Founder/Administrator
Joined: 14 Feb 2005
Posts: 5730
Location: Cayman Islands
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 Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 9:16 pm Post subject: |
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Hi robin t and 
Your first visit to the Caribbean is going to be one of the most enjoyable experiences of your life. And choosing the Cayman Islands is like finding the pearl in your first oyster. There is no other island where you will find so many fun, friendly people; world class gourmet restaurants; consistently clear, calm water with more ways to enjoy them than you could ever do in a week; and so many beautiful and culturally significant sights that reflect the heritage of one of the most unique and charming destinations in the world.
With so much to choose from, the Cayman Islands can be extremely overwhelming for a first time visitor. That is where we come in. Activity Guide has gone to great lengths to select what we feel to represent the very best value in everything from accommodations to restaurants to Stingray City and beyond.
Grand Cayman offers a tremendous variety of dining, activities, water sports, shopping and attractions.
Your first step is to become acquainted with our many features to help plan your vacation and ensure that you receive the highest value for all of the things you like to do.
For the best value in accommodations, start with our  and select the properties that appeal to you the most. A must read prior to selecting your property is Choose Accommodations Based on Your Vacation Lifestyle, which will provide important insight into selecting the specific area of Grand Cayman and type of accommodation that will ensure a perfect vacation based on the things that are most important to you.
A car is essential on Grand Cayman—wherever you stay—because the many sites, attractions, water sports and restaurants spread out far and wide. For a little island, you will be surprised at how long it can take sometimes to get from one place to another. You will find the best value and discount rates on car rental in our transportation forum.
You can avoid much of the traffic and congestion by using the Cruise Ship Calendar to avoid George Town, Stingray City and any other cruise passenger destinations on heavy cruise ship days; and by avoiding driving during commute hours. In Grand Cayman, the traffic is generally towards George Town in the mornings between 7-9am and away from town in the evenings between 5-7pm.
By taking Activity Guide's free self tours — both here, such as our Go East Tour
and in Activity Guide when you arrive, you can see all of Cayman's very best and most popular sights—free of crowds and at your own pace — all at a fraction of the cost of guided tours.
If you are divers, you may find our selection of Recommended Dive Operators helpful in selecting your dive company, many with Activity Guide member discounts. You will find many helpful topics and lots of underwater photos in our Dive Forum.
You will find many videos and photos throughout our forums to help familiarize yourself with the various establishments and eliminate any unpleasant surprises that many first time visitors experience.
Stingray City is the most popular attraction in the Cayman Islands and you will find the best prices without crowds at Sotos Cruises or Oh Boy Charters. The latter focuses more on private or semi private charters; the former—Soto’s, averages only a dozen or so divers per trip and does not have any cruise ship affiliations. It would be a good idea to check our Cruise Ship Calendar to see how many ships are in port each day and plan your Stingray City trip on a day with the fewest number of ships—usually any day except Wednesday or Thursday. While our recommended Stingray City operators only take a small group of passengers, Stingray City
is a finite area so it can become generally crowded on heavy cruise ship days, with boats carrying as many as 150 people or more!
As you make your way through the topics, use our handy  feature to add the places that are most appealing to you to your personal must do list.
Choosing your restaurants is another one of the most important decisions you will make and can literally make or break any vacation. We have gone to extreme measures to select a very broad spectrum of restaurants from over 200 restaurants in the Cayman Islands that we feel represent the absolute highest value. You can see our extensive selection criteria that we use to determine which restaurants offer the highest value throughout the spectrum. Everything from casual beach bars to the finest world class restaurants is available in Grand Cayman so it is well worth spending a few minutes familiarizing yourself with the topics in our Restaurant Forum , watch a few of the videos, look through the photos and reviews and add your favorite selections to your personal must do list.
You can see the complete menus from all of our highly recommended restaurants, complete with descriptions and prices with our menu search feature . You can quickly find your favorite types of restaurants and food and select the establishments that best suit your individual taste and budget. Every restaurant in our menu search feature has undergone our thorough evaluation process , just like the restaurants here in our forums and throughout our main website.
As you become acquainted with our website and forum features and read the information; watch a few videos and browse through the photos; you will be on your way to gaining a thorough understanding of the Cayman Islands and arrive armed with enough information to ensure a perfect vacation that will provide glorious memories for you to forever cherish.
If you have any specific questions about anything at all, please feel free to ask. 
Have a wonderful vacation!
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Joe Stebbins, Editor
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