Cayman Islands / Island Hopping

By Tim Ecott

It is worth taking a few days to visit one of the Sister islands – (the Brac and Little Cayman). The majority of visitors stay on Grand Cayman, but a visit to either of the two tiny islands about ninety miles northeast provides a very different perspective on the destination. While Grand Cayman covers about eighty square miles the Brac is only fourteen square miles in area and Little Cayman about a third smaller. Grand Cayman is the centre of the majority of Cayman’s tourist industry, and it’s also where the government and the private sector (banking, insurance and off-shore industries) have their base. It’s also where the cruise ships come to visit and where holidaymakers expect to find the wide gamut of restaurants, watersports and island tour activities.

Given their small size, and the fact that the Sister islands are separated by a channel just seven miles wide it is remarkable how different they are in atmosphere. Cayman Brac has just under two thousand permanent residents, the ‘Brackers’ and they are proud of their hardy, isolated past and the island still functions very much as a working community where everyone knows everyone else, and helps each other out in a crisis. Tourism is relatively low hey here, with just two mainstream hotels and a handful of guesthouses and condominiums. There is good, varied diving on the Brac and the birdwatching is interesting for those who take the time to explore the bluffs and the National Trust Parrot Reserve.

Little Cayman has a tiny ‘local’ community (and some of those are ‘Brackers’ too!) and with just a handful of resorts and hotels a very minimal amount of mainstream tourism. People come here quite literally to get away from it all. No-one dresses up for dinner, shoes are entirely optional and the scuba-diving and fishing are superb. Regular flights operate by Cayman Express Twin-Otter several times daily and take 30-40 minutes. There are no inter-island ferries. For the adventurous, or energetic traveller the Cayman Islands offer the possibility of making regional excursions – there are direct flights to Cuba and to Jamaica - both around an hour’s flight away.