Grand Cayman Island

photos by Heather Halbert

Grand Cayman Island is truly gorgeous! It is a quick 2.5-3 hour flight from Dallas to Cayman and the air port is 10-15 min from most of the resorts. Patrick and I have been to Grand Cayman quit a bit on family vacations. It is a great spot to vacation to if your looking for a long weekend or something fairly easy to travel to. It is close, so beautiful, a british colony (so they speak english) and of course a golf course!

Patrick and I, our first time we ever went to Grand Cayman

We usually stay at the Ritz Carlton-Grand Cayman and have honestly never had a bad experience! Ritz Carlton's are so accommodating and will meet every need you could ever need on vacation not to mention the Pina Colada's by the pool are the most amazing Pina's I've ever had!!!!!!!

Yum, nothing like some Pina by the pool. Even Ben and Sawyer (my nice and nephew) are enjoying it... or maybe just the pool.

The Ritz, by the pool

The actual sunset, its unbelievable there!

The rooms are very big and spacious. Even with two full beds, the rooms still have plenty of space. Of course the rooms come stocked with a mini bar (my favorite) and DVD with movies available to rent from the front desk. I will suggest, if you are thinking about renting movies, to bring your own from home as the one's in Cayman are not the most current releases. The bathrooms are gorgeous and very large as well. Random note: every Ritz Carlton has different shower gels and soaps. The Grand Cayman Ritz uses Bulgari Eau Parfumee The Vert for all there shower and bath products and it smells delicious! Even P has started using the shower gel at home because he loves it so much.

Sorry for using this pic Kristen. I just didn't have any other pictures of the rooms. :)

The pool area is great! Plenty of space to spread out and enjoy the pool without swimming next to a lot of strangers, in not a lot of clothing. The beach is where it is at!!!! The sand is almost as white as snow and the water is crystal clear. We have even gone snorkeling right off of the hotel beach and seen sting-rays and plenty of fish (you can get snorkel gear right at the pool!)

Pool view from our room

THE BEACH

There are tons of fun activities to do while in Cayman. Like I mentioned earlier, you can go snorkeling right off the of the hotel beach or you can have the hotel schedule a guided snorkel. I am not a big fan of deep water so I have never had the experience of diving but it is suppose to be spectacular in Cayman. Apparently, people come from all over just to go diving in the there. Sting-rays are the main attraction and a must do while in Cayman. We took a catamaran out to Sting-Ray city which is where all the sting-rays come to gather. We snorkeled and feed them, it was crazy cool, not to mention a wonderful scenic boat ride out there. The crew was fabulous and feed us Caybrew (the local beer) the whole way out there, it was the cherry on top of an already amazing day!

Headed out to sea on the catamaran

Patrick found some new friends

Caybrew love...

If you stay at the Ritz, do not forget to play around of golf at Blue Tip while your there (I am not sure if you are able to play without being a hotel guest, you might want to check that out before you go). The course is great and the view and scenery makes the time away from the beach worth it. While your man is playing golf, don't forget about indulging at the spa. Silver Rain, is the Ritz's spa and it is fantastic!!!!! The ambiance alone, is worth a trip down there (I don't even want to try to explain it because...well... you will just have to look at the pictures to see for yourself.) I will suggest getting spa treatments about the first or second day of your trip because once you get sun burn, the thought of a message makes your skin hurt even more.

Blue Tip

If you are a fan of fresh seafood, then do not miss out on some deep sea fishing! Be ready to enjoy an early morning sunrise as you set out onto the sea to catch some tuna. After catching our lunch, we headed back to the hotel and asked one of the chefs to prepare our tuna. Like I said before, the Ritz will bend over backwards to make their guest happy and the chef was so wonderful to do this for us. He prepared the fish 3 different ways and pared it with a few sauces for us. It was so tasty!

lunch

To Be Continued... Cayman part 2....