Liveaboard Cayman Islands Advice

For my 50th birthday I would like to take a liveaboard trip in the Cayman Islands. I am wondering what time of the year would be best to go and how early in advance does it need to be booked? If anyone has other suggestions for destinations that would be nice. I would like to stay under $2800 incl air fare from Wisconsin to the destination.

Thanks,

Wendy

Hi,

I think I'm right in saying the Cayman Aggressor is the only liveaboard in the cayman islands.Im sure they will have some deals as its the off season (if the caymans really has an off season).Its anawesome trip.

Check www.aggressor.com.

Steve

The Aggressor is a great way to see all the islands, but when the weather is rough it can get stuck in the shelter of the west side of Grand Cayman and be unable to get anywhere else. Which is what happened when I was out here in the spring.

I love liveaboard diving (my last trip before coming here was a liveaboard in June) - being always on site and the ease of it all. But in Cayman all the sites are within 0.5 miles from shore and I don't see the point of a liveaboard. Last night I dove at the East End of the island and this morning I am going out on the west side. Shore based gives you all the flexibility of diving without the compromises of staying on a boat.

For my money the best diving on G Cayman is at the East End. And I would reccommend staying at either Compass Point with Ocean Frontiers or the Dive Lodge,

Alex

http://www.oceanfrontiers.com/

http://www.divelodge.com/

I would look very closely at landbased packages as if you are on a budget a liveaboard may be the cheaper way to go as pretty much once you are on the vessel evrything has been paid for.

If the weather is good in Cayman then you will get to dive all 3 islands.

Alex is dead right about the east end,its a great spot.

Cayman has so much,it all comes down to what YOU want from your trip.

The main thing,get there some how and it will be an awesome experience.

Steve

Hello !

My wife and I did the Aggressor in July 2003 with Mike Megleski and Mike Haber for photo instruction with Nikonons equipment and had a great time! Captain Tom has been with the Cayman Aggressor a long time and his crew is excellent! I've done land based in cayman and liveaboard. If the weather is good you will get to do all three islands in a week. We have tried to do 5 dives a day land based and found it exhausting. Personally, my wife and I dont like to lug around 3 cameras and all our gear (we're wimps, I admit it). So, we are natuarally biased towards liveaboards.

Check hurricane season,,, I think it starts late July.....

I would do a few days at East End then board the Cayman Aggressor ...you wont be disappointed with either choice!

Michael and Keri Palasz

Hurricane Season In Cayman is Officially June 1st to October 31st, however we don't tend to get any until lat eJuly .. but it carries on to November for us.

Now that being said we only tend to get the odd tropical storm near by, and maybe one or two hurricanes (normally cat 1) coming about 180 miles of us by the east coast from south to north. The worst ones historically are late october or november.

I personally would say that you are better off staying land based and if you want to do all three islands fly there and do them, the aggressor takes as much time as no fly time take to get there anyway, they just travel over night.

As Alex pointed out it is often that the aggressor gets stuck on one side of Grand Cayman, which is not a bad thing until you are on the aggressor. The reason this is bad is the aggressor needs special moorings to tie off to (no anchor dropping allowed in Cayman) and each side of the island has maybe 5 dive sites for the aggressor to use, which means you could be stuck on 5 sites for a week instead of three islands, where as if you were land based even if the weather turns bad you still have about 50 dive sites to choose from.

If you are worried about price It would be interesting to compare Agressor to Land based, I have never done that, You will find you won't have to lug your equipment around very far most companies pick you up at your door, and you just have to carry stuff onto the boat from the car, which parks by the dock or beach you are going to.

When is your trip wanting to go as time of year around here can factor in a lot of variants for the trip too .. like in October there is Cayman Madness And september is low season and so much cheaper (and can be the best weather too) .. also time of year brings about diff sun positions for photography, and different wildlife in the water too. If you want to get scientific about it you could spend ages planning a trip, if you know you want a liveaboard and are not bothered by anything else then you have the choice of the Agressor. If you want to go land based you have more dive operators to choose from that you can count, all offering something slightly different, and some different sides of the island, some have small boats, some cater for photography, so have big boats and take lots of people ... it's a tough choice.

If you want some further information, feel free to ask me, If i have time to help I will, I live here, and have worked for a few companies on the island, and know most of them and the people who own and run them, so I can advise you for what you want, but like i said if you know you want a liveaboard for the ease and conveniece that some people like in that then just contact the aggressor.

enjoy your 50th

Giles