Named for the bright orange elephant ear sponges that characterize this site, Orange Canyon doesnt contain a closed canyon per se, but an open channel with lively reef on either side. Lighthouse Point is located in West Bay in Grand Cayman. These Florida Keys resorts are ideal for family getaways and romantic retreats. The islands are warm year-round with average highs holding steady in the 80s. Share your love of diving, experience new adventures, expand your dive skills, and help save the ocean. There is a lot of soft coral here, which makes for an interesting experience. Sharks and turtles are frequent visitors as are snappers, groupers, and grunts. Our mission has been to do this with the best crew, using the best equipment while offering the most competing Cayman Islands dive packages. Most of the units for rent are 2-bedroom and 2-bathroons units. Even if they are stingrays and have the potential to inflict painful wounds via their tail, do not panic as they are not in their aggressive or defensive mode. I am a scuba diving newbie, a Project Manager by profession, and an entrepreneur at heart. DIVEIN.com was founded in 2009 by the two brothers Torben and Nicolai. This is a wall that drops 2000 meters to the sea floor. I have lived in the corporate world for a few years now with very little excitement in my life. Generally, even with up to four dives per day on offer Cayman Islands scuba diving . Best Liveaboard Destinations in the World, Vaccines recommended: Hep A; Typhoid if you will travel to rural areas, Visa: None needed for US citizens or European Union, Safety: Generally safe but petty theft can occur. Now large groups of southern stingrays are lurking around daily. I created this website to help answer common questions about vacationing in the Cayman Islands, and to help tourists find the best things to do. Find & Book PADI Adventures App Today, Cayman is one of the top dive destinations anywhere. Purposely sunk in 2011, she now sits upright in the sand at 18 meters (60ft) and is a teeming artificial reef encrusted with coral. Located just a short walk from George Town, the Sunset House Hotel is home to Sunset Divers, and both resort and dive center are favorites of divers. Eden Rock Dive Center. Besides the thick black corals, keep an eye out for tarpon, large yellow tube sponges, and ginormous barrel sponges. Reservations Office is open Monday-Friday | 8:30am-5:30pm Cayman Islands time. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,100],'scubadivegeek_com-leader-1','ezslot_4',120,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-scubadivegeek_com-leader-1-0'); By descending down to 15 meters (50 feet) deep, you will arrive at what divers call the hanging garden which is a vertical limestone wall filled with black corals, barrel sponges, and purple sea fans. The Cayman Islands are widely regarded as the birthplace of recreational scuba diving, thanks to some pioneering efforts by local operators in the 1980s. DIVEMASTER AND INSTRUCTOR TRAINING SPECIALTY AND TECHNICAL COURSE KIDS DISABLED DIVERS SAFETY The Cayman Islands boasts state-of-the-art medical facilities including a hyperbaric chamber (located on Grand Cayman) and, in the event of an emergency, quality care can be provided in minutes. Part of the Bloody Bay wall, descending from the mooring here reveals a brightly colored vertical reef packed with sponges, corals, and vertebrate and invertebrate marine life. When diving the Cayman Islands you can see a lot of large sponges, some good macro, and some tiny fish. Fiji: Dive the Soft Coral Capital of the World. There are lots of options for great photography and for posing for memorable photos, such as by the Kittiwake sign, swimming by the prop, or pretending to steer the helm on the bridge. The worst time is September during the hurricane season. If you want to enjoy these five dive sites . Of course, the Soviets didnt call her Keith Tibbets, she was renamed for a local dive operator after the Cayman government purchased the wreck for dive tourism. Tarpon Alley is part of the North Wall with depths between 15 to 25 meters (50-80ft). You need to take a boat to reach this area. There are also usually direct flights from Boston, Chicago, and New York. You will see a lot of tarpon at this spot, as well as coral and other fish. Best Resorts in the Cayman Islands | Islands Stingray City- You can thank the local fishermen for this dive site as they used to clean their catch here that attracted the rays to the site. From the mooring, divers often descend through a cut in the reef and out onto the wall. Nature lovers are lured to diverse hiking trails, caves, and a variety of flora and fauna around the island. Eels, rays, sharks, and turtles are frequently seen. Seven Mile Beach is considered the most popular tourist area in the Cayman Islands, thanks to its stunning white sand beaches and crystal-clear waters. Eagle rays glide past in the blue water, triggerfish, Nassau groupers, electric yellow sponges and much make this site popular with divers in the Caymans. However, the Cayman Islands can be impacted by hurricanes primarily between June and November. But they are sometimes the cheapest months to visit. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 cleaved the 100m/328ft ship in half but divers can still explore both sections of the wreckage. Find the best and most popular products and review them. Best Cayman Islands Dive Centers and Resorts - TripSavvy This is how we pay ourselves. 6. For deep divers, we highly suggest you explore the elephant-ear sponge laden reef of the Orange Canyon or go cave diving in Bonnies Arch. Generally, the off-season is the cheapest time to visit Grand Cayman, from May through November. Theres also Little Cayman thats the least developed of the 3 islands. July has a jump in visits for families in part because school children are out for the summer. This is really a divers paradise. Crabs and lobsters are among the critters hiding in the crevices. A few great choices are the Sunset House Hotel in Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac Beach Resort and the Little Cayman Beach Resort. The boat dives were offered mostly in the mornings, and we were on our own in the afternoons. Grand Cayman is the most commercial island, with cruise ships visiting, but it has some wrecks and the wall dives are close boat rides. It is possible to go scuba diving in Little Cayman all year round and the water temperature only varies from 21-27 degrees. This gives the unique Caymans dive site a blend of steep vertical walls, sloping reefs, and coral-crusted fingers. Now it has become a beautiful artificial reef and home for colorful sponges, groupers, barracudas and other marine life. The sea is always warm in the Cayman Islands, with surface temperatures never dropping below around 25 o C (78 o F). Here is a list of some of the marine animals you can likely spot when diving the Cayman Islands: There are over 300 dive sites in the Cayman Islands. While diving is a year-round activity in the Cayman Islands, June to August is considered to be the best time of year to dive Grand Cayman and the nearby islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. The 20 Best Scuba Dive Sites In The Cayman Islands (2023) Diving Cayman Islands: Best Wall Dives in the World This is an especiallygreat time to visit clear, calm waters are perfect for snorkeling, diving, sailing and fishing. Watch your buoyancy and head out into the blue, look back to really appreciate the Great Walls sheer size and impressive drop-off. Grand Cayman makes a good dive vacation, but for us it was a great stop with plenty of good diving over 3 days on the way home from Cayman Brac. I am the father of the best two children in the world and husband to the most patient woman on this planet. Apart from the elephant ear sponges, keep your eyes peeled for blacktip Carribean reef sharks in the blue. Top dives include the famous 1000 Steps, the Hilmer Hooker wreck, and Bari Reef. December through April are especially popular times to go because of low risk of rainfall and more moderate temperatures. It was then sunk in Grand Cayman in 1980 to make a new dive site. Grand Cayman has dives for all experience levels, and our on-site dive shop Ocean Frontiers Diving Adventures offers a range of PADI dive courses and signature dive adventures. From Grand Cayman, you can transfer to Little Cayman or Cayman Brac. Its not often divers can see a mermaid on a dive, but at Sunset Reef they can. The months of January and February are the coldest, with average lows in the low 60s. This is currently number 20 on the 100 Best Dives list. We have put together a comprehensive collection of packages to suit your needs. link to Fiji: Dive the Soft Coral Capital of the World, link to United Arab Emirates: Unspoiled Dive Sites, Wall diving, drift diving, cave diving, shore diving, boat diving, deep diving, and wreck diving, 100 different species of hard and soft corals plus over 500 species of tropical fish like the South-Atlantic stingrays, eagle rays, manta rays, nurse sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, flying gurnards, Nassau groupers, tarpon fish, Grand Cayman: Snorkeling at Stingray City, visit Dolphin Cove, hiking in the Mastic Trail, Pedro St. James National Historic Site, Cayman Islands National Museum, and the Cayman Turtle Farm. GOT QUESTIONS ABOUT DIVING IN CAYMANS? . Our Original Diving experts, made up of marine biologists, divemasters and lovers of all things underwater, know the best time to dive in Little Cayman. The Seven Mile Beach area and the main city, Georgetown, are very developed with large hotels and resorts, restaurants, shops, etc. In February, the cost is roughly $1,044 round trip . Click here to learn more. Schools of bright snappers brightened the reefs among colorful sponges. The people of the island are friendly and culturally diverse. If the forecast looks good, they should consider taking a last-minute trip to Grand Cayman if they also spot an attractive discount. The Cayman Islands are one of the Best Liveaboard Destinations for Beginners. She met her end on the reef in the late 70s, allegedly due to mutiny aboard. There are actually around two dozen dive sites within the bay, with Bloody Bay Wall top of the list. Enjoy 20% OFF select PADI eLearning programs, FREE ReActivate online refresher, subscription to Scuba Diving magazine + so much more when you join PADI Club. This island is very small and there is little to do, other than dive. Get forecasts each morning for every major island. Bloody Bay Marine Park is one of Cayman's best known dive sites and is named after the battles that took place between the British navy and its privateers following the outlaw of piracy. Sharp-eyed divers can find leopard flatworms and the tunnels are also popular hangouts for rays and green moray eels. You can dive along this wall and explore the different entrances. The Cayman Islands hosts one of the best dives in the World: Bloody Bay Wall on Little Cayman. Our DSD is $99 USD per person and includes all equipment needed and a fantastic shallow dive to a max depth of 40ft. Dive Shop and Front desk is open 7 days per week | 7am to 6pm and can be reached directly on (345)-640-7500 You will need little more (and some prefer less) than a 3 mm full length wetsuit. No diving trip in Grand Cayman would be complete without a dive at the infamous Stingray City. You will find the Cayman Islands to be very diverse, from quiet Little Cayman, to bustling Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman is somewhat unique among major Caribbean destinations because it is one of the few islands that has average daytime temperatures exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer and fall. Located in the western Caribbean, just 480 miles south of Miami, Cayman is perfect for scuba diving and snorkelling, boasting some of the Caribbean's best excursions. Some resorts offer "Hurricane protection". Exploring this site requires you to initially descend to 18 meters (60 feet) deep where the wall starts. Although the rays who made this site their home permanently have moved on, there is still a good chance of spotting them here. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a country in Western Asia located at the northeast end of the Arabian Peninsula in the Persian Gulf. Aside from corals, barrel sponges are sprawling in this vibrant reef that is also filled with tropical reef fish like groupers, butterflyfish, angelfish, moray eels and lionfish which is believed to be an invasive species. Over a 30-year history, the islands have averaged less than two inches of rain from January through April and a little more than two inches in December, according to the Cayman Islands National Weather Service. There are over 15 PADI 5-Star Centers in the Cayman Islands, ready to teach you everything you want to know about diving. Here are a few of our favourite dive sites in Grand Cayman: 1. This is a must-do dive for people vacationing in Grand Cayman. If you want to escape the crowds of cruise ship passengers, the East End is the place to go. This is one of the deepest sea-walls in the world. In the 2019 Scuba Diving Magazine Readers Choice Awards, the Islands were named one of the Best Overall Dive Destination in the Caribbean/Atlantic and scored first place for Best Advanced Diving and Underwater Photography. Cayman Brac is the last of the islands and also much less traveld than Grand Caymen. Honduras coast hosts the Bay Islands which is a compilation of eight islands and 53 small cays and these islands are one of the best scuba diving places in the world. But its not just the heat that matters when visiting the Cayman Islands. We understand that diving the best Grand Cayman Dives is the primary goal of your Grand Cayman Dive vacation. A huge pinnacle branches out, creating a corridor-like passageway that is used by large pelagics cruising up from the abyss. Besides scuba diving, there are plenty of other things to do on the Cayman Islands. Cruise ships visit here, so expect everything you would find in most international cruise ship ports. . Learn to dive in the Cayman Islands by Living the Dream Divers The 6 Best Dive Sites in the Cayman Islands Cecily Russell 3 April, 2022 The trio of Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory situated in the western Caribbean Sea. It does not make the product pricier for you. The water drops over a hundred feet. This is a wreck worth a dive or two. We conduct this course from our shore location where the water is ideal for new divers! Cracks in the ceilings let in plenty of natural light making it easy to search the nooks and crannies for the many crustaceans and other marine creatures that occupy the tunnels. Though Kittiwake is a very popular diving site on Grand Island, the shallow and crystal-clear waters of the site make it an equally amazing snorkeling spot as well. Cathy Church has a shop at Sunset House where you can often meet her and see her beautiful underwater photos from the area. If you're looking for great diving and hotel prices, the best time is between March and June when the rates all drop. September is the worst month of the Caribbean hurricane season, which officially goes from June through November. As said earlier, Grand Cayman has over 50 dive sites and we will not leave this section without mentioning other noted dive spots. Closely packed ridges form huge coral heads between the shore and the reef wall. Bert Brothers Boulders is one of the most beautiful dive sites on Cayman Brac. 7. Sign up to get the latest updates, offers and more. You could spend . Bloody Bay Marine Park is a particularly popular diving destination as it is home to 12 different dive sites, gorgeous coral, and diverse marine life. Black groupers, sergeant majors, yellowtail snapper, and moray eels are just a few of the species you can expect to see. Questions about Cayman Island Diving | FAQs | Cayman Turtle Divers Hotel prices are sourced from a sample of U.S. News Best Hotels rates through 2015-2016. View Map. For macro subjects, you can see angelfish, morays, lettuce slug nudibranchs and many more. The Cayman Islands dollar is legal tender in these islands. Most people see flights, accommodations, and activities far cheaper during this time since fewer tourists are visiting. A 2.75 meter (9ft) bronze statue of Amphitrite (the wife of the mythological god Poseidon) rises up from the base of the reef. I have been diving in Grand Cayman several times. "High Season" at the hotels is mid-December to mid-April, so rates will be higher then. On top of being generally warm, the waters are clear with underwater visibility running from 18 30 meters (60 100 feet). Along with the vertical structures of the wall are small cracks and crevices that have become the refuge of marine critters like crabs, lobsters, moray eels and octopus. Eagle Ray Pass is located along the North Wall in Grand Cayman. Cheeseburger Reef is located in George Town, Grand Cayman. Sidetrip: Grand Cayman is the biggest island and it is where most accommodations and restaurants are located. It is rich with tunnels, chutes, cervices, and beautiful reefs. Give the perfect gift for your favorite ocean lover and explorer. There is also a dive shop and restaurant. Yes, that is the Cayman Islands and this is due in part of the tax holiday being implemented that has attracted businesses worldwide. If you make a purchase from our site, we may earn a commission. If you enjoy diving, then you need to visit the USS Kittiwake during your vacation to Grand Cayman. However, there are large coral canyons that provide exciting swim-throughs for divers. The best time to dive is between December and April when the water is at its warmest and the visibility is at its best. Seven Mile Beach 4. While you can get some rain, it's not as common as during the summer. The chart to the right using data from the Caribbean Tourism Organization shows that March is the most popular month of the year to visit followed by December and July. It is Batabano, the countrys biggest festival, which is scheduled for early May each year. A highlight dive is the Tibbets wreck with great structure and lots of life. From Rolex watches to Caymanite earrings to a shell necklace. The seven mile beach area is beautiful for walking and photo opportunities. The Caymans have one major event that also may impact the best times to go there. If you like diving in caves and grottos, Trinity Caves on Grand Caymans west side is the site for you. For this reason, wreck junkies and aficionados often have the Keith on their to-dive lists. Best Time to Dive in Little Cayman. Frugal travel planners can look for good deals during these months while keeping an eye on the 10-day weather forecast. Find the best travel insurance for you with these U.S. News ratings, which factor in expert and consumer recommendations. There is shopping, bars to hang out in, and live music. U.S. News rates the cheapest travel insurance options, considering expert and consumer recommendations. The best part about the dive is the . And, thanks to a keen focus on conservation, many of the country's famous underwater spectacles are still well worth a visit today. to dive in Cayman Islands. Out in the open, spotted eagle rays are often seen swimming in groups of at least 5 individuals and their passing by is often correlated to the flyby of fighter jets in low altitude. Because the site is prone to strong currents, it isnt frequently dived which makes a trip to this very healthy reef even more special. MV Capt. The majority of travel agents will advise you that the best time to visit Grand Cayman in order to get the most bang for your buck on a vacation to the Cayman Islands is between the months of March and June. Trinity Caves is a popular dive site that is located off the coast of West Bay in Grand Cayman. We dived 3 days in February 2014, and they were all excellent and memorable dives. Another top option for divers, Cayman Brac Beach Resort is, as its name implies, located on the third island in the Cayman Islands: 15-square-mile Cayman Brac. The dive schedule would include a deep wall dive followed by a shallower reef or wreck. Best time to dive in Cayman Islands The diving is great year round in the Caribbean, something that is promoted with the dive 365 program. The Best Scuba Diving Experiences On Grand Cayman Located 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) northwest of the Capital City of George Town is one of the most popular dive sites, not just in the Cayman Islands, but in the Caribbean the Stingray City which is classified as a sandbar that has been naturally aggregated with southern stingrays that have been accustomed to human presence because of feeding. From these locations, I was able to dive the west end and also the North Wall. The visibility at Donnas Delight on Little Cayman is typically good and the relaxed and easy diving here is suitable for all levels. Over 200 permanent boat moorings are installed to avoid damaging corals with the dropping of boat anchors. This does not affect the quality or independence of our editorial content. We gave our Gear Lovers one job: This site is my attempt to live the adrenaline my life is missing and be able to live real-life storybook stories with my wife and children. With 365 named dive sites, the enchanting Cayman Islands is a year-round underwater paradise. There is decent shore diving from their dock. Aside from tourism promotion, marine conservation is in place in all the dive sites in the Cayman Islands. The most interesting topside activities for us were exploring the island in a rental car and driving on the left side of the road. You will find Nassau gropers, triggerfish, and other unique marine life at the Bloody Bay Wall. You can dive from shore because they have ladders that you can use to enter and exit the water. The Cayman Islands-- Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac--have been attracting scuba divers for decades, including beginners! Diving Season: The best time to dive Cuba's Jardines de la Reina is during the dry season, from November to late April, as this time has the most ideal visibility and sea conditions. Eden Rock has lots of coral and fish, and Devils Grotto has underwater caves that you can explore. In general, the best time to dive in the Cayman Islands is between January and April, when the water temperature is warm and visibility is excellent.