Grand Cayman – Coral Sands Resorts

Spend the last week of September 2006 at Coral Sands resorts at Grand Cayman. We are two couples with an infant each who like scuba diving.

We usually go to Cozumel or Grand Bahamas and this was our first visit with the infants to Cayman. Cozumel has a limited choice of beach ( south) and Grand Bahamas Diving is average. Cayman can provide excellent beaches and excellent diving

Coral Sands in centrally located it is 20 minutes walk to downtown Georgetown, and across the street from grocery store. The resort is rather small (12 units) and was almost empty when we were there (only two other units were used). The beach at the resort is full of rocks/ pebbles and one must wear shoes on it so we decided after two days to rent a car to use the public beach at 7 mile. Our kids enjoyed the rocky beach as they found plenty of hermit crabs and other crabs. During the day we took the kids to 7 mile beach. The best beach is the public beach south of the governor’s house where the sand was pristine.
The apartment was clean and well maintained and we used the outdoor grill to cook some fresh sea food bought at the fisherman (5 minutes walk towards town). Another major plus for this resort is that it had the best snorkeling of the island directly from the beach, (pageant and cheeseburger reefs) we brought tanks and made some shore dives. As you start your dive/snorkel you will find a school of big tarpons. These tarpons go from restaurant to restaurant at night for feeding and rest during the day across from resort(under the snorkel boat buoy). We also saw turtles and many tropical fish

Cayman is a sleepy island. The island is empty half of the week and fills up when the cruise boat appear Tuesday through Thursday. You get a view of the cruise boats from the resort.

We went diving on the north side with a dive operator, left the house at 7:30 and were back by 11:30 the trip cost was 85$ PP. Water temp was in the high 80. The dives were on the wall and we saw some rays and turtles. Afternoon we had shore dives which I liked as much as the boat dives. My favorite shore dive was the turtle farm perfect and pristine.

We went out twice for dinner, we ate at the lobster house ( next block from resort) and cost was rather pricy.

In summary
Cayman is an excellent choice- we plan to come back

Coral Sands is a good choice, however if you can get a resort on seven mile beach ( RCI does not have one) do so.
Rent a car – use it for shore diving/ going to beach. Take max one or two boat dives.
Eat at resort- the best view and the best fresh fish.