Request: Grand Cayman recommendations?

[Doctorfish]

Traffic is certainly not comparable to Bonaire. There are far more cars, more traffic on Grand Cayman, complicated multi lane roundabouts and left side driving. Everyone seems to drive much more aggressively on Cayman as well. I hate driving West Bay Road or the bypass weekend nights as there are lots of speeders out. There are multiple car accidents every weekend on GC. If you scan the Cayman Compass, there are always accident and impaired driving reports. That is one of the reasons, that on GC, we stay up in West Bay and dive with a local operator to avoid the traffic. If I were staying at TNI, I would dive with Ocean Frontiers and stay away from Georgetown and West side altogether. You will have access to the best diving on the island and, as stated by others, little traffic to contend with.

Bonaire has far fewer cars and right hand driving. The only concern I have on the roads there is actually Buddy Dive parking lot with divers driving big pickups and manual gearshifts that they might be unfamiliar with.

 

[howswedeofme]

For lodging, we love Coconut Bay. You can't beat the shore dive off the property. We plan on doing that more than boat diving next trip. We are partial to DNS and Dive Tech for our dive ops. We have enjoyed the East End (Ironshore Gardens is our fave) and West Bay area for dives the most (Trinity Caves, Big Tunnels) and north-ish (Lighthouse Point/Hepps Pipeline and Wall which can be either boat or shore dives). We have done much north wall diving, and hope to remedy that soon. For driving from West Bay to Georgetown, we stay off West Bay Road and get on Easterly Tibbetts for as much of the drive as we can. We haven't had many issues with traffic if we are careful to avoid West Bay unless we have to get on it. We got a reverse driver's side car to make us keep thinking about driving on the left. I guess we thought that maybe we'd have too many reflexes if the car were what we were used to an drift to the wrong side. That may not be a legitimate theory, but our driving excursions were uneventful!

The beaches on SMB are beautiful! And fun snorkeling. I did not enjoy the Stingray City snorkel and much prefer the dive. Less crowded, more interaction that doesn't seem as stressful to the rays, and you get to swim around to look for little critters toward the end.

Restaurants: We LOVE Sunshine Suites. They have amazing breakfast. Get the pancakes! The pancakes are so huge, and so good. Burgers are good too. And the breakfast chicken tacos. And the fish tacos. Just get it all. We also had a really good, but quite expensive. Sunday champagne brunch at Luca. Expect to spend more time there than normal for a regular brunch if you go, it's more of a day-drinking thing than just a quick brunch. Macabuca is a close second for me to Sunshine Suites. I love their cracked conch and conch ceviche. We also have had a great time at the Thursday Rock and Roll Bingo at Lone Star.

 

[EastEndDiver]

Hanglide if you would like any info feel free to PM me I own at TNI.....a car is included in pricing at TNI.

 

[tkaelin]

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[tkaelin]

Your getting good advice from people who know the island well. Having been going to GC many times over the years here is what I would add.

1. The perfect weeklong stay on GC for me would be to split my week between staying first at Compass Point Ocean Frontiers and the second part of the week over up in West Bay at Coconut Bay Condos. The packaga at OF includes the car and just let Avis know you will keep it for the week and pay the diff. The best diving on the island is diving through OF who can get you to North, East and South east sites which many consider the best the island has to offer. The east end is a great place to stay and explore and there are enough food options to keep you satisfied for say a 3 night stay. Between Eagle Rays on site and Tukkas down the street you really would not need more. You can dive 2 tank am, 2 tank pm or both everyday at OF except Sat.

I would then head to West Bay. You get to experience the other side of the island, will have access to 7MB, restaurants and some of the best shore diving the island has to offer. You can still do two tank am boat dives with ops on this side of the island. Coconut Bay Condos gives you shore diving right from the condos to Hepps Reefs which is the best shore dive on the island that I have experienced. You can dive it every day, multiple times a day. You are also right next to Macabucca/Turtle Reef which many think is the best shore dive on the island. The op is great and it is a great shore dive with a fun bar restaurant on site. You can actually dive from Hepps over to Turtle Reef or vice versa. You also have access to the boat and shore diving with Divetech just down the street which is another great op.

2. Avoid flying on Saturdays, preferably avoiding the weekends all together. Weekends at the airport, but especially Saturdays can be too busy and getting stuck behind flights that just arrived ahead of you waiting a long time to get through customs/immigration is no way to start the vacation. I fly midweek when I can and try for an early arrival and breeze through the airport.

3. Remember grocery stores closed on Sundays

4. On Air I found some of the best fares for GCM for June. The last two trips I paid under $300 r/t nonstop from NYC.

I think with all the good advice given you should be all set to plan a great trip that suits your preferences. Have fun and post a report

 

[KathyV]

Coconut Bay Condos are often recommended and they look great; and I have dived the Hepp's sites and they are fantastic shore dives. I once did a night dive on the pipeline and it remains one of my all-time favorite dives.

But I believe that Coconut Bay only offers 3 room condos, is that correct?

Like the OP, when we travel to Cayman we travel as a couple - so that's just a lot more space that we can use.

 

[tkaelin]

Yes I believe they are all 3 bdrm. But the rate for the pool view in June is $250/nite plus the 13% hotel tax. We travel with four or more so works well for us. What is TNI per night same time period? The plus is shore diving right on site you can access 24/7. If I recall the TNI, no shore diving on site and to dive anywhere requires a car trip and for accessing the west bay shore sites it is a bit of a hike, you are coming from the other side of the airport/GT and would want to avoid rush hour traffic.

 

[KathyV]

Yes I believe they are all 3 bdrm. But the rate for the pool view in June is $250/nite plus the 13% hotel tax. We travel with four or more so works well for us. What is TNI per night same time period? The plus is shore diving right on site you can access 24/7. If I recall the TNI, no shore diving on site and to dive anywhere requires a car trip and for accessing the west bay shore sites it is a bit of a hike, you are coming from the other side of the airport/GT and would want to avoid rush hour traffic.

That sounds like a good price for Coconut Bay and a good deal with the onsite shore dives.

We get a one-bedroom, beachfront apartment when we stay at TNI and the cost per week in June is $1299 or $186 per night plus the 13% tax - and that includes the cost of a rental car and daily maid service. We have a full kitchen but no ensuite washer and dryer but there is a coin-op laundry onsite.

There's no onsite shore dive, but it has a nice little beach, 2 pools, and very good snorkeling right off the beach. It works well for us because we don't do a lot of diving the first week on GC, we save that for the second week on one of the sister islands. But if we were planning to do a lot of diving on GC, I might prefer staying closer to the shore diving sites or at a resort with an onsite dive op.

 

[hanglide]

Thanks again for all your responses. Any advice regarding when cruise ships come into port? I expect our trip to be 6/6-6/16 and the port schedule shows 2 days (6/13-6/14?) with 3 ships in port. I'd guess we want to avoid 7mb/Georgetown on those days and head east?

TK -Excellent advice on stores being closed on Sundays, that has bit us a few times and I keep forgetting to consider that. We arrive on Wed. so we should be ok this time but we often arrive on a Saturday, are exhausted from the travel, and decide we'll just go shopping "tomorrow" only to find out nothing is open :-(.

< $300 RT from NYC? So so tempting... but... we live in central PA and it's a 4hr drive (at 2am). We've flown out of NYC for Bon, Cur, Au etc.. etc.. etc.. and EVERYTIME we do it I swear to myself that I'll never do it again.. This time we'll fly out of SCE, I'll pay the extra $200-$300 and have one of my kids kids drop us off and pick us up at the airport 15 mins from home... I think I can.. I think I can..

 

[tkaelin]

On the cruise ship schedule we look at cruisett.com for schedules. It is pretty easy to avoid any cruise ship crowds once you know the schedule. If staying out on the east end, it is a non issue except for planning a time to visit rum point. We plan any visit to rum point around the cruise ship schedule. Rum point is a nice place to hang out, swim, relax when the cruise ship crowd is gone. Pick a day when there are none or say if the ships leave in the afternoon plan a visit when they should be gone. Staying in West Bay or on 7mb, we avoid heading into town or public beaches on cruise ship days. If you are planning a dive trip and depending on where you are staying and diving with it should be easy to avoid cruise ship crowds.

On all our stays we don't go downtown much. We like to dive Eden Rock/Grotto and when we do we pick a sunday as it is all quiet with no ships in and most businesses except restaurants closed and an easy drive in and out. A week day or cruise ship day would be completely different experience.

As someone pointed out if you are staying on 7mb your beach area will likely be private (your beach chair area) but the beach will not be. The closer you are to the town the more crowd you will have going back and forth in front of your beach. If staying up in West Bay, it is an easy drive to 7mb with a number of easy access points. On our last trip we spent our last afternoon after all our diving was done at Calico Jacks/Governors beach. It was very enjoyable but the experience would have been completely different if the cruise ships were in. We picked/planned a Sunday with no ships.