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Grand Cayman |
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Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman, even more than a lot of Caribbean destinations, is dominated by its coastline. Seven Mile Beach is an iconic, seemingly endless swathe of white powder. And the beauty doesn’t stop there. Under the waves, the island has the best scuba diving in the Caribbean. Add to that some interesting historical sights, animal preserves, and loads of upscale properties, and you’ve got a premiere luxury-travel destination. Plus how many other tropical islands afford you the opportunity to go to Hell and back? Only Grand Cayman.
Activities and Attractions:
Seven Mile beach is actually only about five and a half miles long, but who’s counting? It’s long enough that even on a winter day with a cruise ship in port, there is enough powdery sand for everyone. It’s kept scrupulously clean, and you’ll see few if any of the hat and trinket vendors that so often disturb the peace on other Caribbean islands. It’s hard to imagine a more idyllic beach scene that doesn’t involve a shipwreck.
Even if the island’s beaches were ordinary, however, people would still come for the diving. All three Cayman islands (the other two being Cayman Brac and Little Cayman) are encircled by reefs not far offshore, and deep ocean not much further out than that. You can snorkel just about anywhere, and many scuba sites are reachable from the beach as well. Charter a dive boat to take you to sites like Wreck of the 10 Sails, the final resting place of four of the 10 ships that foundered one terrible night in 1794. A dive operator can also take you to famed Stingray City, a spot of shallow water two miles offshore where it’s common to find up to 50 magnificent but gentle rays gliding about.
It’s unlikely you’ll ever tire of what the ocean has to offer, but try to pull yourself away long enough to see some land-locked sights. The Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park offers a half-mile trail through 60 acres of protected land. Here you can see orchids and other tropical plants, as well as rare creatures like Grand Cayman parrots and elusive blue iguanas. You could also visit a butterfly preserve or a turtle farm. Two historic houses, the 1780 Pedro St. James National Historic Site and the 1912 Old Homestead, give a glimpse into life as it was lived here in years past.
One last attraction is a bit gimmicky but certainly unique; decide for yourself if it’s worth the trouble. At the northwestern tip of the island is a field of cratered limestone so forbidding that settlers named the tiny town there Hell. Today only a post office remains, where you can get your postcards marked “Hell”—an ironic souvenir of one of the most relaxing islands in the Caribbean.
Insider Tip:
The Grand Cayman village of George Town has some respectable shopping. Specialties include English luxury goods and fine local art. One purchase to think twice about, though, is jewelry made of coral. A piece snapped off a living reef takes decades to regenerate, so environmentally sensitive shoppers avoid encouraging the practice. If you need another reason to avoid buying coral in the Caymans, consider this: Local laws prohibit harvesting coral, so any such jewelry you see here is imported from another country—meaning it’s not even a genuine souvenir of your Grand Cayman vacation.
-Exclusively for Perfect Escapes by Nicole Clausing |
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