The Sister Islands: Little Cayman & Cayman Brac

Little Cayman: the quietest place in the Caribbean

Little Cayman is ten miles long, home to fewer than two hundred people, and iguanas genuinely have the right of way. The reason divers whisper about it is Bloody Bay Wall: a sheer coral cliff that starts in shallow, sunlit water and drops thousands of feet into blue, ranked for decades among the greatest wall dives on earth.

Above the surface, the Booby Pond Nature Reserve holds the largest red-footed booby colony in the western hemisphere, and Point of Sand, at the eastern tip, is the kind of empty, glowing sandbank most islands put on their postcards. Paddle out to tiny Owen Island in South Hole Sound if you want a beach entirely to yourself.

Cayman Brac: the adventurous sister

The Brac is named for its bluff, a limestone spine that rises to about 140 feet at the eastern end, the highest point in the Cayman Islands, with hiking paths along the top, seabirds wheeling off the cliff face and caves like Peter's Cave and the Great Cave to climb into.

Divers come for the MV Capt. Keith Tibbetts, a 330-foot Russian-built frigate sunk as an artificial reef in 1996, the only diveable Russian warship in the western hemisphere, now wearing a thick coat of sponge and coral. The island also has some of the best rock climbing in the Caribbean.

Divers: do Bloody Bay Wall from Little Cayman and the Tibbetts wreck from the Brac, two world-class dives, one short flight apart.

Planning the hop

Cayman Airways connects Grand Cayman to both islands in about thirty-five minutes, with several flights a day. Day trips are possible, but the Sister Islands reward a night or two: the pace is slower, the stars are brighter and the diving is best in the morning.

Book dive operations and rooms ahead, both islands are small, and that is exactly the point.

Frequently asked questions