Main Menu
Join Undercurrent on Facebook

The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 | |
For Divers since 1975
The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975
"Best of the Web: scuba tips no other
source dares to publish" -- Forbes
X
 

Dive Review of Little Cayman Beach Resort in
Cayman Islands/Little Cayman

Little Cayman Beach Resort: "Little CAyman Beach Resort", Jul, 2018,

by Bill Schlegel, MO, US (Contributor Contributor 19 reports with 17 Helpful votes). Report 10370 has 4 Helpful votes.

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 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling 3 stars
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments Went with a group of 52 with a dive club. Divers of all levels of experience and requirements. They arranged us on 4 Newton 46's according to experience and preferences. I think everyone was very pleased with the overall experience.
My description may be little more critical than some of the newer divers, being an older and somewhat jaded diver. The accommodations at LCBR continue to shine. Rooms were excellent with daily room service, safe in room, in room coffee, warm showers (solar heated), unlimited safe to drink fresh water (reverse osmosis plant) good and free WiFi. Good coffee in the restaurant ready by 6:30 every day for divers to meet and chat. The food is cafeteria style, three meals a day. Special diets provided (contact before arrival). This place is famous for its food and justifiably so. Won't get into the details of the menu but most agreed that if this were a free standing restaurant in you home city, it would be popular. Everyone gets a card for 14 free drinks at the bar.
Nice pool. Hot tub. Sun decks. Hammocks. Not much to do on island, and thats the point of going there. Can borrow one of the islands community bicycles and ride around. Sit in one of the observation towers and view the Booby bird - Frigate bird colony. Go to a save the Cayman Iguana lecture.
Diving protocol is well polished. When you arrive, you put your gear in from to room. They take it to your assigned boat. Set it up and it stays all week. You just carry what you want. Camera. Wetsuit. Mask. Very convenient drying shed. Nitrox. They describe this as "valet" diving. You sit on last seat on boat, they bring your rig to you. Assist with suiting up. Fall off boat. On return, they assist everyone with climbing the ladder, they take your gear off at top of ladder and place back in rack. No divers staggering around on deck with full rigs on. They explained that they do it this way to prevent falls on the boat, which are the most common type of "dive" injury in their experience.
Boats have oxygen, first aide kit, stretcher. Fresh water, snacks, marine head. No camera tanks. But they take care of your camera and carry back and forth to camera table for you if you want. Visibility was somewhat disappointing at some sites. Apparently some type of Sargassum weed assault had hit the island and it was everywhere. The classic Cayman, greater than 100 foot visibility was returning but the end of our week.
Other activities include snorkeling, which some said was OK. Kayaks which were popular in the lagoon in front of the resort. No night dives went out our week, due to weather. No diving from beach or dock due to boat traffic. Small dive pool on dock, with seats adjacent and easy access, for instructors. They offer trips to Cayman Brac to dive but require a full boat to go.
Compared with the previous time I've been there, the air travel was much more convenient. Used to have trouble getting all gear over to LCBR from Grand Cayman. Now, they have more flights and there were no gear delays, even for this large group. Cayman Airways personnel were very friendly this time. Grand Cayman airport is undergoing MAJOR construction and was somewhat inconvenient. Temporary.
LCBR has a monthly photo contest site. The winner for the year gets a free week at LCBR. Site is currently down for a rebuild. It had a maximum MB limit that is now frequently excluding the images from bigger cameras. This is being upgraded but i do not know what the new spec's will be. Speaking of photography, I was just a little disappointed in subject matter. Not that we didn't see all the usual subjects on every dive. Sw a few reef sharks. Just not the density I remembered. Some Lion fish.
They are clearly very environmentally focussed. No touch. No gloves. No reef damaging sunscreens. No single use plastics. Recycling program.
Continues to be a great dive operation and great resort. Recommend for everyone.
Websites Little Cayman Beach Resort   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving About everywhere.
Closest Airport Little Cayman. !/2 mile away. Getting There Major Airlines. Delta. AA. Southwest. Cayman Air and others to Grand Cayman. Cayman Air twin Otter turboprops to Little Cayman

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy Seas calm
Water Temp 81-84°F / 27-29°C Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility 50-150 Ft/ 15-46 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Usual non-decompression sport diving restrictions to depth and time. Just reasonable and be considerate of others. We noticed that many briefings suggested between 40 and 60 minutes. Many shallower dives were well over 1 hour.
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 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 2 stars

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

Subject Matter 3 stars Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments No rinse tanks on boats. But, thats OK Trips are short, couple ours out on water at most and the two large clean rinse tanks at foot of dock were always replenished with fresh clean water. Work table near by. Would rather do it this way than using a bucket on the boat full of all sorts of cameras piled on top of each other and banging together.
Was this report helpful to you?
Report currently has 4 Helpful votes
Leave a comment (Subscribers only -- 200 words max)
Subscribers can comment here
 

Subscribe Now
Subscribers can post comments, ask the reviewer questions, as well as getting immediate and complete access to ALL 1006 dive reviews of Cayman Islands and all other dive destinations. Complete access to all issues and Chapbooks is also included.

 

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


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

Free Undercurrent Issue
Get a free
monthly email and
a sample issue!


Find in  

| Home | Online Members Area | My Account | Login | Join |
| Travel Index | Dive Resort & Liveaboard Reviews | Featured Reports | Recent Issues | Back Issues |
| Dive Gear Index | Health/Safety Index | Environment & Misc. Index | Seasonal Planner | Blogs | Free Articles | Book Picks | News |
| Special Offers | RSS | FAQ | About Us | Contact Us | Links |

Copyright © 1996-2024 Undercurrent (www.undercurrent.org)
3020 Bridgeway, Ste 102, Sausalito, Ca 94965
All rights reserved.

Page computed and displayed in 0.12 seconds