Grand Cayman- East End advice

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h2oDawg

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Location
Louisiana
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We are going to Grand Cayman in June and staying at The Reef on the East End of the island. My main question is about dive operations, but any other suggestions of things to do while there would be greatly appreciated. We will have 3 experienced divers and one new diver. What dive shops do you recommend and why? If you recommend a dive shop do they allow you to rent tanks for shore diving? Shore diving location suggestions?

This is the first time to the Caymans for all of us. Any recommendations on things to see or do while we are there? Sites, restaurants, etc. We are planning on the Stingray sandbar visit, any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Below is a thread about non-diving things to do topside on GC.

Do you have a Garmin GPS (or can you borrow one) along with a cigarette lighter charger? We have found that our old Garmin is very useful for navigating the island and in negotiating roundabouts. My apple iphone maps are not as good - although I haven't tried them recently. I read that Garmin used to have offices on GC and that's why they offer good GC maps.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cayman-islands/437891-topside.html#post6532430
 
I would dive with Ocean Frontiers. First Class operation.
Most of the easily accessible shore dives are on the west side of the island and have on site dive shops that will rent you tanks.

They include Sundivers at Turtle Reef and Dive Tech at Lighthouse Point and Cobalt Coast.

There are other not as good shore dives on the west that I would not bother with. There is some shore diving on the east side of the island but entries, currents, and surface swims would not be good for your newbie.

I do not personally know the restaurant scene on the east end of the island.
 
As a general rule, East End dive operations do not rent out tanks. Most of the shore dives that visitors do have on-site ops that don't allow outside tanks anyway. There are shore dive sites on the East side of the island, but they are not marked and local knowledge of currents and terrain is almost a must.

Ocean Frontiers is good and there is a dive op on-site next door to you at Morritt's (Tortuga Divers) that isn't bad either. The advantage to Tortuga is that you can walk out of your room and jump on the dive boat. No vehicles involved. I read that there is a new op that operates out of the Reef, but I know nothing about them. I believe there was a recent thread that mentioned them and said that they weren't quite ready for prime-time. As with any dive shop recommendations take any you see here with a grain of salt,. Staff and management changes happen rapidly and a good shop can become a bad shop (or vice-versa) in a short period of time.

A couple of things to note. Depending on traffic and time of day, you are 30 minutes to an hour plus away from town. Don't try to go to town during morning rush hour and don't try to come back from town during afternoon rush hour if you can avoid it. I second the Garmin suggestion. They are, or were, a Cayman corporation and their Cayman maps are pretty good. Some of the shore dives in town are pretty beat up close to shore, but if you're willing to swim out a 100 yards or so, you'll be beyond the sections that suffer from too much love and well on your way to the main wall.

We'll be staying at Morritt's for two weeks beginning May 3 and I plan on posting a long, boring trip report then. Since Morritt's is right next door to the Reef, it might help.

Have fun!
 
I was at The Reef two weeks ago for a wedding. It adjoins Morritt's. I did three dives with Tortuga Divers. They run a two tank Am dive and a one tank afternoon dive. I did both on different days. AM was a drift dive at Anchorage Wall and then a shallow at Black Rock reef. The PM was at Omega Reef. On the wall dive we were in lead groups. On the reef dives you could either go with a guide or if you had a buddy you could do your own thing. Reef dives were from a boat tied to a buoy. The wall dive I cannot remember if a buoy or not at the start but we started over a reef and once grouped up we went over the wall and drifted with the boat coming to get us.

We were diving AL80s. Nitrox is available on request. I dove air.

Well organized operation. When I got on the boat there was my weights and a DIN adapter next to my tank. I had brought everything else but forgot to bring my DIN adapter. For diving we were split into three groups for the reef and two groups for the wall. They had clearly done the splitting by dive experience. I was with an experienced group. Viz was in excess of 80 ft Wall dive was a drift. We dropped to 93 and then worked our way up along the wall and finished over a deep reef. Did a floating SI. Total dive time 46 minutes. For the two reef dives the guide slowly ran a loop and got back to the boat in about 35 minutes. Then we explored the area and went up as air dictated. My reef dives were 57 and 62 minutes with 750 psi back on the boat. Group moved slowly so plenty of time for leisurely photos. Guides pointed out a few things like turtles, lionfish, baby drum, lettuce leaf nudis, etc.

We went to 60 and 65 ft on the reef dives. Boat was moored in 30 ft of water. A class and some newer OW divers went inward from the boat and did a max of 40 ft.

These sites were on the NE corner of the island. Short boat ride.

Bottom line is if I was there I would happily dive with them again.

Some photos are on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/steve.camp...0344.1073741836.1664066201&type=1&pnref=story

If you do not do facebook a few are at Diving in North Carolina - NCDivers.com
 
A few more comments, most hotels post a list of days that cruise ships will be in port and the expected number of passengers. We have learned to avoid the more popular tourist spots and restaurants on cruise ship days. Just too much traffic and too many people!

There's a lot of great snorkeling available on GC. check out Tsetudo's excellent guide:
TESTUDO'S SNORKEL GUIDE Cayman Off the Beaten Path

I am not familiar with the Reef, will you be staying in a Condo or apartment or an all-inclusive? Eating out 3 times a day can be very expensive so we usually stay in an apartment and prepare breakfast and lunch and then go out for dinner.

What day are you arriving? Many of the stores and markets are closed on Sunday.

When you go out to dine, be aware that many restaurants automatically add a 15% service charge, even for small parties. Pay attention to the bill. The pricing is confusing because they convert US to Cayman dollars and then add the service charge. Of course you are welcome to add an additional tip, but it is nice to know what you are paying first.
 
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Two other things:

The "Elizabeth's garden park" is very nice and the blue iguanas are neat if you are into Iguanas which I am.

Secondly, it is not cheap but the food at Tukka's was great. Mixture of Australian and Caribbean. We had a dinner there one night. Several in our party were widely traveled and used to eating well. Everyone raved about the food. If you are looking to splurge one night it is worth it. Also, we did not get there but a number of folks liked the lighthouse. Think it is also on the pricey end.

Good snorkeling but check with the locals. Particularly at the Reef there is a long reef with an area the boats exit at. There can be a current there especially if water coming over the reef and out the cut.
 
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Good snorkeling but check with the locals. Particularly at the Reef there is a long reef with an area the boats exit at. There can be a current there especially if water coming over the reef and out the cut.

There is normally a VERY strong current running out that boat channel. That is a major reason why Tortuga Divers will not rent tanks for shore diving. WAY too dangerous in that area. That current is a likely contributing factor to a couple snorkeling deaths in that area over the years. STAY AWAY from that boat channel. The barrier reef near the resorts in East End is too shallow and since it is constantly pounded with waves the reef is mostly dead there.

That is not to say that most of East End is difficult conditions. Quite the contrary.


There is a small Foster's IGA grocery across the road from The Reef resort. They are closed Sundays (as are all groceries in Cayman), by law. There is a Jacques Scott liquor store in the same complex. A small Italian restaurant and a Red Sail Sports gift shop round out that shopping center.

There is a small Subway location at The Reef resort. The hotel also has its own bar and restaurant as does Morritt's next door. With the above mentioned Italian restaurante, that is all withing short walking distance. Best to have a car.

Tukka is about 1.5 miles south, featuring Australian themed dining with a lot of seafood options. They regularly serve lionfish starters that keeps locals busy clearing those invasive predators from the local reefs.

Further afield you'll find Big Tree BBQ (open threes days weekly) and Miss Vivine's Kitchen (open daily) in Gun Bay serving local style recipes.
 
Several of my family snorkeled around the docks at M/R staying well away from the inlet. There is not any coral as noted above but they did see french angels, rays, a reef shark, turtles, lion fish, tarpon, and some other stuff. They all agreed that area was not the greatest snorkeling, and there was better snorkellng elsewhere on east end but they had fun and saw some stuff each time they snorkeled.

Tukka's had a lionfish crocodile fritter that was pretty good the night we were there.
 
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