Planning a Trip to the Grand Cayman Islands

Planning a Trip to the Grand Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands are three specks in the Caribbean Sea south of Cuba, and Grand Cayman is the big one: home to the capital, George Town, most of the population, and a shoreline that turns divers into repeat customers. Here is how to plan the trip, and how to read the islands the way a chart does, from the reef walls offshore to the one real hill on the whole map.

Grand Cayman 3-D nautical wood chart, the island carved in stacked birch with the reef bathymetry offshore

Three islands, one rock formation

Look at the Caymans on a chart and the family resemblance is obvious. Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman are the exposed summits of the same submarine ridge, an archipelago where most of the rock never breaks the surface. Cayman Brac sits about 90 miles northeast of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman about 75 miles, close enough to feel like sisters and far enough to keep their own character.

The topography is famously flat. Grand Cayman barely rises above sea level, which is part of why the water gets all the attention. The one dramatic exception is The Bluff, a limestone spine that runs the length of Cayman Brac and climbs to the island's high point at the eastern end. "Brac" is Gaelic for bluff, which tells you exactly what the early settlers thought was worth naming.

Grand Cayman itself is a manageable 22 miles long, a British Overseas Territory where you drive on the left. You come for George Town and the beach, but the island is small enough that renting a car and circling it is half the fun.

The water is the whole reason

Christopher Columbus sailed past in 1503 and named the islands Las Tortugas for the sea turtles crowding the shallows. The turtles are still the mascot, but the reputation now belongs to what is underneath: coral reefs, sheer underwater walls, and shipwrecks that have made these islands an international diving destination for decades. Grand Cayman is widely credited as the birthplace of recreational diving, and the reef-protected North Sound lagoon is about as gentle an introduction to the sport as the Caribbean offers.

If you dive or snorkel, build the trip around it. A few of the standouts:

Late afternoon sun over the coral sand and calm turquoise water of Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman

Where to stay: Seven Mile Beach

The easy answer is Seven Mile Beach, the crescent of coral sand running up the western shore with most of the island's resorts, restaurants, and nightlife strung along it. It has been named the best beach in the Caribbean more than once, and it earns it, even if it is not seven miles long. Measure it and you get about five and a half. The Cayman habit of rounding up in your favor starts at the shoreline.

You will find the whole range here, from the Ritz-Carlton and the Kimpton Seafire down to smaller condos and boutiques. Wherever you land, the water is a two-minute walk and the sunsets face you directly.

Off the water and onto dry land

The flat terrain that makes for easy diving also makes for easy exploring. A few days out of the water are worth planning:

Save time for the little sisters. Little Cayman is twelve miles of nearly empty beach and protected wildlife, the kind of place where the birds outnumber the cars. Cayman Brac gives you the drama the main island lacks: The Bluff, its sea caves, and rock-climbing routes on the cliffs above the East End Lighthouse.

What to eat

Cayman kitchens lean hard on the sea, and the cuisine carries a heavy Jamaican influence with a British accent underneath. Fish is the center of most plates, tuna, snapper, mackerel, and mahi-mahi among them, usually cooked with fresh tomatoes, onions, and peppers.

The dish to try is turtle stew, the closest thing the island has to a national plate. It reads like an American beef stew, but it is built from turtle meat, cassava, potatoes, onions, and peppers, a recipe that dates to the 17th century when turtle farming was ordinary work here. It is now served from farmed stock, and it is genuinely local in a way most beach-town food is not. Reservations help, even in a place this laid back.

Jamaica 3-D nautical wood chart, the neighboring island whose cooking shaped Cayman cuisine

The pirates who barely came

The Caymans throw a Pirate Week every November, complete with a mock invasion of Hog Sty Bay, a welcome parade, fireworks, bonfires, and a farewell barbecue on Little Cayman. It is a good party built on a thin history. The islands sat off the main plundering routes, which ran through Port Royal in Jamaica and New Providence in the Bahamas, where pirates could actually spend what they stole.

The one famous brush was in the spring of 1717, when Blackbeard's crew captured a Cayman turtling schooner. It was a minor footnote in a long career of worse. What the islands really offered pirates was refuge, not riches: a quiet place to repair ships, take on water, and recruit. Later, chased out of the trade by the British navy, some retired pirates settled here and turned wrecker, making a living off the ships that the treacherous reefs kept running aground. The bathymetry that draws divers today wrecked a lot of hulls in its time.

Bring the island home

The Caymans have a real arts culture behind the beach, from Cayfest, the national festival of the arts, to Gimistory, the storytelling festival that runs through November and December. Local artisans in George Town sell the kind of hand-made souvenir that survives the trip home and keeps the island in the room with you.

That is exactly what a wood chart is built to do. Every reef wall, the North Sound, and the shallow shelf that ends in that sudden drop-off get carved to their true depth in stacked birch, so the water you dove has a place on your wall the rest of the year. See the Grand Cayman chart up close, browse the rest of the Caribbean charts, or read how the charts are made before you plan the next trip.

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