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For Divers since 1975 The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 |
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Conch Club Divers/Paradise Villas, May, 2010,by Sandra K Falen, KS, US ( Sr. Contributor 29 reports with 21 Helpful votes). Report 5628.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Accommodations |  |
Food | |
| Service and Attitude |  |
Environmental Sensitivity | |
| Dive Operation | |
Shore Diving | N/A |
| Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
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| Value for $$ | |
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| Beginners | |
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| Advanced | |
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| Comments |
For Caribbean diving, it's hard to top Little Cayman. It had been nine years since my previous visit, and I shouldn't have waited that long to return. Paradise Villas (PV) is flat out terrific, and a great value. Every cottage is beachfront, with spacious verandas front and back, and compact bedroom, living, and dining areas. The kitchen facilities made it easy to do breakfast on our own, as well as a post-dive Happy Hour while reviewing that day's photos over a cold beer or rum punch (we stocked up at the nearby grocery and liquor store). Lunch and dinners at the Hungry Iguana, on site, were decent and reasonably priced (don't miss the mango sorbet). PV is well-managed by a friendly staff, the property is clean and inviting, and I was even able to check email from my room, with the free WiFi. The staff at Conch Club Divers (CCD) is experienced, safety-conscious, and a lot of fun, and I give them a 5-star rating. They know the territory, care deeply about the island and its waters, and they run an efficient operation. They picked us at PV at around 7:30am for the short ride to the Little Cayman Beach Resort, where CCD's boat is docked. If you're a Nitrox diver, you'll analyze and label your tanks at the shop here each day. There are roomy rinse tanks, a large gear storage area, and a camera rinse tank. Morning dives consist of a 2-tank trip, with surface interval spent on the boat. After returning to the dock, the CCD staff cheerfully motored us back to PV in time for lunch. My friends and I also opted for a single-tank afternoon dive, and the CCD van usually picked us up at around 1:30. Diving on LC provides for outstanding photographic opportunities, with the sheer and stunning Bloody Bay Wall as a backdrop. I was pleased to see that the corals are still pretty healthy, and so, too, is the fish population. We saw an amazing number of large lobsters and groupers, and there were turtles sighted on nearly every dive. Other sightings included seahorses, flounders, burrfish, scrawled filefish, barracuda, stingrays, nursesharks, and an amazing array of juvenile fish -- I lost count of the canary yellow, baby blue tangs and the tiny, schooling baby surgeon fish darting about the reef. Oddly, I didn't see a single eagle ray -- although they were spotted by other divers on the boat that week. The turtles and groupers are clearly accustomed to divers, which allows for some amazing, close-up "Kodak moments". I had a porcupinefish pose lazily right in front of my camera, and a dazzling reef squid mating display which made for some spectacular video. As for the dreaded and unwelcome lionfish - yes, they are in Cayman waters. I was happy to find that the dive crew has taken a simple approach to dealing with them: trap and kill whenever possible. We probably sighted (and subsequently dispatched) at least two on every dive. After seeing how lionfish can decimate the tropical reef fish population in the Bahamas, I'm convinced that killing them is necessary, and it appears that this approach is helping to keep them in check in LC. While Little Cayman diving may be the priciest in the Caribbean, it's also arguably the best. I won't wait nine years to return. |
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| Websites | Conch Club Divers Paradise Villas | ||
Reporter and Travel |
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| Dive Experience | Over 1000 dives | ||
| Where else diving | Fiji, Palau, Tonga, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and all over the Caribbean | ||
| Closest Airport | Getting There | ||
Dive Conditions |
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| Weather | sunny, dry | Seas | calm |
| Water Temp | 80-81°F / 27-27°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 2 |
| Water Visibility | 100-120 Ft/ 30-37 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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| Dive own profile | yes | ||
| Enforced diving restrictions | Behave like an adult, and you'll be fine... these folks are easy-going. Dives were generally around an hour, sometimes longer. | ||
| Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | yes |
What I Saw |
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| Sharks | Lots | Mantas | None |
| Dolphins | 1 or 2 | Whale Sharks | None |
| Turtles | > 2 | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Corals | |
Tropical Fish | |
| Small Critters | |
Large Fish | |
| Large Pelagics |  |
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Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Subject Matter | |
Boat Facilities | |
| Overall rating for UWP's | |
Shore Facilities | N/A |
| UW Photo Comments | Roomy camera table on boat. | ||
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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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