Loved this island and it’s people. It was our most recent trip before COVID grounded everyone, so it’s the freshest in our minds.
It’s a popular travel destination for lots of reasons: It’s beauty, it’s people, the beaches, etc. We decided to go after Cayman Airways started offering non-stop travel from Denver – so easy to get there! Only a few hours until you’re in paradise.
The most popular options for hotels are on Seven Mile Beach, a short cab ride from the airport. We opted to stay at Sea Palm Villas in Bodden Town, 17 km from the airport. This is definitely a place designed for couples, based on the set-up of the rooms. There are only twelve rentals (two floors with six rooms on each floor) and all the rooms have an amazing view of the beach. This is where you want to be if you’re trying to get away from the resorts and experience more privacy. During our stay, we spent some time at the hotel beach and pool on three separate days, and only once did we share the space with anyone else. It’s very private, very quiet, and absolutely relaxing. The balconies and patios are amazing, and we spent time watching the sunrise most mornings. We got some pastries and fresh fruit from the grocery store and had breakfast on the balcony, listening to the break and the waves. At night, it’s a great place for some private time as well. The place is clean and well taken care of, and Jacqueline and Julie were responsive and helpful. There are some minimal maintenance items we were responsible for, but we’ve found this typical of beach front locations. The food we found on the east end is definitely more of the local variety, so again if you’re looking for more typical, Americanized food then this side of the island may not be for you. We did find that renting a car is a necessity when staying away from the tourist areas, but other than getting used to driving on the left side of the road, it was easy and not that expensive overall. We loved being off the beaten path in Bodden Town. We spent a little more time in the car to get to Seven Mile and the West Bay areas when needed, but ultimately we were far more centrally located and able to experience the whole island on the trip. Awesome overall for us.
Long story short: If you like to have plain food and drinks at your fingertips while you hang out on the pristine and overcrowded beach on vacation, then the resorts on Seven Mile Beach are for you. If you don’t mind a little planning, are willing to shop at easily accessible grocery stores, and want a lot of quiet and privacy as well as great local food options nearby, then Bodden Town is the area you want to be.
Things to Do & See
The list is long, and there are many tour operators available for whatever excursion you’re interested in. Here are a few of things we did during our time in Cayman and who we booked with.
- Captain Marvin’s, Stingray City – A fun and unique experience. Ask for, Mitchell, Casey and Allison, the crew that made the day that much better. They were informative and helpful, and easy to hangout and talk with. We visited during conch season, so our first stop was an area where we went diving for conch that would be our ceviche for lunch. How many people get to do that? It’s difficult to successfully obtain unharvested conch, but it was cool to try it out. A couple of stops for some light snorkeling were next. The snorkeling here was not as good in comparison to several other places we’ve been, but it’s always a good time. Several rays were swimming in this area, and they and the crew are clearly acquainted. It was fun to watch these rays frolic and play with the crew. Next was Stingray City. We have swam with sting rays and sharks in other locations but never had the chance to really interact with them like you can here. As you’re standing around on the sand bar, tourists take turns feeding and petting the rays, who all have names and know the boats and crew members. There are rays swimming all around you and rubbing against your legs as you stand in the water. They are clearly used to people, as they have no issue coming up so you can touch them, and they often practically swim and jump into your arms. Just stupid cool. The lunch was nice despite an afternoon rain shower. The conch that we had caught as a group earlier that morning had been prepared into a ceviche that was about as fresh as we could hope for. Very tasty lunch. A bonus stop at Starfish Point was also added in. We had been there the day before on a different trip, but it was nice to stop and wade around again.
- ECO Rides Cayman – Shane from ECO Rides is awesome! What we love most about tours like this is spending some time with a local person who loves their city/town and wants to tell you all about it. It’s really interesting to hear about the history of a place and it’s people, which helps you understand how it came to be what it is. Couple that with some exercise on a bike ride along the coast and seeing some of the interesting spots on the much less traveled East End and it was a nice morning. It was only the two of us on the tour that day, so we had all morning to talk with Shane and get to know the place a little more. Unfortunately, it was really windy so the bike ride was a bit more arduous but still good. Opt for an early start before it gets too hot. Thank you, Shane! (You can find him on Instagram @ecoridescayman)
- Rum Point Beach – This beach is a lot slower paced and less crowded than Seven Mile. It’s nice to go to and relax, sit in a beach chair without having to pay for the space. The offset is that you’re at a place that has services, food and drinks; you’re spending your money one way or another while you hang out, so it’s the best for all. There are some good snorkeling areas nearby, and a calm swimming area right off the beach. You can also rent water gear.
- Smith’s Cove – It was very windy the day we were there, and for most of our trip. The waves were crashing hard, causing a lot of sand movement so the snorkeling was not great that day. Everything we’d heard about the cove indicates that on a normal weather day, the snorkeling is very good. Regardless of that, the beach was still a great place to hang out. It’s a beautiful area and we were still able to sneak in some sun and swimming in a cool location. Totally worth an afternoon.
- Starfish Point – We visited the point twice on separate boat tours/excursions. Both times, the beach and area was surprisingly empty for February. We had the chance to get in the water and wade around. There were not nearly as many starfish as were anticipated — hopefully not due to people illegally removing them from the area. How many other places can you go to do this activity? Holding the starfish and having them relax and wrap around your hand is a very strange experience; so cool to be able to get this close to nature, as long as you follow the rules so this activity can be protected for future visitors. Starfish Rule #1: don’t remove them from the water, as they can’t breathe.
- Seafarer Adventures Bioluminous Tour – You’re snorkeling. In the dark. With fish that glow. What more needs to be said? It’s totally cool and unique, and very hard to capture on camera. We were the only boat in the bay and had time to hang out. Getting photos is VERY tricky, but is possible with some trial and error and depending on what camera you’re using. Just hang out in the water and make small movements and you can see the glow. Nature is a wonderful thing.
- Cayman Crystal Caves – The highest point of elevation on the island is about 65 feet above sea level so the fact that these caves exist is pretty incredible. A shout out to our guide Robert, who made the experience more interesting and fun. This isn’t a long tour. It’s not a ton of walking, and the walking is easy and a nice break from beach time for a couple hours. There are only a few caves to go through but it is fascinating. We’ve been through caves in the Rocky Mountains, lava tubes in Hawaii, and now these; all are interesting, but very different experiences. These caves are not deep, and there are several areas where light is coming through the ceiling and there are tree roots from above hanging down into the caves. The Caribbean experienced a small earthquake about a week or so before we came here, and a couple of sizable stalactites had broken and fallen off so we were actually able to hold and touch it. I was shocked at how heavy this was. Overall an interesting tour and a nice change from everything else.
Eats
We’re big fans of eating in general, but we especially like good food, interesting food, local food. SOOO much food eaten in Cayman. Here are some of our favorites.
- Kurt’s Korner, a.k.a. The Caboose – Go. To. This. Place. We like to find local joints to try out when we travel and this is definitely that. It’s the most authentic place we went to and were referred by several locals on the north side. It’s a little hard to find if you don’t know what to look for — just south of the Esso station on Frank Sound Road on the east side of the street. If you find it, totally worth it. We started with the Conch Fritters, as per our usual during our stay (you can find them pretty much everywhere). Not our favorites, and a little heavier on the breading than some others, but still had a great flavor. On the recommendation of the locals we ordered the Coconut Curry Grouper and the Oxtail. Both were excellent. The Oxtail is something we have never tried but had to based on recs; so glad we tried it. There’s a little work required to get the meat off the bones, but the flavor of the meat in the stew-like gravy is amazing. This was soooo good. The curry served with the Grouper is definitely coconut forward (and one of us doesn’t like coconut anything) but it just didn’t matter because it was so amazing. Probably the best curry sauce we’ve ever eaten. One of the sides was a warm cabbage, lettuce and onion slaw, much tastier than expected and a nice addition to the meals. Try the Cassava Cake; not as excellent as everything else there, but still good and a very different texture and flavor than we’ve had before. Oh and by the way – the prices here are awesome compared to a lot of other places around, especially if you’re closer to Georgetown. If you’re heading to Rum Point via car from the west side of the island, you’ll likely end up driving right by. It’s totally worth stopping.
- Czech Inn Grill – We enjoyed this place a lot. Staying away from the resorts and masses of people has it’s advantages when you have food options like this. Three trips were made here for meals, at first due to sheer convenience, but we came back because the food was so good and reasonably priced. Big shout out to Michael for taking care of us each time we stopped by. While we appreciate high-end meals (not afraid to say we can be food snobs), we always look for places that have local, authentic options, as we like to taste a little bit of everything. Every meal we had here was very good. We had some variation of the jerk chicken every time we came – we enjoyed it so much the first time that we couldn’t not order it over and over. We also had the fish tacos, jerk pork tacos, Jaeger Schnitzel (I know, a Czech place in Grand Cayman – whodathunk?) and the jerk chicken quesadilla. Everything was good. If you do go with the Jaeger Schnitzel, plan to share as it’s a huge portion. The sides here are basic for the meals — beans and rice. Yum. It’s a nice place to hang out at the bar and have some food. And if you look closely, you may just see where we wrote our name on the bar in Sharpie marker.
- Anchor & Den – We came here for a quiet dinner. Okay, not so quiet as this is in the Marriott lobby and it was much louder than anticipated. The food was ultimately worth the time and noise. There are several menus to choose from, offering a collection of flavors from around the world. We started off with the Prawns Ajillo, had the Crispy Pork Belly Tostada (the dish is enough for a meal, so if you get as a starter make sure you’ve got a few people to share it with.) We also had the Kofta Kebab from the Argo menu. So good and not too heavy. For dessert we went for two items from the Argo menu – the Fig Custard Tart and the Muhallabia. We walked out having thoroughly engorged ourselves but feeling great about it nonetheless as the flavors were so good. Alyona took great care of us for the night and we enjoyed the service.
- Gelato & Co. – We happened upon this place after a long day at the beach and snorkeling. A cool treat was a great idea for a hot day. This was the only place around that catered to the desire, so why not stop? Then we tasted it and WOW was it good….. We grabbed a couple of items: a Dulce de Leche gelato jar and a cup of pistachio sorbet. Both were so awesome. The pistachio sorbet was ridiculous. It tasted like you were eating creamed pistachios that have been chilled. A little thicker texture than some gelatos but so amazing. The Dulce de Leche was also great. The graininess of the salted caramel with the smoothness of the creme. Salty and sweet together is always an amazing option. You definitely need to stop here for some treats.
- Rankin’s Jerk Center – We had a few high-end meals on the western end of the island that were very good, but our favorite meals were the ones on the south and east sides, probably since we love to eat the local food options so much. We had the jerk chicken and the garlic and butter lobster. The garlic and butter lobster was prepared a little different than we expected. No matter – it was very flavorful with the vegetables. The jerk chicken? Probably the best jerk chicken we’ve ever eaten. We had jerk chicken several times while here and this was our favorite. The warm slaw side with the meals was also very good. It’s a basic joint and we were the only tourists there, and the only ones in the dining room as everyone else was getting the food to go. Well worth the stop and the prices are good, too.
