Planning our first trip to The Caymans

Newbie Joined: 25 Jan 2010 Posts: 1

Hello. My husband and I are planning our first trip to The Caymans and we need your help! We can't decide if an all inclusive or an ala carte vacation would be best and most economical. We're military and are wondering if there are any properties that honor a military discount. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Native Joined: 18 Feb 2005 Posts: 2035 Location: Illinois

There are very few all inclusives in Grand Cayman. The Marriott has that option now and a resort on East End. Perhaps a condo where you could make some of your meals would be more economical. I don't know anything about military discounts--if you go in the off season, rates are considerably cheaper, but Cayman is a fairly expensive island. I think there is one bed and breakfast on the hotel search page and there are a few other options there, that are fairly reasonable.

Check out the hotel search at the top of the page.

Good luck and if you have any more question, ask away!

Shelly :-)

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 3:07 pm Post subject:

Hi leighanne 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.

We do not recommend any all-inclusive accommodations on Grand Cayman because there is so much variety of dining, activities, water sports, shopping and attractions, that confining yourselves to any one area—let alone one hotel on Grand Cayman would be a huge injustice and defeat the purpose of choosing Grand Cayman over one of our sister islands.

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. Very Happy

Have a wonderful vacation!

Frequent Flyer Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 33

When we took our first trip there we stayed at the Shangri La bed and breakfast. It was a great breakfast that I feel saved us some money on food. It was filling enough that we just snacked for lunch and then had a great dinner and didn't mind spending $70-$100 for just dinner. They also have a mini fridge in each room, and they do let you use the kitchen at non breakfast times. Have a great trip.

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:34 am Post subject:

Add another vote for a non-all inclusive. An all inclusive will tend to keep you at that one area. Since you will have paid for your meals there, you'll be hesitant to venture too far and have to pay again at a restaurant. We usually plan to prepare and eat breakfast and one other meal in our room at the condo/hotel etc, and then eat out for the other meal(s).

I don't know about military discounts either (yes, I'm a Sergeant, but in police service, not military), but it would be great if someone does. As for me, I thank you for your service.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions that come up. You'll find visiting the Cayman Islands to be a wonderful experience, and we're happy to help you make the most of your trip.

DS

Frequent Flyer Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 33

Also about discounts I don't know if this will help, but I am a gov't employee. I know that when we were planning we could get a good discount at the Marriott. That has been over 2 years ago, and we didn't stay there.

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:38 pm Post subject:

Enjoy everything Cayman has to offer...including the AMAZING restaurants! I would avoid the all-inclusive options on Grand Cayman. You may need to do some more research on the military discounts, I'm not aware of that and I'm part of a Navy family. Enjoy Cayman... palm

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