Flight from Miami is just over 1 hour; there are several a day and they are running full. Hotels are about 10 minutes by taxi costing about $20; taxis here are priced very high. Hyatt upgraded me to their concierge floor (breakfast, lounge, tea, evening and night munchies, etc.). Hyatt very good in ambience with small sections and an overall feeling of tropical oasis but the physical plant needs upgrading (ie: ants on the bathroom sink and weak water pressure, conditions housekeeping told me were “normal”) and the beach is a good 5 minute walk away and over a street overpass. Beach is no big deal anyway. I paid $228 plus 20% at the Hyatt and that was a travel agent’s rate; it really costs about double. The Westin hotel is the other 5-star choice and is on the beach but a bit bus-touristy, bland and compact although the physical plant is much better though TV choices more limited; all things considered, I’d stay at the Hyatt. Both hotels are a mile apart; the Ritz Carlton is building a property in the same area but I am told it will not be directly on the beach. Town is about 10 minutes away and also about a $10 ride. It takes about 5 minutes to see the town which is all of 2 blocks long and there is nothing to say except that cruise ships come in for the day and people walk around looking for something to buy and to do. There is no port so ferries bring in the passengers from the ships. The day I was there was a national holiday but several cruise ships arrived so the town opened up for a few hours, but after the ships left and the town closed up, I happened to wind up being dropped off (after an excursion) in the center of town standing on the main street for 15 minutes and couldn’t find one taxi to get me back to the hotel.
Something special: Take a submarine ride. “Atlantis” is located right at the center of town on the waterfront and has several options. You can take a 2 hour tour where you go on a boat onto the sea and then get in a 48 seater submarine which goes down 100 feet and you look at the fish, coral and interesting animals including stuff that looks like underwater french fries swaying back and forth. Turtles get a big reaction from the people on board. Once the submarine goes under water, you don’t have any shaking and rolling like you have above water. The tour costs $85 but I got half price as a travel agent. You can go in a 2-seater submarine to a depth of about 1,000 feet riding along the canyon “wall” which makes the Caymans one of the world’s leading dive destinations but that trip costs about $400.
The Caymans is a UK Territory and they use Cayman Dollars. 1.25 USD = 1 Cayman Dollar. This is a great gimmick because it is always in the fine print that you realize the prices are in Caymans Dollars, and the tourists here are mainly US tourists who have never been anywhere else. So they read the menu and it says the salad is $6 which seems reasonable. But after you add in the 25% and then another 15% service charge, the salad costs almost $9 which is rather expensive. So it is across the board; a 50 minute massage in the spa comes out to be $136 (but it was a very professional one). Since they sign all this to their hotel bill, they don’t realize what is going on until they get hit with their bill at checkout. Things here are rather pricey for what you get, and in my opinion the Hyatt is in no way worth $500 a night, but in my case the discounts evened up the score a bit. The Hyatt has some very good food and beverage options: Hemingways on the Beach for dinner; the golf club on the lake for lunch. Hotel questionnaires ask you to rate items as Good or Exceptional; I would rate things in between.
I was here for 48 hours; the first day was lovely and in the 70’s. Clouds covered the sunset disappointing the people on the beach and the roof all set up with tripods to capture the moment. The second day was cloudy and windy but still in the 70’s. The Caymans are completely flat; it is a rather boring place and American cellphones don’t work, thank heavens. A good place to escape to and not feel stressed that you’ve missed anything you should have done. Tourists I ran into wanted to be here instead of Cancun or Jamaica because it is safer here. All the US national newspapers get here by evening; all the American channels are available here. Considering it is a British territory, I am surprised that the BBC World Service is not carried on the radio or on the TV except at certain hours. The water tastes pretty awful but it is safe. Tourist information is all advertiser-driven so it is hard to get a comprehensive catalogue of things to do here (the only satisfaction being that there is not much you need to know). One thing I didn’t do which is supposed to be fun is Sting Ray City; you go in the water and touch the sting-ray fish which are tame. Water temperature here is in the high 70’s, which is colder than Miami ocean in the summer (mid 80’s), which is strange since the Caymans are south of Cuba and about 500 miles south of Miami.
The Caymans were a bit of a disappointment; anyone who watched The Firm with Tom Cruise remembers his jaunt to the Caymans (filmed at the Hyatt); the reality is less upscale with a strip of McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets just outside the resort and the resort itself not being that luxurious. In Bermuda you won’t see any of that kind of thing and it is more interesting to drive around. Here I didn’t even bother to have anyone drive me around the island because it was obvious there was nothing to see. The more interesting stuff is underwater. On the flight back to Miami I sat with a well-traveled couple who were bored and were ending their holiday early, so I know it’s not just me. But if you want a reliable place to go in January where the temperature will be in the 70’s, your phone won’t work so that you can’t be disturbed, the people speak English and the surroundings are safe, the Caymans are an excellent diversion an hour’s flight from Miami. Also, with American Airlines, it costs 25,000 miles to fly to Miami from New York, but 30,000 miles will let you stopover in Miami and continue to the Caribbean. The flight to Miami is $200 but the flight into the Caribbean is an extra $500, so it really pays to use your miles to do this because it is at essence a free ride south.
I didn’t take any pictures and there were no interesting post cards on sale either.
