Spent a week on GC and unfortunately the "group leader" took us to more or less the same section of reef repeatedly for shore dives. I found the Eden Rock/Devil's Grotto area to be really poor. Lots of dead or unhealthy hard coral and very little fish life. Not interested in swim throughs of dead and dammaged coral.
The only dives that were worth doing (IMO) was the Kittywake (even though I don't like wrecks) and Oro Verdi/Paradise Reef - done from boat. Even these were disappointing from the standpoint of the "Cayman is the Diving Capital of the World / Best diving in the Caribbean" hype. NOT! There was more life but certainly not up to Bonaire or Dominica.
My exposure was entirely on the west end so I probably saw the worst of GC diving. However I would advise - this is an extremely expensive place to dive. A tank (air not nitrox) will run almost $16 US ($12.50 Cayman) and they charge you for weights - add another $5 to $6 Cayman for that ($6.25 to $7.50 US) - total between $20 and $25 for a mediocre shore dive. Definitely not worth the price of admission. Compare to Bonaire with a week of unlimited air (Nitrox free if you have the card) and weights free at $150 (doing 3 dives a day = $7.50 a dive)
The worst experience was being shortchanged repeatedly (not at dive shops) when paying in US and getting back change in Cayman Dollars. It ranged from always rounding your change down to an even Cayman dollar amount and keeping the rest to simply returning half the amount you were owed (waitress then disappeared till we left).
I'm glad I went as I always would have wondered. I will never go back as what I saw was that Cayman is extremely overrated, vastly over-hyped, and totally over-priced. There are way too many much better dive destinations that are less expensive and just as easy to get to.
Kharon,
I have not been to the 7 mile beach on Cayman for about ten years now.....but I will say that unless it has changed to a shocking degree--which I doubt, there are several ways I could enjoy it still.
First, while many will argue this( it is SB
, it is my feeling that all Scuba divers should be decent at snorkeling....and the snorkeling off 7 mile beach is excellent.
The reefs are so shallow, to me it would be ridiculous to waste dollars on tank rentals for the shore dives. In other words--before the trip, learn to snorkel/freedive
When I was there, I also found it very easy to swim all the way to the wall-- breathing with a snorkel, then do a scuba dive on the wall....and then return to shore with snorkel. I did not find this as something that could be seen as a challenge to anyone other than the most sedentary of divers.
My first time ever to GC was in the early 80's, and the first boat dive had me all excited about exploring this fascinating destination----the cost was steep compared to Florida diving in those days, but we considered it a non-issue. However, it began getting strange when it was explained that we had to gear up on the beach, and swim to the boat...not far, and very easy, but just weird....so we did this, then settled into the boat....and 15 minutes later the boat drops anchor, and motors out about 200 yards...then re-anchors, and this is the dive site for the night dive we were to do...Now I was pissed...there was no way I needed the morons of this boat/shop, to motor me out 200 yards. The dive was actually nice, but for the rest of the trip, we did all the reefs from the beach with no boat--and one trip with a boat to the wall--after which we then did a few swimming trips to the wall--which were easy.
Cayman is a place where you can be "taken advantage of" if you don't know the "lay of the land". If you knew someone that was a regular diver there, and you are willing to freedive and swim a bit, Cayman could be a great deal for several trips..... I like the big marine life off Palm Beach County a lot more, but I did enjoy the beautiful underwater seascapes of Cayman. And I would go again
( but it would be mostly freediving)
