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Dive Review of Brac Reef Beach Resort in
Cayman Islands/Cayman Brac

Brac Reef Beach Resort, Mar, 2013,

by George Constantino, AK, US (Contributor Contributor 14 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 6925.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 5 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 5 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving 2 stars
Snorkeling 2 stars
Value for $$ 3 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 3 stars
Comments Our resort experience was outstanding! The facilities, room, service, food, bar, pool, layout etc. was excellent.

The diving operation's shop, boats, gear, crew, culture of safety was even better. My wife arrived at the resort with a cold and didn't get to do much diving and Reef Diver's gave her a credit she can use if we return.

They have a camera table and fresh water hose on the boat but no dedicated camera tank on the boat. They have rinse tanks for both gear and cameras and drying racks for gear at the shop (~100' from the boat docks).

The diving was very good but not excellent. The viz was always 60-80 plus and the coral reefs were healthy and clean. The windy weather kept us diving near the resort the first couple of days and I ended up diving one site 3 times and another 2 times in 3 days. The weather improved the the last couple of days and we got to dive the North Shore of Cayman Brac and Bloody Bay Wall on Little Cayman. BBW was a great dive experience, but we had just as good, even better experiences, and consistently saw more sharks and turtles diving San Salvador Island -Club Med, Exuma Cays on Cat Ppalu live aboard and Bimini Islands -Juliet live aboard.

The coolest thing was that we always had the option to follow a dive master on every dive and the DM always speared 2-4 lion fish that we ran into and the DM fed them to the large groupers that followed the group. We often saw a turtle or two and one shark was encountered during a wall dive.

They give an excellent boat and dive site briefings. The valet service - you walk to the end of the boat with mask & fins and they bring you your BCD with tank and do the reverse every dive was much appreciated!
They hang a hooka line at 15' off the boat, but it would have been helpful for many of the divers to have a safety stop bar at the end of the dive. We were assigned the boat that all the single and the divers that are not part of a groups ad to take. That meant that we had to hear the 20 minute boat briefing almost every trip because new divers were always arriving. While a DM always led a 30 minute trip around the dive site. The DM swam at a pretty good pace, stuck to the same route, didn't seem concerned if a diver fell behind or left the group. That could be a problem for a diver that ran into trouble or took too long taking a picture but I guess they would say "that is why you always dive with a buddy".

The didn't have enough divers sign up for the Thursday night dive and we could not do the Tuesday night dive because we were flying out the next morning. Bummer!

I was disappointed by the lack of variety in fish species and numbers. I have found much greater diversity of life during recent trips to Key Largo, San Salvador Island, Exuma Cays, and Bimini...

We made good friends with a family, and later in the week after the 1 tank afternoon dives, we shared a rental car, toured the island, explored the local caves, and did a shore dive from Radar beach. the last afternoon we found a shore diving site close to the airport that had an easy ladder entry to a swimming pool size shallow quarry site that opened out to the adjacent reef and this would have been a great place for a check out and shore dive. I highly recommend this to anyone visiting Cayman Brac.

Over all Cayman Brac was a great experience very posh and laid back. But, you spend most of the day on or around the boat to get in three dices. Just as good or better diving (and more dives/day) and almost as good accommodations, food, and service can be had for a better price on the islands and liveaboards I mentioned above.
Websites Brac Reef Beach Resort   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Florida Keys & West Plam Beach, Georgia Coast, Alaska, Coronado & Channel Islands, Bimini, Exuma Cays, San Salvidor Islands
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy Seas choppy
Water Temp 75-85°F / 24-29°C Wetsuit Thickness 5
Water Visibility 60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions 50-60 minute dives; no deco dives; follow DM assigned dive plan for each dive; had to dive with computer and they had free computers if you need one
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 2 stars
Small Critters 2 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 3 stars Boat Facilities 2 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 3 stars Shore Facilities 5 stars
UW Photo Comments Over all Cayman Brac was a great experience but just as good or better diving (and more dives/day) can be had for a better price on the islands and liveaboards I mentioned below. It was on my bucket list and I'm glad I made this trip but I doubt we'll return.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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