Beaches in the Cayman Islands

Three low coral islands with no rivers, and therefore no runoff and exceptionally clear water. Grand Cayman holds the population, the financial industry and Seven Mile Beach, which is the territory's single most developed shore and still public along its whole length — the right of access here is actively defended rather than nominal. Little Cayman and Cayman Brac are quiet and are visited almost entirely for diving: the Bloody Bay Wall off Little Cayman drops from six metres to over a thousand within a short swim and is among the best-known wall dives in the world, and Cayman Brac's bluff rises to forty-three metres at the island's eastern end, which is high ground by the standards of this sea. Stingray City, a sandbar in the North Sound where southern stingrays gather in waist-deep water, is Grand Cayman's other fixture and is reached only by boat. The islands sit at the edge of the hurricane belt and Ivan in 2004 caused severe damage across Grand Cayman, which is why much of the island's building stock is newer than its history suggests. Practically: the dry season runs December to April and is when the islands are fullest and dearest, prices are among the highest in the Caribbean in any season, and the two smaller islands are reached by short domestic flights that book up. Cruise passengers arrive by tender at George Town and concentrate on a few sites for a few hours at a time.