PatW
Contributor
I have been to both the BVI and Cayman Brac. In the BVI, I was based out of Tortola. You do not have an all inclusive dive resort at Tortola as far as I know. Car rentals are not high though. There are quite a few nice restaurants on the island and some stores if you want to buy and prepare your own food. We used Dive BVI. Most of the divers were based on boats. We had to go around, pick them up, get their gear in order, and the paper work done. We were lucky to get in the water within two hours. Fishing pressure is high in the BVIs. I saw squirrel fish for sale in the local markets. So any fish that would take a bait and was of any size was absent. The Wreck of the Rhine is a great dive. There are some other very nice dives also.
Cayman Brac is less set up for tourists. You can rent a place and rent tanks and shore dive. One operator can guide you to shore dives. There are not too many restaurants on the island but there are some decent stores. I have always stayed at Brac Reef Resort. It is an all inclusive. They have good food. They have a very nice outdoors bar and a very good pool and nice grounds. The onsite dive operation, Reef Divers, is very good. They use good roomy boats: Newton 46. They do two morning dives: a deep wall dive and a shallow dive. They do a shallow afternoon dive too. And there is usually one night dive per week.
On the wall dives, the wall is usually 60 to 80 deep with 50 being about minimum. The shallow dives range from 50 feet to about 20 feet. You can dive the south side or north side weather permitting. I think the south side walls which are deep are better. You often see a reef shark or two on those dives. The Brac has large friendly Nassau grouper that often follow divers around. The dive masters kill lion fish and the grouper know it. You will see other species of grouper also. You will see angel fish, butterfly fish, schools of grunts, schools of horse eyed jacks, and many other reef fish. Also hawksbill turtles are common and often very approachable. You will see stingrays and probably eagle rays. The visibility is usually over 60 feet and often well over 100 feet.
The Brac has nice corals also including some very large pillar coral heads and some very nice elkhorn coral stands on the south side.
Topside, the Brac has some hiking, good bird watching including the Cayman Brac Parrot, biking and other activities. It is an out island so night life is rather limited.
Cayman Brac is less set up for tourists. You can rent a place and rent tanks and shore dive. One operator can guide you to shore dives. There are not too many restaurants on the island but there are some decent stores. I have always stayed at Brac Reef Resort. It is an all inclusive. They have good food. They have a very nice outdoors bar and a very good pool and nice grounds. The onsite dive operation, Reef Divers, is very good. They use good roomy boats: Newton 46. They do two morning dives: a deep wall dive and a shallow dive. They do a shallow afternoon dive too. And there is usually one night dive per week.
On the wall dives, the wall is usually 60 to 80 deep with 50 being about minimum. The shallow dives range from 50 feet to about 20 feet. You can dive the south side or north side weather permitting. I think the south side walls which are deep are better. You often see a reef shark or two on those dives. The Brac has large friendly Nassau grouper that often follow divers around. The dive masters kill lion fish and the grouper know it. You will see other species of grouper also. You will see angel fish, butterfly fish, schools of grunts, schools of horse eyed jacks, and many other reef fish. Also hawksbill turtles are common and often very approachable. You will see stingrays and probably eagle rays. The visibility is usually over 60 feet and often well over 100 feet.
The Brac has nice corals also including some very large pillar coral heads and some very nice elkhorn coral stands on the south side.
Topside, the Brac has some hiking, good bird watching including the Cayman Brac Parrot, biking and other activities. It is an out island so night life is rather limited.
thanks, will watch vids. We will be needing things to do after scuba.
