We have been selling the Cayman Island for many years and always received fabulous feedback from all our customers that have visited! We have never had the opportunity to get out there! This trip came up and I jumped at the chance to get out and explore this part of the Caribbean! I can tell you now I was not disappointed.
BA fly’s to Grand Cayman with a brief stop and change of passengers at Nassau, the flight is easy and comfortable with edible food and drinks served throughout the flight. The 9-hour flight flew by and I soon found myself preparing for landing in Grand Cayman, I was excited to be there, this was my first work trip away since the kids were born!
Our guide for the week Vicki, was there to greet us off the plane, a relatively small airport Grand Cayman arrival procedure through customs and baggage reclaim was effortless. We were promptly whisked off to the hotel where we were staying for the night, Sunset House, and taken to our rooms. The rooms were large with 2 double beds, clean and comfortable, all fitted out with brand new bathrooms with walk in showers, just what the doctor ordered after a long day travelling! There was not much call for a night out, so we made our way to the hotel restaurant MyBar, which offers a spectacular panoramic view out over the ocean. There was a wonderful choice of food on offer, ranging from spicy Caribbean dishes to plain good old favourite such as omelette, I settled on a Jerk Chicken quesadilla, it was just what I needed then I headed off to bed!
The next morning, we were up bright and early and off to another lovely restaurant overlooking the sea for breakfast. It is worth noting that food is either traditional Cayman or American, daringly for my first breakfast I opted for French Toast with maple syrup and it was divine! Afterwards we headed up to Pedro's St James for some local history and then off to George Town Yacht club for more lovely food before catching our flight to Little Cayman Island. The flight into Little Cayman was breath-taking, a memory I will cherish forever! The crystal-clear turquoise waters enabled you to take in the magnificent outer reefs dropping off into the deep.
Little Cayman Beach Resort is a wonderful dive resort, laid out in a horseshoe shape around the restaurant, bar, pool and beach. It goes without saying that the food is mouth-wateringly delicious! Fresh vegetables, salad, pasta, potatoes and freshly cooked meat and fish are on offer with a selection of 2 or 3 desserts in a buffet style. Breakfast is done the same way with a variety to suit all needs. The jetty runs down from the dive shop and equipment area out to the 4 new dive specific boats that are moored up. Reef divers runs a valet diving operation, so you check in get your gear ready and then turn up to the boat in the morning ready to dive!
The first 2 dive sites we visited were, Lighthouse Wall which was a series of Bommies covered in colourful corals with an abundance of reef fish, including blennies and gobies, barracuda, Spiny lobsters, parrotfish to name just a few! I was lucky enough to see a turtle as I just got in too! Richards Reef was much of the same, a beautiful Blue spotted ray graced our group on this dive, it was amazing.
Little Cayman is world renown for Bloody Bay Wall so naturally the last 2 dives we did there, Mixing Bowl and Great Wall West, I can testify that it really was a breath-taking experience. One I would like to explore more in the future. The wall went down and down into the deep, a great spot for technical divers as well as recreational divers, the wall sported radiant colourful sponges, barrels, Christmas tree, hard coral with the usual array of fish, including a nurse shark, spotted moray eels, spotted file fish, juvenile spotted drum, pipe fish, hawk fish, lots of big grouper and my personal favourite a cow fish <3!
Whilst on Little Cayman we did a bit of sightseeing it’s a tiny island only 10 miles by 1 mile wide, they have a few things of interest on the island Booby Pond Reserve to see the Red Footed Boobies and Frigate birds, Tarpon Lake and we were lucky enough to get a tour around the CCMI Marine institute!
The last 3 days were spent back on Grand Cayman, we headed back to Sunset House and had another yummy dinner at Mybar! Thursday and Friday were diving days, very early on Thursday morning we headed to the East End of the Island to dive with Ocean Frontiers at Compass Point, with dive a 3 dive boat safari that was Site #9 Old Site 12, a lovely reef with plunging wall lots of reef fish, groupers, critters, sea turtles, silversides, sponges, octopus are but a few. Babylon, another favourite of mine and Chub Hole which was a lovely shallow reef.
Friday, the last dive day, by no means the least, came around so quickly! And it was a day diving with Sunset Divers, we went out and did a 2 boat dive in the morning and were lucky enough to dive the wonderfully formidable Kittiwake Wreck, it was a first for me and I was a little nervous but there was absolute no need to be! Lying at her deepest point it is only 20 meters, this purpose sunk artificial reefs offers everything a diver could ask for, multiple holes and hatches to explore and a haven for reef life. Then we moved onto Paradise Reef, which was one of my favourite dives, a shallow dive with bommies scattered around teeming with hard and soft coral abundant with marine life and spiny lobsters and giant groupers! It was fantastic!
The boat got back just in time for lunch and the dive centre offered out a house reef dive which I couldn’t resist going on! There is a sea pool which you swim out of and into the sea with coral reefs on either side, once you reach the end of the swim through coral tunnel there is a statue of a mermaid, and a tiny little wreck there to explore! The Cayman Islands has so much to offer, with lots to explore and dive that a week really isn’t long enough! It was as quick as that Saturday came around and it was time to pack up and head home!
Vicki was a great guide, she new everything about all the Islands, you could ask her anything literally and she new the answer, she was a truly wonderful host, the hotels were all impeccable and the diving was AMAZING! I really can’t recommend this trip enough….. If you go I might even try to sneak in your suitcase….. ??
