Grand Caymans Travel

We were there for 6 nights in February. 7 Mile Beach is the part of the island you want to stay on, we did an airbnb, probably the cheaper way to go.

The kids will enjoy stingray city, the turtle center, and the beach. There's water sports along the beach for them to enjoy like wave runners, banana boats, parasailing, and especially snorkeling. Snorkeling is obviously damn near free to do and amazing there. Coral starts just about 30 yards from the sand (10-15' deep) on 7 mile beach (gentle slope and super calm) and there's a lot of fish and lobsters to see.

If you want to swim with turtles not in a zoo type of setting, take the bus (few dollars each) or a taxi (more expensive) to Spott's Beach along the southern coast of the island. Take your snorkels and flippers and get there about 9am. The water there has a ton of sea grass that the turles come in to graze in the mornings. It seems around 10 am there were more, then they leave around 11/12ish, depends on the surf. Some days the water is calm and other days it can be a bit rough and challenging for snorkeling. It's pretty awesome swimming with them in a natural setting though. Definitely do a beach day (7 mile or Spott's). Take some towels, beach toys for the kids, snorkel gear, cooler of whatever you want in it, and snack. There are several public access walkways to the beach. Find a good spot with some trees overhanging the sand for shade to post up and just enjoy hanging out on the beach for a while. Book a half day fishing trip for the family. The island drops off quick, so deep sea fishing is only about a mile or so offshore, if even that.

For the best jerk chicken on the island, go to Sam's Quality Jerk An More. It's a tiny sketchy lookin place with only a few tables and he grills his chicken outside in barrels. Totally safe though, go for lunch. Second best place is Pepper's, which also has a good all around menu and some live music during happy/hour, evenings.

Biggest advice I would give though is to be ready to spend a lot more than you are thinking you will be spending while on the island. Everything there is 2-3 times more expensive than here, and I do mean everything. Grocery store, taxi, store bought booze, restaurant/bar booze, regular dining, fine dining, etc. For example, a 1# pack of bacon at the store is about $35 USD, a 24 pack of coors light is about $55/60 USD. Going to a regular place for lunch with a family of four and maybe a drink or two for you and the lady will be about $150 USD, nicer places for dinner will be well north of $200, etc. That was definitely the shocker of the trip for us, but we didn't let it affect our trip. We did what we wanted and just accepted our bank accounts were going to take a bigger than than anticipated hits in order to enjoy our trip to Grand Cayman.

Hard to say what my favorite part of our trip was.... swimming with turtle's at Spott's Beach, deep sea fishing, beach days snorkeling at our own leisure, stingray city, sunset from Calico Jack's (beach bar with a ton of volleyball nets), or Royal Palms Beach Club beach party. We very much enjoyed it all. Being land locked in the middle of a continent, we don't get to the coast/beach as often as most on here (once a year, maybe twice), so we try to make the most of it when we do.

quote:

---

Kids ages are 13 & 4.

---

I go about once a year on business but take a couple of days to chill there.

I ALWAYS get a rental car.

For the little ones, I'd go up to Rum Point (45 minutes by car from 7 Mile)

Also the QE II Botanic Park in the middle of the island is not a bad thing to see. Nice exotic restaurants on the SE quadrant (Tukka & Vivine's Kitchen).

Have fun.

Going for a week and wondering if we should get a rental car. We are staying on 7 mile beach if that helps. Thanks for the info!