Tied with Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba for best beach I’ve visited.

Grand Cayman is expensive and underwhelming. In my experience anyway.

I was so excited about going there in March 2013 to scuba dive, having booked my trip ten months in advance. Boy, was I disappointed:

• It’s expensive. The rate of the Cayman dollar is higher than the U.S. dollar. Nothing is cheap.
• Over run with cruise ship passengers. They swarmed the small downtown area of Georgetown and crowded the sidewalks in a mad rush to do whatever it is they do during shore visits.
• The diving was abysmal. There was nothing to see. The dive guides did minimal guiding.

The most negative aspect of the trip was an absence of hospitality:

• The hotel where I stayed, Sunset House, its dive operation and camera store employed some of the rudest staff I’ve ever encountered. For this memorable experience, I paid about $2000 CDN for eight nights.

Other beyond control factors tainted the trip:

• There’s no easy way to get to Grand Cayman from western Canada. Means a connection through Toronto or a milk run through the U.S. with layovers in Los Angeles and Miami. I opted for the latter. I paid roughly $1000 CDN for airfare.
• A wind storm blew for two days. It closed many dive sites, including Stingray City.

All this might have been okay if the hotel and dive staff hadn’t been so horrible.

Grand Cayman does have one plus:  its spectacular Seven Mile Beach. If I go back to Cayman, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon, I’ll go back to spend time on this beach.

The storm.