Dive Review of Brac Reef Beach Resort in
Cayman Islands

Other dive reports on Brac Reef Beach Resort

Other Cayman Islands reports
Subscriber Content Preview
Active subscribers go here

Brac Reef Beach Resort: "Good trip to Cayman Brac", Apr, 2019, by Christopher Watt, MA, US ( Contributor 17 reports with 18 Helpful votes). Report 10882 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We stayed at Cayman Brac Beach resort March 16-23 – very fun trip. This was as part of a group trip with our greater Boston LDS. Our family group was my wife (non-diver) and our 2 kids ages 24, 22. The Trip: We flew JetBlue direct from Boston to Grand Cayman and the made the Cayman Airways hop from GC to the Brac. You can definitely see many of the upgrades at the Grand Cayman airport, but there are still things to be done. The positives = much larger departure/check-in area, larger customs and baggage claim area, larger waiting area where the gates are. The good – no more waiting in security line outside the airport. The bad – gate area still feels crowded, additional restaurants are yet to be opened (signs said Subway and Wendy’s coming soon), gate area still apparently has more work to be done, the tent restaurant in the parking lot closed and was packed up during our week there…but no alternative has opened up yet (perhaps moving a restaurant back upstairs where the old one was?). So yes, Saturday in Grand Cayman airport on the way home at this time of year home was crowded, steamy, somewhat chaotic, etc…..but knowing it would likely be like that going in eased the pain. The Resort I’ve stayed at Little Cayman Beach Resort twice before; the rooms at CBBR are very similar with one major improvement = every room has private outdoor space. We stayed on the second floor, our kids on the first. Second floor rooms have a small porch with chairs and table that faces towards the ocean; first floor rooms have a small patio that also faces the ocean….making it very easy to walk right out your porch door to the bar, dining hall, etc. Beds were comfortable, A/C worked great, ceiling fans, separate room and beach towels, shampoo/conditioner/soap provided, drinkable tap water, plenty of charging outlets, decent in-room wifi, TV (we never used), dresser, sizeable table which works well for camera set-up. Very nice pool and bar area. Bikes that can be borrowed – beach-style bikes, although on one day my wife rode one of these all the way to the bluff and back. My favorite morning routine was to walk down to the western tip of the island to stretch my legs (an 8 minute walk) and then head back to the resort in time for coffee and sunrise. This western point is also a fantastic place to watch the sunset; there is even a little picnic table to sit at while watching the show. Like LCBR, CBBR also has a lighted tennis court with a basketball hoop on it. Resort Food = very good and variable. We had some special dietary requests that we sent in advance – handled no problem. Coffee each morning at 6:30. Diving = very good. Generally deeper starting depths vs. my prior experience at Little Cayman. There were some shallower sites, but most seemed to start somewhere in the 40-50 foot range. Tibbets wreck was definitely a hit especially with our kids. We also made a trip over to LC one day, including lunch at the newly renovated LCBR dining room (very fancy). It was nice to do a few dives on the north side of LC to add some variety to the week. Creatures sighted included most of the “regular” Caribbean characters = spotted drums, lettuce sea slugs, flamingo tongues, the ever-friendly Nassau grouper, reef sharks, nurse sharks, green and hawksbill turtles, squid, morays, gray angels, French angels, butterfly fish, etc., etc. My last dive trip was a Galapagos liveaboard….not a fair comparison, but CB was good, solid Caribbean diving = nice marine life, interesting coral formations, swim throughs, CB walls, the Tibbets wreck, LC dramatic walls. Reef divers (our guides were BJ and Brett) has nice big boats and runs an efficient operation. Separate camera rinse tanks on land, but no separate camera room and no rinse tanks on the boats. That said, crew was efficient and careful in handling cameras and gave camera rigs a fresh water rinse with the hose on the boat before putting back on the camera table. Again, the large, granite-topped tables in the guest rooms make good camera staging areas. My wife spent multiple days rock climbing, most of it with Rock Iguana. She highly recommends Angel, one of the co-owners. The 3 of them (wife and kids) also did a full moon/night yoga session with Rock Iguana – candle light, moonlight, the sound of the waves – apparently very soothing. Since my wife rented a car for the rock climbing (driving on the left…luckily we lived in the UK for 2 years….although traffic on CB is VERY mellow), they also did some cave exploring one day and we took multiple trips up to the bluff (one for sunrise – beautiful!). Getting to the bluff is definitely recommended – not only for the views, but for the topography and the brown-footed boobies nesting all along the edge of the bluff. We also ate out on 2 nights – Captain’s Table for Taco Tuesday (colorful crowd and beautiful night for sitting outside) and Star Island (great for local seafood; CBBR does not generally serve local seafood). All in all a great trip for us given the combination of great resort, good diving and topside activities. I know there have been some discussions here lately regarding LCBR vs. CBBR. IMHO, CB definitely wins in terms for overall resort comfort, better pool, outdoor space with the rooms, larger bar and seating area, same Reef Divers efficient operation, more to do on the island (both activities and culinary choices), the bluff, larger planes (we had jet service inbound to CB and one of the larger Saab turbo props on the way home). I think LC is better in terms of overall quality of diving assuming you are able to dive the north side of the island for the week. So – it all depends on what you are looking for; I’m certainly glad I had a chance to try both.
Websites	Brac Reef Beach Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	New England, FL Keys, St. Lawrence River, Red Sea, Maldives, Italy, UK/English Channel, Turks & Caicos, St. Vincent, Roatan, Costa Rica, Belize, Hawaii, Bermuda, Raja Ampat, Lembeh, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, Galapagos
Closest Airport		Getting There	JetBlue from Boston-GCM; Cayman Airways to Cayman Brac
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	81-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	75-100 Ft/ 23-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	Loose guidance, but not militantly enforced
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Camera table on boat; crew good at camera handling and rinsed with fresh water hose after each dive. Separate camera rinse tank on land. No cemra room, but large, granite-topped table in guest room perfect for camera staging.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Leave a comment (Subscribers only -- 200 words max)
Subscribers can comment here

Subscribers can post comments, ask the reviewer questions, as well as getting immediate and complete access to ALL 1022 dive reviews of Cayman Islands and all other dive destinations. Complete access to all issues and Chapbooks is also included.

Other dive reports on Brac Reef Beach Resort

All Cayman Islands Dive Reviews and Reports
Diving Guide to Cayman Islands
Diving Reviews for All Dive Destinations

Want to assemble your own collection of Cayman Islands reports in one place?
Use the Mini Chapbook Facility to create your personalized collection.

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.

Undercurrent Home

Page computed and displayed in 0.17 seconds

Get more dive info like these and other important scuba updates sent monthly to your email. And a FREE Recent Issue of Undercurrent
Get a free monthly email and a sample issue!

Dive Review of Brac Reef Beach Resort in Cayman Islands

Brac Reef Beach Resort: "Good trip to Cayman Brac", Apr, 2019,

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Brac Reef Beach Resort in
Cayman Islands