I haven't been for several years either, but I think the trick is to
get one of the nicer rooms, the 3-meals a day plan, and a dive
package.  Most of the grumbling is from people who try to go on the
cheap - standard room, no meal plan, etc.  When we were there (went
several times/year during the 90s), the bar was terrific, food
outstanding and beer cold.  Beach was #1.
I haven't found anything better yet - just got tired of being the
oldest guy on the dive boat.  <grin>

-HW "Skip" Weldon
Columbia, SC

That it will be.  Bring reading material :-)

The Brac's two hotels are:
- Divi Tiara (dive op: Dive Tiara)
- Brac Reef Beach Resort (BRBR; dive op:  Reef Divers)

Both have their own websites and offere package deals.  Last year's
deals were a $777 package (per person), which incuded a STD room, diving
and 2 meals day (no lunch, no booze).

BTW, if you see any reference to "Brac Aquatics", this is the original
diveshop that was BRBR...they've since shut down completely.

There's also a small outfit called "The Village Scuba School" run by
Dee.  IMO, the best dive instructor on the island.  She'll frequently do
shore dives, but will also hop onboard the Reef Divers boats.

There are some Timeshares/Condos/Houses/B&B's, and your options are:

Timeshares (RCI):
- Divi Tiara (currently *CLOSED* for long-overdue rennovations)

Condo's:
- Brac Caribbean Beach Club

Houses:  probably about a dozen choices

B&B:
- Walton's Mango Manor

Except for the houses & B&B, the rest of these places are all clustered
down on the island's Southside, on the West End near the airport (not
enough flights/day to worry about noise).

I'll often tell first-time visitors to "flip a coin" between the BRBR &
Divi when the packages are comparable, etc.  To a great degree, the
quality of the room and the like often came down to which hotel most
recently rennovated their rooms.  Currently, I'd have to say that that
edge goes to the Divi, as they've undergone a lot of rennovations.

On the dive ops, I prefer the Divi's, although the Reef Divers boats are
probably in better shape right now (again, it can be 'flip a coin' from
year to year)...although the Divi is going to be receiving a new
diveboat (IIRC a 46' Newton) within the next month or so.  Ditto for
their own Nitrox station.  In any event, I personally prefer the smaller
diveboats that Divi runs, as the big Newton that Reef Divers runs can
make for an uncrowded trip to the divesite, but "crowded water" once you
get there.  IMO, there's also more dive freedom off the Divi boats,
although some of this could be that they're trusting of repeat guests:
for example, last September we had one dive (2nd AM dive) where one
gentleman was teased for doing a 84 minute dive...not because he went
long, but because he was the first one up!

BTW, note also that there's some local Cayman Politics even on the Brac.  
If you stay at anyplace "offsite", you'll probably find (or be told)
that our dive package is through Reef Divers...oversimplifying, this has
to do with a "Caymanians First" jobs policy (because Divi doesn't have a
Caymanian business partner) that should have sunset when Brac Aquatics
went out of business.  The bottom line here is that as the customer, you
can dive with whoever you want (so long as you're firm), although Divi's
supposed to make you aware of the other dive op and make a courtesty
call...don't worry about huring "the small local guy" because Winston's
BA no longer exists:  and the beneficiary, the family that owns Reef
Divers also owns the BRBR, the Little Cayman Beach Resort (LCBR), as
well as the entire Cox Lumber chain in Florida (FWIW, I don't know if
they still own a bank in Atlanta, or the concrete shipping company).

Yes, I'm a TS owner at the Divi.  The status of their rennovation is
that they've been closed now for nearly 5 months and they're still
trying to figure out how to make the rennovation plan work in the first
"test" unit.  Granted, some of this is that it takes several weeks to
get materials shipped to a remote destination like this, but IMO the
reality is that they've concentrated their efforts on getting the hotel
fixed up and my TS is a lower priority (insert standard bitch here about
faithful customers vs new business).

Fortunately, my Divi TS contract is one of the old ("if you don't go,
you don't have to pay") style, and our current thoughts are that we're
going to skip Divi 2004 (first time in 15 years), in at least as a
"booked 6 months in advance" reservation, and wait-and-see.  

I'm sure that we'll get a Cayman trip in 2004 at some point ... probably
go over to Little Cayman (probably Pirate's Point).  Its going to depend
on how many weeks we're going to spend in Peru.

These are nice rooms, and very recently rennovated.  IIRC, the 2nd floor
of these might be classified as only "Deluxe" (not LUX), although you
will have to make sure to say that you want the "1800 building" (and get
this confirmed), so that you don't get one of the rooms by the pool.  

The Divi website has some photo's of the buildings as they've been
updated; the biggest change for us regulars is that it used to be that
all Divi buildings were whitewashed the same color - no longer.  They've
gone to a variety of the "Caribbean Pastels".  I'll try to find some
photo's.

Reef Divers is running a 2nd dock (maybe diveshop too?) up at Carib
Sands, and Brac Caribbean Beach Resort is literally right next store.  
I'm not sure if they're running formal packages, but that's what I'd go
research if this is what you want.  FWIW, neither of these condos are
particularly well designed IMO for good airflow through the units - - if
you're going to stay here, the room's going to be in fulltime A/C.

Any time you call for a taxi, make sure you have plenty of time :-)

There's three (3) good-sized groceries on the island.  The above at
Tibbetts Square is the closest...around .8 mile   If you go past here,
turn right and drive up the northside of the island (eastbound), within
a mile or so you'll see "Billy's" on your left, shortly after the gas
station.  Continuing up this road another ~2 miles will put you on the
outskirts of Spot Bay, where there's another place (the Tibb-Mart?).  If
you have a car, visit all three before buying too much (BTW, keep an eye
on expiration dates on canned goods in the last place); personally, we
buy meals at the hotel but hit Billy's for misc snacks.

For beer, "Brac Distributors" have moved - they're now in the little
strip mall at the corner by the cross-island road on the southside
(closer to the hotels).

As Joe English said, September can be hit/miss.  In 2002, I was on-site
through Hurricane Lily, and yet 48 hours after the storm passed, we were
out diving on Little Cayman (yes, it was calm enough to make the
crossing) with 100+ft visibility, whereas the year that Skip & I were
together, we had some amount of rain every day that Skip was on the
island.  But more generally speaking, the late Sept/Oct timeframe is a
transitional time from summer to winter conditions, and while you can
have a pretty fresh SE wind for a few days, with patience, it will
suddenly drop at any time to no wind, which lets you go dive anywhere
you want (translation:  "Yahoo!  Southside walls where no one has dived
for weeks).  For my 2-week Sept/Oct trips, I'd say that we almost always
get in at least one "southside" day, even though September this is
pushing season...for this, the beginning of October is slightly better.  

What I do like most about this time of year is that its extra-quiet
(fewer tourists; cheaper flights), the sun isn't so hot, but the water's
still warm.  The downside is that if you're thinking about going to
Little Cayman at this time of year, most of the places there will be
closed, as this is when they take their vacation.

Finally, for rental cars, there's B&S and DDDD's.  The phone# for DDDD's
is 345-948-1599 and if you give them your flight info, they'll meet you
at the airport with your car.  Figure just over US$200/week.

-hh