[B.Goodwill]

Imported post

I am looking at heading over to the Cayman's next year to work as an instructor. I am wondering if anyone here have visited the islands, and can tell me a little about what the diving, and Grand Cayman itself is like.

From a bit of reasearch, i am led to believe our American cousins frequent the island forming the bulk of tourists, and the typical type of divers over there are "once a year holiday divers." I have looked at an American board similar to this one, and heard people talking about the place, but i would be interested to hear what Brits visiting the place think of it and the diving (though i would welcome comments from anyone else also.)

 

[daz]

Imported post

As far as the Caribbean goes the diving is excellent,  there are some fantastic wall dives and huge drop offs.  

Stingray city is also in my opinion one of the best sub 10m dives in the world (If you like a very barren terrain, sat doing nothing being accosted by stingrays from all sides  

)

However,  I would not visit again as I felt it was very expensive for what it offered compared to other places in the world.  As I said the diving is very good by Caribbean standards just not up there with other destinations in the world.

As far as costs, it is not just the diving that is expensive,  everything seemed quite expensive, but then the standards are quite high around the island, and as far as somewhere to base yourself, it probably offers a lot more than other Caribbean islands.

Hope that helps,

Daz

 

[John Gulliver]

Imported post

I agree with Daz' assessment. The diving is excellent by Caribbean standards but nowhere near as good as in the best parts of the Red Sea, the Philippines, Indonesia etc. The best diving is at North Side (it's called that), where you will see lots of turtles, squadrons of 5 or 6 eagle rays etc etc. There are also a couple of decent shore dives on that side of the island. Stingray City is a fascinating experience but I personally got tired of going there. We went there on the way back to the harbour after almost every dive, 8 times altogether, as there was always somebody on the boat that hadn't been there. Prices on the island are high. As regards American divers, there are two kinds, those that are every bit as good as any UK diver and those that only dive on holiday every third or fourth year. Grand Cayman gets both kinds.

 

[B.Goodwill]

Imported post

Thanks for the info, it will certainly be nice to trade in the drysuit for a shortie if nothing else!

I have heard the bulk of your work as an instructor over there is doing discover scuba's for the cruise ship clientele, i imagine this would get pretty sould destroying after a while, but hopefully it would be mixed in with teaching other courses and guiding.

Cheers - Bob

 

[daz]

Imported post

Hey on the plus side,  the septics seem to be quite generous tippers.

Daz

 

[Snash]

Imported post

Have done GC and Cayman Brac and day trips to Little Cayman. Personally would not go back to GC, but would go back to CB & LC. The walls are excellent.

GC is very touristy whilst the smaller islands are pretty laid back. GC also suffers from being a major stop on the cruise ship circuit which means 100’s of folk get spat off their cruise ships spend their dollars and then head off to another island. A lot of the diving operations are set up to meet this type of diving and operate cattle boats.

Cheers

Simon Nash