Cayman Islands or Virgin Islands???

My wife and I are planning our dive vacation for this year and as much as we'd like to go back to the South Pacific, the budget just can't justify it. We're thinking about the Caymans or the Virgin Islands. Any suggestions where to go, where to stay, where to dive, and who are the better dive operations. We live in Pennsylvania, so it won't be too long a flight. Any input would be appreciated. We're going either mid July or Mid August. Thanks!

I will have to say Cayman Brac or Little Cayman. Brac Reef or their sister resort on Little Cayman are good starts, they always have dive packages available. On Cayman Brac, the new shop Brac Scuba Shack has a more personalized service. They will take you to the sites on the South side as well as off to Little Cayman.

No prettier place to dive in the world. No crime, good food, easy to get to, reefs in good shape, sharks,groupers, walls, giant sponges, clear water, friendly people, safe dive operations, excellent shore diving, pretty beaches with no people. World class rock climbing and all around beautiful place. Buy trip insurance for the remote chance of a tropical storm. Have fun

British Virgin Island has some awesome diving and are really pretty with some good dive operators. Can't go wrong with Dive BVI. Must do dives include the Rhone and Chichuzen. But what type of diving do you prefer? Wreck or reef? If you like wrecks, Bermuda is warm that time of year and has loads (300+) wrecks. Have a good all inclusive option there with great dive operation on property.
August: Anywhere you decide on north of Grenada, get trip insurance for tropical storms.

Hi New Scuba Guy,

Not knowing what your budget may be, I'll offer some suggestions based on my travel expenses. I'm guessing that it may be flight durations not budget that has you looking in the Caribbean...? I base my suggestions on my personal expenses for my wife and I. We travel to Little Cayman a couple of times a year and occasionally to the Bay Islands. It typically costs us about $6000 to the Caymans and about $8000 to the Bay Islands. So for comparison, to Little Cayman, about $3000 per person. We have packages to Beqa Lagoon in Fiji right now for $2909 per person including air out of LAX. We also had some deals to VoliVoli for about $2800 including air. So you can do Fiji for about the same as my personal costs to Little Cayman.

Comparing other packages with Little Cayman and Brac in the $1700 per person range NOT including air.

Manta Ray Bay Resort on Yap $1350 pp for the Manata Fest
Kungkungan Bay Indonesia $1450 pp
Yap Pacific Resort $1650 pp
Crystal Blue Anilao Philippines $1450 pp

Now these destinations require longer flights and travel times, but we are finding flights in the $1300-$1700 range which puts these packages in the $3000 range including airfare. Other options include some liveaboards and we are getting Red Sea packages for 7 nights for about $2850 including airfare for example.

All that said, I always recommend Little Cayman Beach Resort, Brac Reef Resort, Compass Point and Cobalt Coast on Grand Cayman for food, service, rooms and excellent dive ops plus beautiful dive sites. If you are interested in details, I'd be glad to do so off forum. Hope this helps.

New Scuba Guy,

I just took a trip to Grand Cayman in January, and I stayed with Sunset House. You can read all about my trip here ---> Diving Grand Cayman|Underwater Photography Guide

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Michael

We reserved a week at Little Cayman Resort in the middle of October. About 40% less expensive for low season rate.

I LOVE diving Little Cayman! I hope you have a wonderful time! I have no experience with the resort. I have been there three times by liveaboard. Enjoy!

I have been to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands and Little Cayman. Virgin Gorda has better scenery. The island has quite a bit of top side activities. Dive BVI does a good job but you are not going to do more than 2 dives per day usually. The Wreck of the Rhone is a great wreck dive. The diving is good. The area is fished quite a bit so you will not see much in the way of large things.

Little Cayman has great wall diving. The visibility is usually very good. You can dive the wall or the shallow reef at the top of it. You usually see nurse sharks, turtles, stingrays, a few reef sharks, very large Nassau grouper and maybe an eagle ray. So there are quite a few big things. There are also numerous small things and the reef life is good. You can easily get in 3 dives per day. But, the topside activities are very limited unless you like kayaking and bird watching. Of course, you have more opportunities for top side things on Cayman Brac or Grand Cayman. There is even an endemic iguana on the Caymans and an endemic parrot species. I am using "endemic" to mean a species unique to that area.

It really depends on what you like, they are different.