Stingrays, Sun, and Turtles – Grand Cayman with Kids

Grand Cayman with kids. Yup, we did it. The past few years, we have taken a trip somewhere warm at the end of January; January is the time of year when I start to crave warm sun and just need a little break from the cold and snow! Although it’s not a school break week, the end of January works best for Dad’s schedule and, generally, hotels and flights are a little less expensive. We decided to try Grand Cayman this year as my husband had been there when he was in high school (so many, many moons ago!) and had fond memories. After some research, we found a place to stay, booked our flights and waited seven months… (I’m big on early planning to get the best rates!!).

After much research, we decided to stay at the Caribbean Club. My parents come on these winter trips with us, so the condo-style rooms at this resort worked perfectly! There were three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen, a dining room and living area, as well as a huge balcony with ocean views.

The best thing about this property is its beach. It’s not crowded, we could always get chairs and umbrellas, and there is plenty of sand real estate. After walking up and down the beach and seeing the rows of cramped, reserved chairs lined up right next to each other at the Ritz and Marriott, we decided we definitely had the best beach space.

We spent a lot of time on the beach; the kids loved digging, swimming, and just floating in the surf. (Read about our favorite beach gear!) We loved the view, watching the kids have fun (and burning energy), and relaxing (as much as you can with kids) in the sun.

There are also people to help set up up your chairs and umbrellas, and, starting around 11 am, you can order food and drinks from the onsite restaurant, Luca (I’ll talk more about the food later in this post).

The Caribbean Club was a great place for us to stay, mostly because of the beach and living space.

Ok, enough about the hotel!! Let’s talk about all of the fun things there are to do on the island!! My ABSOLUTE favorite thing was swimming with the stingrays at Stingray City.

At the recommendation of the concierge, we chartered a boat through Robert Soto’s Watersports and it was, by far, the best thing we did! Jon, the owner, and his brother Mark, took us on a wonderful adventure around the North Sound. They have a beautiful, clean, 37′ boat (with a bathroom!!) and we were confident in the boat and its captain. Both brothers made sure we felt at home and that our needs were met; they were also wonderful with the kiddos (and had snacks for them!), which is a huge plus in my books!! With their guidance, we created a plan for the day and off we went! We managed to get to Stingray City before it was too crowded, so we had a great space to anchor. Jon jumped right off the boat and brought over a wonderful, huge, pregnant, stingray named Freckles (aka Snowflake) with whom I immediately fell in love. Jon showed us how to hold her and even helped L to hold her.

Little Man was able to hop right in and pet her, as well!

While we were all taking turns holding and feeding Freckles, Dad took my phone (with it’s new waterproof case – the best investment ever!!) and got some fun shots of the stingrays.

After spending quite a bit of time with the stingrays, we were off to visit Starfish Point. Here, we anchored in shallow water where the kiddos could touch and were able to hold some huge starfish!! Jon jumped right off and went and found us two to hold. So fun.

When we were done exploring that area (where we also saw some fish, more starfish, a jellyfish, and a lizard swim), we headed off into some deeper water to snorkel. Everyone jumped in here and L even snorkeled for a few minutes…until she saw a big fish. 🙂 There were lots of colorful fish swimming around and Mark, who jumped in with us this time, fed them some calamari; watching them inhale that was pretty cool!!

The fish came pretty close to us and there was plenty of coral and other oceany things to look out. The good thing about this spot is that it was relatively calm so I wasn’t sucking saltwater down my snorkel from waves. We weren’t out at the drop off, but there was definitely enough here for our needs. If you’re a big snorkeler or diver, I am sure Jon could bring you to additional places!

After snorkeling, we went to lunch at Kaibo, a restaurant that would take over an hour to drive to from our hotel. We ate right on the beach at a picnic table and didn’t even have to put shoes on!

It was perfect! After that we went back to the dock with wonderful pictures and memories of our amazing adventure! If you’re ever looking for an adventure on Grand Cayman, I can’t recommend Robert Soto’s Watersports enough!! The charter is worth every penny (and then some!).

Another fun Cayman adventure is the Cayman Turtle Centre. There is a free shuttle to the Centre, so make sure you check with your concierge to see if it would work with your schedule. Here, were were able to see full size sea turtles,

and also hold some baby turtles.

We did have to sign a release to let Little Man touch the turtles, since he is under 5; turtles carry salmonella and the littles are probably a little more susceptible. There were tons of hand washing stations around, as well as anti-bac gel, so we were confident that our whole family would be okay (and we were). There was also a little video that talked about the life cycle of a sea turtle and how the Centre helps protect them.

Right across the street from the Turtle Centre is the Cayman Dolphin Discovery. We wandered over there, as our taxi driver told us we could look at the dolphins without doing an encounter. By chance, they weren’t very busy and we got a little tour of the facility and got to see some baby dolphins up close! We weren’t allowed to take pictures, so I don’t have evidence of this adventure, but it was fun to see the dolphins up close!

So. Changing the subject. The food we ate on the island was AMAZING! For the most part, we would have breakfast and lunch in our condo (there was a grocery store right across the street), and then went out to dinner. We ate at Luca, right at the hotel, for two dinners and an one FANTASTIC brunch. Seriously, the brunch was like no other brunch I’ve eaten; if you’re on the island on a Sunday, I would definitely try to get reservations at Luca for brunch. (Sorry, I was too busy eating to take any pictures!)

Another favorite was The Wharf. Here, there is tons of outdoor seating right on the water, and they even feed the tarpons at night.

We enjoyed wonderful food and service, as well as a beautiful sunset during our meal here.

Thanks to my parents, my husband and I managed to escape for a dinner alone one night. We had one of my favorite meals EVER at the Grand Old House. As you know from my post about Bermuda, my husband and I are amateur foodies. We were in seventh heaven with our meals here which included an avocado and black tiger shrimp salad, bacon wrapped wahoo, and blueberry panna cotta. Ready to drool??

Here’s the panna cotta:

The food was beautiful and the setting was beautiful. This restaurant was also right on the water and Mother Nature provided a gorgeous sunset for our night out.

We also had a yummy meal at Veranda, which is at the Marriott, a solid breakfast at Seven at the Ritz-Carlton, and a kid-friendly dinner at Andiamo, also at the Ritz.

One thing to note is that the meals are pretty expensive. Obviously, since we were on an island, we knew the prices would be high; however, they were higher than any other island to which we’ve travelled. So, just keep that in mind when you are creating your vacation budget!!

As you can tell, we had an amazing vacation on Grand Cayman; Cayman with kids is just wonderful! There are so many kid-friendly (and adult-friendly) adventures, all in a beautiful setting. If you do take a trip, be prepared for crazy lines at immigration when you land on the island. Because we had kids, we were routed around some of the lines, however, I did see kids in the long lines, so I think we were just super lucky. If we hadn’t been pulled (thanks, I think, to Ian pulling my hair from the Tula right as a customs customer service agent walked by…), I think we would have been in line for almost two hours. We did land right around 4 other big flights and it was a Saturday, so I imagine that is the worst of the worst times. However, do keep in mind that you may be hanging out in line for quite a while before you can enjoy the island.

Have you been to Cayman with kids before? Did you love it? Let me know in the comments!

If you visit Cayman with kids, I hope that your family enjoys the adventures as much as my family did!