diving have been on our own in Bonaire recently.
- I'd think that newer divers would prefer to follow the DM. If you do, however, the DM is the last in the water and first out. Different than what we are used to in Cozumel. It makes for a fairly short dive.
- We rented bikes from LCBR for two days. $5/day is very reasonable. Not a lot to see on the island, but we did get a nice workout on the bikes with some sight-seeing.
- Diving was great - many, many groupers, which is great. We only saw 2 nurse sharks and 1 reef shark at LC. We had a bit of wind, so we dove BBayWall only 3 dives out of 6. That was OK, though. It's good to see some variety.
CAYMAN BRAC:
- We stayed at CaribSands Resort. New building. Very clean, great (somewhat noisy) central A/C, good kitchen. We cooked in most meals.
- Resort location is great - only a short drive to Reef Divers. Nice dock. Good snorkeling off the dock. Neat place to watch tarpon, have cocktails, talk to others.
- We did three 2-tank boat dives with Reef Divers and 10 shore dives.
- Shore diving is great on Brac. Not as easy to find the spots as Bonaire, but definitely a nice option for those that want to explore.
- Tanks are $10 for air and $15 for nitrox. A bit pricey, but of course, only a fraction of boat-diving costs.
- We rented a car from CB - a short walk from the airport. Good prices, great service. They even let us borrow the car back after we realized the plane was going to be delayed for a few hours. No hassle.
- I also learned that 8 nitrox tanks, 4 adults, and 4 sets of dive gear fit in a Honda Civic sedan!
- We met some really nice people on the Brac. A Local fisherman/retired scuba shop owner gave us 4 huge Red Snappers for dinner and refused payment! Amazing. Airport personnel were helpful, car rental people were friendly, just a really nice island!
- Dives were great - one day trip to BBayWall, the rest were on the Brac.
Pics, more notes as I update this thread!
---------- Post added November 23rd, 2012 at 09:52 AM ----------
SHORE DIVING ON BRAC:
- We dove the following sites:
NORTH SIDE
>Greenhouse - fairly easy entry, even with higher winds and swells
>Radar Reef - dove this 3 times - once to do Radar, twice to do Atlantis (we couldn't find Atlantis the first try!). Very easy navigation and pretty dive. Entry isn't too bad, even with some swell.
>Sylvia's Cut - nice entry via cut in the rocks. Very pretty dive site.
>M/V Keith Tibbetts wreck. Long swim from shore, and we had big waves, wind. Nice wreck, friendly grouper, saw sting rays, and turtle.
SOUTH SIDE
>Bluff Boat Ramp - lots of algae until about 40' depth. Not our favorite, but decent entry
>Kings Point - local shark patrols the sand flats between shore and the wall. He seems large to me, but hung at the edge of visibility from us. Wall is spectacular! Entry is a bit tricky if it's windy on the South Side. We were going to dive it again, but there were 6' swells breaking into the entry point.
>Wilderness - incredibly friendly groupers - they kept pointing out lionfish for us in hopes that we'd provide them a free lunch! Barracuda, wall is also spectacular!
I'm sure I forgot a few sites.
They have red painted rocks pointing out most or all shore dives. Some have cuts into the iron shore with ladders to make exiting easier.
LITTLE CAYMAN:
- Our bags made it to Grand Cayman, but we had a tight connection due to a delay, and although WE made the flight, our bags to LC did not. The Cayman Airways ticket agent should have probably asked the baggage guy to hustle our bags along, but she didn't. Oh well.
- Arrival into LC airport is awesome. The airport building is smaller than our living room! My new favorite airport in the world!
- Checking into LCBR was a breeze - efficient, friendly, etc. Emma took our luggage receipts, and said she'd take care of it.
- She also opened up the gift shop so my wife could buy a swimsuit for the next morning's dives. AWESOME service!
- They had a Sunday free rum punch party with free appetizers. I like how all the key resort players introduce themselves and give you a heads up on what's happening on the island.
- Rooms were great - we had two queen beds - no big deal, but we would have preferred a King.
- We skipped the lunch option, and had great breakfasts and dinners. Interesting options, and quite tasty.
- Reef Divers provided rental BCDs, wetsuits for us at no charge since our bags weren't there yet with our dive gear. Nice.
- After the morning dives on the first day, we went to our room and our bags were delivered!
- Reef Divers' boats are very clean and organized.
- Pre-dive white-board orientations are a great idea.
- They do things a bit different: dive with the DM if you want, or on your own. We are OK with this since most of our recent diving have been on our own in Bonaire recently.
- I'd think that newer divers would prefer to follow the DM. If you do, however, the DM is the last in the water and first out. Different than what we are used to in Cozumel. It makes for a fairly short dive.
- We rented bikes from LCBR for two days. $5/day is very reasonable. Not a lot to see on the island, but we did get a nice workout on the bikes with some sight-seeing.
- Diving was great - many, many groupers, which is great. We only saw 2 nurse sharks and 1 reef shark at LC. We had a bit of wind, so we dove BBayWall only 3 dives out of 6. That was OK, though. It's good to see some variety.
CAYMAN BRAC:
- We stayed at CaribSands Resort. New building. Very clean, great (somewhat noisy) central A/C, good kitchen. We cooked in most meals.
- Resort location is great - only a short drive to Reef Divers. Nice dock. Good snorkeling off the dock. Neat place to watch tarpon, have cocktails, talk to others.
- We did three 2-tank boat dives with Reef Divers and 10 shore dives.
- Shore diving is great on Brac. Not as easy to find the spots as Bonaire, but definitely a nice option for those that want to explore.
- Tanks are $10 for air and $15 for nitrox. A bit pricey, but of course, only a fraction of boat-diving costs.
- We rented a car from CB - a short walk from the airport. Good prices, great service. They even let us borrow the car back after we realized the plane was going to be delayed for a few hours. No hassle.
- I also learned that 8 nitrox tanks, 4 adults, and 4 sets of dive gear fit in a Honda Civic sedan!
- We met some really nice people on the Brac. A Local fisherman/retired scuba shop owner gave us 4 huge Red Snappers for dinner and refused payment! Amazing. Airport personnel were helpful, car rental people were friendly, just a really nice island!
- Dives were great - one day trip to BBayWall, the rest were on the Brac.
Pics, more notes as I update this thread!
---------- Post added November 23rd, 2012 at 09:52 AM ----------
SHORE DIVING ON BRAC:
- We dove the following sites:
NORTH SIDE
>Greenhouse - fairly easy entry, even with higher winds and swells
>Radar Reef - dove this 3 times - once to do Radar, twice to do Atlantis (we couldn't find Atlantis the first try!). Very easy navigation and pretty dive. Entry isn't too bad, even with some swell.
>Sylvia's Cut - nice entry via cut in the rocks. Very pretty dive site.
>M/V Keith Tibbetts wreck. Long swim from shore, and we had big waves, wind. Nice wreck, friendly grouper, saw sting rays, and turtle.
SOUTH SIDE
>Bluff Boat Ramp - lots of algae until about 40' depth. Not our favorite, but decent entry
>Kings Point - local shark patrols the sand flats between shore and the wall. He seems large to me, but hung at the edge of visibility from us. Wall is spectacular! Entry is a bit tricky if it's windy on the South Side. We were going to dive it again, but there were 6' swells breaking into the entry point.
>Wilderness - incredibly friendly groupers - they kept pointing out lionfish for us in hopes that we'd provide them a free lunch! Barracuda, wall is also spectacular!
I'm sure I forgot a few sites.
They have red painted rocks pointing out most or all shore dives. Some have cuts into the iron shore with ladders to make exiting easier.
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