Scuba Diving In Cayman Islands – General Travel Information
Here’s my general information article along with video on scuba diving in the Cayman Islands, definitely a step or two higher in terms of the cost factor compared to other cheaper destinations like Roatan and Cozumel. The Cayman Islands consists of three separate islands; Grand Cayman Island, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.
Grand Cayman Island with the capital George Town is the largest and most visited one with an international airport where most travellers will arrive at. It is the most developed island of the three with most of the hotel accommodations along a strip on the west side of the island known as Seven Mile Beach. Most of the scuba dive shops will also be located within this area so it’s very convenient for scuba divers.
Going to Little Cayman and Cayman Brac will involve taking a small commuter plane from the George Town airport run by Cayman Airways but the smaller islands are much less developed and visited resulting in a more laid back experience. The dive sites will also be less busy over there. Scuba divers will likely be staying at the small dive resorts on these two islands so expect to pay higher prices compared to those on Grand Cayman Island which are already at a premium compared to other less costly Caribbean destinations.
The Cayman Islands however has superb scuba diving as you will see in the video below and is usually regarded as the best wall diving in the Caribbean. Water temperatures are pretty constant throughout the year at about 78-82 degrees F or 26-28 degrees C but be aware that the Caymans are located within the Caribbean hurricane belt. So if hurricanes develop during the summer season, be prepared to make quick travel plan changes.
Here’s the video on diving in the Cayman Islands.
Grand Cayman Island has the Stingray City dive site at the north end and this is often regarded as the ‘world’s best 12-15 foot dive site’. This is where divers and snorkelers can interact safely with stingrays as the rays here are use to interactions with humans. The divemasters even encourage divers to feed the stingrays with bits of squid. As long as divers and snorkelers don’t do anything stupid like grab the tails of the stingrays, the interactions here are quite safe. You can see my Stingray City dive where I even got smashed in the dive mask by one of the stingrays all caught on video!
George Town is also a cruise ship port and it’s quite possible to scuba dive here even if there isn’t enough time for boat dives by the land based dive operators. Within a five minute walk in George Town where the cruise ship port is, there is a dive shop called Eden Rock which has two decent shore dive sites right out in front. I’ve done this shore dive during one trip when I was visiting for just a day as part of a western Caribbean cruise and stayed on Grand Cayman Island for a few days for another trip which included my adventure at Stingray City. I used Don Foster’s dive shop during my longer trip.
The ultimate scuba diving experience at the Cayman Islands will be through a liveaboard boat which will take you to the best dive sites at all three islands.
Other Attractions Besides At Cayman Islands Besides Scuba Diving
When not scuba diving, there are a few other land based attractions worth visiting on Grand Cayman Island. One is a turtle farm which has all sizes of turtle from the little babies all the way up to full size adults. Another interesting place is what the locals call Hell which is where some weird rock formations are found. There is a store on site and the novelty is to mail yourself a postcard from ‘Hell’. Cayman Islands has a banking industry as well as rum. Of course being a cruise ship port, expect lots of shopping opportunities too.
One day I would like to return to the Cayman Islands a third time and dive at Little Cayman. However, I already know that this will be an expensive dive trip since there are very few accommodations options in Little Cayman and the few dive resorts there charge almost as much as a liveaboard does. But the diving at Little Cayman is often voted as the best overall in the Caribbean and I can see why. Due to the high costs and hassles to get there (having to take a prop plane from Grand Cayman), not many people will visit Little Cayman so the dive sites there will be much less visited than other dive destinations in the Caribbean.
This is one reality check for us traveling scuba divers — if we want to get the best diving, we will have to venture further away from the main touristy destinations which are often overfished anyway resulting in subpar marine life and coral reefs left. Getting to these better dive locations will cost more money and time. So once you do all the standard dive destinations that the majority of new dive travellers go to first, it might be time to go out to more pristine areas even though you would have to pay more.
Update : I’m booked to travel to Little Cayman this May 2024 and will write a report.
