Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands (you can say it K-man) are diverse: dotted with deal-cutting characters with briefcases and cellphones, scuba divers in electric wetsuits and English folk checking the cricket scores over a g&t. The Caymans are colorful: coral reefs, bright orange frogfish, sociable stingrays and reggae beats on the street. They're cruisy: leafblowers are noisier than the traffic, and most of the smoke comes from cruise-shippers plugging their faces with Cuban cigars. Hell, even Hell's chilled out in the Caymans.

The islands have long been a haven for bankers and divers, but travelers of all stripes are now flocking there in growing numbers. As a result, resorts and condos have sprung up all over and you can count on air-con, cold beer and ESPN. But if you want to get away from it all (well, maybe keep the cold beer), there are lots of places in the Caymans to escape satellite dishes and slickness, not least of them underwater.

Sparsely populated, mostly flat and partly marshy, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman have a corner of the Caribbean all to themselves. The largest, Grand Cayman, is shaped a bit like the Little Dipper and spans about 25 miles (45km) from the lip of the cup on the western end to the tip of the handle on the eastern end. It lies 150 miles (240km) south of Cuba and about 180 miles (290km) west of Jamaica. Little Cayman and Cayman Brac lie 80 miles (130km) and 90 miles (145km) to the east of Grand Cayman, respectively. They're both about 10 miles long and a mile wide (16km by 2km). There is also a scattering of uninhabited islets and cays.

The Caymans aren't lush, but they do support a fair swag of plantlife. Mahogany was once abundant but has been mostly logged. Poisonous species include maiden plum (a weed with rash-causing sap), lady's hair or cowitch (a vine with fiberglass-like barbs) and the vicious manchineel tree, which produces a skin-blistering sap. Take care not to shelter under a manchineel in the rain! Other indigenous plants are cochineel, used as a shampoo as well as eaten, and pingwing, whose barbed branches were fashioned into a natural fence. The fauna is less aggressive: the islands are crawling with critters, mostly lizards, but also a non-poisonous grass snake, the agouti (an introduced species known locally as rabbit) and prolific bird life. The most spectacular animal is the Cayman blue iguana, an endangered and magnificent throwback to the dinosaurs.

The Caymans are warm in the summer (May to October), when the average daily high reaches 85°F (29°C). This is also the rainy season but the showers are brief. Winter (November to April) is drier and cooler, with average daily highs of 75°F (24°C).

Culture

Grand Cayman has been heavily influenced by American mores, especially in George Town and the resorts along Seven Mile Beach. In the smaller villages and on Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, the culture is more traditionally West Indian, although the British influence is close to the surface. English is, after all, the only language spoken on the islands, and the Queen's birthday is celebrated every June with a parade and a 21-gun salute. West Indian traditions are noticeable in the soca, calypso and reggae you'll hear emanating from locals' jeeps, clubs and bars.

The Cayman's most prominent living artist is Gladwyn K Bush, an elderly painter known to most as Miss Lassie. Born in 1914, Miss Lassie didn't begin painting until encouraged by a spiritual experience in 1984. Her vibrant 'markings' (as she calls them) are mostly representations of biblical scenes as envisioned in her dreams. Miss Lassie's home on South Sound Road (ask a local for directions) is covered in paintings and is a bit of a landmark.

There are lots of churches in the Caymans and lots of Christians of every stripe frequenting them. Sunday is very much a day of churchgoing, and visitors are welcome to attend most services. Whether it's a part of the religious ethic or a throwback to straitlaced British behavior, politeness and modesty are much appreciated by Caymanians: a 'good morning' will go a long way, topless bathing is illegal and it's definitely not acceptable to wear bathing suits off the beach. Unlike some other well-touristed Caribbean destinations, there is no beach-hawking culture in the Caymans.

Events

Grand Cayman's answer to Carnival is Batabano, a weekend of costumed hedonism and hangovers held around Easter. The local equivalent on Cayman Brac is known as Brachanal, held a week after Batabano. Pirate's Week, which features fireworks, mock battles and assorted skulduggery, gives bankers, barworkers and locals the chance to break out the gold earrings, eye patches and stuffed parrots during the last week of October. There's a month-long fishing tournament every June where locals and visitors test their skills against one another and the fruits of the sea. Hefty cash prizes are doled out for record breakers.

Cost

The Caymans offer many options for comfortable travel, including full-service resorts and five-star dining. Those on a top-end budget will be shelling out US$300 or more a day, depending on their proclivity for duty-free perfume or chartered boats. Moderate costs can run to US$200 a day or more. Budget travelers will be able to keep costs under US$100 a day by sharing self-catering accommodations and doing more lounging on the beach than diving. Note that accommodation is much cheaper in the quieter summer months and that organizing your own diving excursions is more expensive than taking the dive packages offered by many hotels and resorts.

US dollars and travelers' checks are widely accepted, as are credit and debit cards. Banks offer the best exchange rates. There are ATMs in George Town from which you can withdraw cash, either in US dollars or Cayman dollars. It's not a bad idea to take the cash you will need to the sister islands as banking facilities are few and far between.

Many hotels add a service charge of 5% to 10% to your bill; restaurants usually add 15%. If no service charge is added, a tip of 15% is expected. Most businesses will happily calculate a straight conversion from CI$ to US$ at a 1:1.25 ratio - you'll need the colorful Cayman dollars for market stalls and kiosks but not much else. Bargaining is not a common practice.

When to Go

Given that mid-December to mid-April (winter) is the peak tourist season, when rates are substantially higher and beaches and lodgings more crowded, it's best to go in the summer. There is more rain in summer, but it tends to come in downpours that clear as quickly as they arrive. Nervous Nellies will tell you that this is hurricane season, but the chances that you'll get swept up in the big one are slim. Even so, it's best to keep an eye on the weather reports in the days before your arrival.

Activities

The Caymans have some excellent beaches, the best-known of which is Seven Mile Beach (actually a little over 5 miles [8km]), a long stretch of powdery white sand along West Bay. The main drawbacks are that it's also the most popular and most developed beach in the islands, so you'll be towel-to-towel with fellow sunbathers during the peak winter season. There are other, less crowded strands along the northern coast of Grand Cayman, west of North Sound; at the southwestern end of Cayman Brac; and at Point of Sand at the eastern tip of Little Cayman.

Coral-encrusted trench walls, year-round warm, clear water, and little or no current make the Caymans one of the best places to dive in the Caribbean. On the main island, West Bay and the reefs along the mouth of North Sound offer the most sites. West Bay's Victoria House Reef, just off Seven Mile Beach, features sea fans, parrotfish and brilliant orange tube sponges. The North Wall off Jackson Point on Little Cayman hosts sting and eagle rays, turtles and masses of coral. Cayman Brac has shallow elkhorn gardens off its southwestern coast and a steep virgin wall where the bluff continues below the eastern shore.

If you really want to get down, consider taking a trip on the Atlantis Deep Explorer. This research submarine takes two passengers at a time down to a depth of 1000ft (330m) - it's ghostly, dreamy, freaky, oh, and expensive. For a more interactive diving ding-dong, you can go for a hickey from a ray at Stingray City. Stingrays gather at this North Sound sandbar, where they know they'll get fed (fish food, not snorkelers), and there are lots of operators who will take you out for the half day trip.

Those same private operators will happily take you fishing. Though no license is required for deep-sea fishing, regulations require the angler to keep only that which can be consumed (some restaurants will cook your catch for you). Tarpon and bonefish are for sport only - all must be released.

With nearly 200 native winged species, the islands have outstanding birding. Cayman Brac has a Parrot Preserve and colonies of boobies and yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Little Cayman is home to the Booby Pond Nature Reserve, where red-footed boobies, herons and egrets are common sights. Meagre Bay Pond, on the southern coast of Grand Cayman, features grebes, plovers, shovelers and snowy egrets.

The National Trust has produced self-guided walking tour booklets for George Town and Central West Bay, easing your passage to the past with explanation and anecdote. Most of the islands' hiking trails are flat, but you could try speed-walking the 140ft (45m) bluff at the eastern end of Cayman Brac if you're desperate for a workout. The Botanic Gardens on Grand Cayman have a carefully laid-out educational trail through acres of orchids and flowering fruit trees. Cayman Brac also has great caving, especially in the recesses of the bluff, where (as local legend has it) you might find pirate treasure - or a rusty bottle cap or two.

If those romantic sunsets are really doing it for you and your special someone, why don't you all get hitched? Increasing numbers of visitors come to the Caymans to get married - waiting time and fuss is minimal, you're sure to have a gorgeous background for the photos and it's not far to the honeymoon suite.