"diver-x's Grand Cayman Page" a Cayman Islands Travel Page by diver-x

Feb 2008: We wracked our brains for a destination for our vacation in Feb 2008. Unfortunately we'd had to put off our vacation the previous Fall in order to spend time working on our house. I had wanted to go back to Europe that Fall, but as Feb rolled around, here in chilly New England, we realized what we really needed was a nice, warm, Caribbean vacation and some great diving. Being the budget conscious travelers that we are, we scoured the web for the lowest airfare to anyplace warm. Surprisingly, the lowest fare turned out to be a non-stop flight to Grand Cayman, a diving destination we are quite familiar with, and love! So we jumped on the plane tickets but that left us with the problem of finding affordable accommodation. Not an easy task in Grand Cayman! I'd had good luck finding reasonable digs in Hawaii on www.vrbo.com so we gave it a try and came up with a somewhat reasonable condo in West Bay. One great reason to use VRBO is that most of the time, you're dealing directly with the owner, not some management company. So they were open to negotiation when we asked if the price was firm. Turned out to be a great deal and the perfect location for us: Right next door to Turtle Reef, one of our favorite dive sites, ever. In fact we were able to drop in the water right at the condo (Coconut Bay), which is a fantastic dive site in its own right! Please bear with me as I update my Grand Cayman tips. There are lots of changes to be made, especially since Ivan hit the Caymans since our previous trip!

Feb 2003: My fiance and I decided to take a long Valentine Weekend and dive for a day in Grand Cayman. Little did we know the "Blizzard of the Century" would hit the north-east USA and we would be stranded there all week! Such a sacrifice! Our one day of diving turned into 6 days with a total of 15 dives! We found a few places we hadn't seen before and visited some of our favorites from before. It turned into a nice, unexpected vacation!

Sept 2000: My fiance and his sister and brother-in-law who we went with were all divers and they all insisted I get certified for the trip. So I got certified in the cold water at home to be ready Cayman. This shouldn't have been my first dive trip because every other dive location I've been to since then just doesn't compare!