I have found that if you give every guy on the boat crew a blow job,
they'll let you ride for free.  I prefer little boys, but for a free boat
ride, I will gladly let those manly boat crews f.ck my face until their cum
squirts out my ears.

Love and kisses,

Carl

Finally.  It looks like someone in the Cayman Government finally got
Cayman Airways onto the track of bringing customers to the island.
Not sure how long it will last, though, but may as well take advantage
of it while its here.

For practical purposes, while there are some condos and private homes
for rent too, Cayman Brac only has one hotel right now, the Brac Reef
Beach Resort (BRBR).
Their website is:  http://www.bracreef.com/

The only commercial airline servicing the Brac (CYB) is Cayman
Airways.

Its not that hard to make the connection, although signeage always
needs help.

Their Twin Otter service ("Cayman Airways Express"), is now run fairly
frequently (3-5 times per day), but the overall problem is that their
baggage limits suck for divers carrying gear.  Not only do a lot of
first-timers have separation anxiety when they see some of their bag
being unloaded from the aircraft (weight/balance corretion; the bag
will be pulled to go onto the next flight), the tourists that exceed
their low baggage weight limits is a nice little revenue stream for
the airline:

Specifically, the baggage limit on CA Express is *one* 50lb checked
bag and some rediculously small/light carry-on (15lbs?)...above that,
it is 50 cents per pound excess fee.  Suffice to say that a couple
travelling together can easily be $50 overweight.

The way around this baggage limititation nonsense is to make sure that
your (GCM - CYB) flight is *not* on the Twin Otter (Cayman Airways
Express) flight, but on the 737 Jet flight that Cayman Airways usually
has just about daily.  Here, you'll be allowed two checked bags plus a
heavier carry-on...roughly double.  Of course, if you decide on Little
Cayman instead, there is no jet service...your only way of gettng
there is on the Twin Otters.

Insofar as price, if you fly a mainstream airline (AA, US Air, Spirit,
Delta, etc) into Grand Cayman (GCM), the cost of the Cayman Airways
round-trip ticket out to the Brac will be around $150/pp-RT.  However,
if you're able to book it as part of a Cayman Airways flight, for
example, coming in from Miami (MIA-GCM-CYB), the current price
schedule puts the incremental cost at around $50/pp-RT.  This is
surprisingly cheap, as the best that this bundling discount is usually
to drop the ticket by $50, not to $50.

However, a warning about flying Cayman Air:  they're notorious for not
running on time, or connecting your checked bags to other airlines.
As such, be careful in deciding on a connection to another airline in
Miami.  We generally look for a schedule on our return flight (ie,
Cayman Air first, not last) that has at least a 3 hour layover.

Thus said, going back to your requirements:

I've done a 5 day trip and found that it was marginally too short for
a destination that doesn't have great flight connections.  Check early
in your planning to see how many hours its going to take you to travel
from door to door (both going and returning) to decide if the amount
of time on the ground is really worth it to you.  My recommendation is
to add days :-)

BRBR is only 2 stories.  I think that there's two condos that might be
3, maybe 4?  Cayman Brac & Little Cayman qualify.

Every month of the year, although I'd probably say the same for the
USVI's as well.

This is a problem on smaller islands.  There is variety, but I'm not
all that sure that most people would like it :-)   But I'd guess that
~90% of the visitors to BRBR will buy the hotel's meal plan...its
variety is quite good for the first ~5 days...as this allows you to
avoid the expense of a rental car (around $250/week from DDDD's).

Check.  Just remember that its tropical, plus its generally "rocky"
and as such, you'll want sturdy footwear, a hat, water and bug
repellant.

-hh

PS:  Ignore Nisarel...merely an obnoxius troll that visits r.s
occassionally.

I've been to Grand Cayman twice and stayed at Cayman Comfort Suites both
times.  The dive shop on the premises is Don Fosters and they pick you up.
There are restaurants for every taste up and down the road within walking
distance.  Grand Cayman is supposed to be the Number One dive spot in the
world.

I will probably go there again.  Hope this information helps.

Check out my blog

www.marshallkarp.com

"Scotter" <spam@spam.net> pounded away at his keyboard resulting in:

For a 3 or 4 day trip, one of the sister islands might be perfect.
I've been to each, (trip reports here,
http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/Trips/).  The only downside is that if
you are departing on a weekend, you have to send some of your luggage
away in advance.  However, if you going for less than a week, you
should be able to avoid that.

For the main island, consider Sunset House, just south of Georgetown.
You can dive or snorkel right from the resort.

Dan Bracuk
Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.

Personally, if I were you, I'd go to Bonaire.  For what you will pay
for three or days in Caymans or the other islands you mentioned, you
can stay a week in Bonaire. You can snorkel. The boat diving is easy
and most resorts have a reef that you can dive or snorkel from right
off their dock so it's perfect for a new diver. Of the things you
desire, most resorts in Bonaire are not high-rise. The environment is
tropical.  You can get a free rental vehicle at most resorts and go
into town every night for dining with lots of restaurants to choose
from. You can visit other places on the island such as the park, (and
hike there if you wish but it's pretty hot to be doing that), the salt
factory, the slave huts, or just tour the towns. You might want to
check with your local dive shop to see what trips they offer since
most include air fare. That's my 2 cents.