Cayman Islands | Travelzoo | 2023 Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands

The culinary capital of the Caribbean is a treat for all the senses

As you sit down to dinner at a seaside bistro and place the cloth napkin on your lap, a warm breeze rustles nearby palm trees. Turquoise waves ripple gently against powder-soft shores, and the waiter pours you a generous glass of wine. This is Cayman. A short four-hour nonstop flight from Toronto, this trio of Caribbean islands — lively Grand Cayman, rugged Cayman Brac and tranquil Little Cayman — stands apart from other tropical destinations. This is not the place for megaresorts and tourist throngs. This is the place where, after a day of snorkelling with sea turtles or unwinding on white sands, you dine on an impeccable meal and watch the setting sun paint the sea with vibrant pinks and reds.

Welcome to Cayman

The Caribbean’s culinary capital

Sun-seeking foodies may need to pinch themselves in Cayman for fear they dreamed the place up. Over 200 restaurants dot the tropical islands, inviting visitors to dine on fresh fare influenced by the region’s 140+ nationalities. Savoury fish fries share the shore with beachside cocktail bars, and farm- and sea-to-table eateries tempt epicures alongside restaurants led by Michelin-pedigree chefs.

The food scene

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the food scene

the beaches

under the sea

Arts & Culture

island adventure

Uncover farm-fresh fare at The Brasserie, a pioneer in locavore cuisine. You can’t study the menu ahead of time — it changes every day, for both lunch and dinner, swaying with the day’s catch and the whims of the chef. Local ingredients fill the menu. The restaurant’s own deep-sea fishing boats net yellowfin tuna and red snapper, the edible garden (which you can tour) grows fruits and nuts, and the on-site apiary houses 50 hives for farm-fresh honey. For island-inspired fresh seafood, head to woto in The Westin Grand Cayman for a local twist on ceviche, sushi and the house "po-cay" bowls.

In Cayman it’s easy to pair your just-caught seafood with a bright Champagne or buttery chardonnay. A single 16-kilometre stretch of Grand Cayman boasts 10 restaurants with wine selections that earned them 2023 Wine Spectator awards. For inventive cocktails, try Anchor & Den within Grand Cayman Marriott Resort. This restaurant stirs up unique drinks like the Elixir of the Gods, which marries smoky mezcal with charred grapefruit juice and ginger-agave syrup.

Catch of the day at The Brasserie (left); Innovative cocktails at Anchor & Den (right)

Make footprints on white sand

This sugar-white shoreline on the sunset-facing side of Grand Cayman slopes gently into clear water, grazed only by mild tides, so beachgoers of all ages can wade into the balmy Caribbean. We recommend stopping in at the Coccoloba beach bar within Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa for a cocktail or a snack after you stroll. The entire peaceful stretch is public, so you can wander all nine kilometres if you’d like, no matter at which hotel you’re staying.

The beaches

Jet off to the Sister Islands for remote coastlines that feel like your own private beach. We love kayaking or sailing to tiny Owen Island off the southern shore of Little Cayman. With no permanent structures on the islet, you may even get the place all to yourself.

Seven Mile Beach

Taste the day's fresh catch at Heritage Kitchen

Play in bathtub-warm water

From paddleboard yoga to kitesurfing, Cayman’s watersports will match your speed. Vendors on Seven Mile Beach, the East End and the North Side make it easy to rent equipment if your hotel doesn’t already have its own. Divers will relish Cayman’s expansive scuba scene. With enviable visibility and 365 different marked sites, you can explore a different seawall or coral-lined cave every day of the year.

Under the sea

Take the 30-minute flight to Cayman Brac to scuba down to a 330-foot-long frigate, a rare Soviet ship sunk in the Western Hemisphere. And both Sister Islands have dramatic wall dives — like the Brac’s Wilderness Wall or Bloody Bay Wall on Little Cayman — for those dreaming of shimmering fish swimming amid technicolor reefs.

Diving at the wreck site of the Kittiwake

To say hello to more underwater friends, head to Stingray City, voted the No. 1 thing to do in all of Grand Cayman (Tripadvisor). A tour operator will take you to this series of shoals within the North Sound, where you can swim alongside the billowing southern rays that call these shallow sandbars home. You can even gently pet the affable critters or feed them slivers of squid from your hand for this definitive only-in-Cayman experience. Go early in the morning for a quieter encounter and to catch the docile rays at their “snackiest,” when they’ll be the most delighted to see you.

Nature puts on a different kind of show in the evening. On the darkest nights in Cayman’s Bioluminescent Bay, you can kayak peacefully under the night sky while gentle bursts of light appear below you with every stroke of your paddle. These bright splashes of green and blue are tiny plankton called dinoflagellates that light up when moved; they’re only visible in a handful of locations around the world. We recommend experiencing this phenomenon with Cayman Kayaks. This eco-friendly company operates out of Rum Point, very close to the illuminating organisms. They offer guided tours via sit-on-top kayaks or a custom-built electric boat and only go out during the darkest times of the moon cycle to ensure you’ll see a gorgeous glow.

Kayaking in Bioluminescent Bay

More beauty beyond the beach

Cayman’s museums, parks and historic sites allow you to walk through pieces of the islands’ culture when you’re taking a break from their pristine shores. Cayman’s Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park is perfectly suited to family fun thanks to plenty of educational information on its grounds' local flora—about 2,000 species of rainbow-hued flowers, swaying palms, spiky agave and 10-foot-tall ferns—fauna, and history. Plus, the park now has a dedicated Children’s Garden, including everything from a grow zone to a sensory garden, observation tower, maze, discovery pond, splash pad and more to encourage play and exploration.

Arts and culture

See about 2,000 species of flora at Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park

Cayman’s iconic turtles, aquatic birds and up to 60 species of colourful butterflies crisscross the gardens, but the most famous denizens are the approximately 100 blue iguanas that live in the on-site breeding facility. In the early 2000s, an estimated 30 of these mythic-looking teal reptiles lived in the wild, making it the most endangered lizard in the world at the time. But because of this conservation centre’s recovery efforts, now about 1,000 roam free. Parkgoers can take a tour to meet these five-foot-long creatures in person.

Learn about the islands’ history at the Cayman Islands National Museum, or see it through another lens at the National Gallery. Paintings portraying local life hang on every wall: Catboats idle in the sound, breadfruit dances in a modernist swirl and mangrove forests splatter across pages in watercolour. Local creators also showcase the Caymanian desire to remember one’s roots while balancing the islands’ rapid development with mixed-media pieces that layer images of the past over the present.

Caves, trails and more fun on land

Adventures in Cayman don’t stop at the water’s edge. In Grand Cayman’s Northside, you can follow an expert guide through the Crystal Caves, a series of three caverns draped in dramatic stalagmites and stalactites where pirates once took shelter. After the tour, you’ll step out into the surrounding tropical rainforest and walk amid its balsam trees and blue-winged parrots.

Island adventure

Hikers can't miss the 3.7-kilometre Mastic Trail that winds through a 2-million-year-old forest of mangrove wetlands, mahogany, cedar and silver thatch palm. Bananaquits and butterflies flutter overhead, while hermit crabs and little lizards amble along the trails. Go in June to see the path sprinkled with yellow banana orchids, the official Cayman flower.

Biking around the islands is one of the best ways to see local spots

Book your Cayman Islands vacation today. Air Canada and WestJet offer four-hour nonstop flights from Toronto to Grand Cayman, with easy connections across Canada. Check out Visit Cayman Islands for more information and the latest special offers.

Sea stars lounging at Starfish Point

These blue iguanas can only be found in Grand Cayman (left); Foliage in Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park (right)

On remote Owen Island, you may get its sugar shores all to yourself

Drive six minutes west after your meal to get to Starfish Point, where red sea stars create mini underwater constellations in the shallow shoals.

Rum Point yawns across Grand Cayman’s northern shore. This local favourite lies about 45 minutes’ drive from most Cayman hotels, so you’ll have even more of the beach to yourself. After a leisurely swim, pick a spot for a light picnic under an almond tree or silver thatch palm and let the warm air dry you off.

For some of the best Caymanian fare, saddle up to the takeout window at Heritage Kitchen, a pastel-painted local joint across the road from West Bay Beach. Get the coconut grouper and a fresh-squeezed guava juice, then bring your bounty to the sea wall to eat while the aquamarine Caribbean puts on a show.

Blue by Eric Ripert is helmed by the renowned French chef whose NYC restaurant, Le Bernadin, glitters with three Michelin stars. His Cayman outpost, at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, is the only CAA 5-Diamond restaurant in the entire Caribbean. The new Saint June in the same hotel provides a luxurious, relaxed setting, where guests can enjoy sophisticated beverage and food offerings. Set in the backyard within the heart of Seven Mile Beach, Ms. Piper's Kitchen + Garden is a collection of keepsakes of her travels, inspiring dishes, cocktails, music and thoughtful details. The quaint garden restaurant serves delectable treats for lunch and dinner—don't forget to taste the homemade ice cream.

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Ms. Piper's

Divers of all skill levels can take their time exploring the ship’s mess hall, crew quarters and engine room, because the maximum depth of this wreck site is an easy 20 metres.

One of the most popular dives is the Kittiwake, a five-deck ship most famous for recovering the lost black box of the Challenger space shuttle. It was intentionally sunk off the coast of Seven Mile Beach in 2011 to become an artificial reef.

On the south side of Grand Cayman, step into the islands’ oldest standing stone structure. When the three-story Pedro St. James building rose in 1780, it stood out so strikingly from the island’s thatched cottages that locals dubbed it an honorary castle, and in 1831 it was the site of a public meeting when the attendees decided to create the first democratically elected parliament.

The Pedro St. James building is the oldest standing stone structure in Cayman

It’s impossible to have a conversation about Cayman coastlines without talking about Seven Mile Beach, rated the #4 Beach in the Caribbean and #14 in the world in the 2023 Tripadvisor Awards.

Grand Cayman's East End provides optimal grounds for exploring the beauty of the islands by bike. Hop on a rental and adventure on your own, or opt for a tour to learn as you go. ECO Rides takes cyclists to off-the-beaten-path sites like the memorial for the 1794 Wreck of the Ten Sails, coastal fishing villages, Lighthouse Point or Colliers Beach, where you can catch the sunrise on a morning ride.