Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Queen Gardens

[Northern rose]

Does anyone know of a tour that goes to these gardens? We will be in Caymans in Feb on Carvinal Liberty. And none of the Ship excurisons stop there.

[travelbuddies]

I am also interested in the gardens and am not finding any tours online. RCCL offers an expensive tour. Lots of reviews on tripadvisor so I sent them messages and asked if they could recommend a tour. Will post responses here for you.

[judyzoo]

It's unfortunate that ship tours never seem to go to that end of the island. I at one time knew of a guide who went out there, but he has apparently moved on; too bad.

[bookbabe]

You could always rent a car and do a DIY tour...

[travelbuddies]

RCCL does offer shore excursions which include Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Gardens. I was also curious about my options. My research show if you want to go on your own you should rent a car and it is very easy to find or you can take the bus there but must take a taxi (around $20) back to the port because you can not and should not depend on the bus to return to the port.

 

I saw excellent reviews on tripadvisor and replied to some of them trying to find a tour company that includes the gardens during the week. I received an email from the warden of the blue iguannas (pretty cool, huh) who advised contacting cayman safari.

 

A lot of cruisers also added tendering to make it to an 8am or 8:30am tour can be a problem as the ships usually give priority for first off to people who book excursions with the cruise line.

[travelbuddies]

I received this response to my email from Shirley at Cayman Safari

 

Hi Susan and thank you for your enquiry at Cayman Safari! John at the Blue Iguana Recovery Program at the park also told me you had spoken with him about our tour! We do offer tours to cruise passengers and we generally customize the time and stops around the cruis ship schedule. I also had 4 others enquire from your ship the same day, however they have not yet confirmed. We only do small groups up to 8 or 9 but usually no more than 6. We require a credit card to hold the reservation however nothing is charged to the card until the day of the tour. If the ship cancels there is no charge. Our tours usually begin with pickup at th port at 8:30AM Local time for ships that come in at 7AM. We also try to have you back to the port by 2 or 2:30, however pickup and drop off depend entirely on your ships arrival and departure times which you would have to let me know. If you have any questions or if you wish to book a tour with us for Dec. 06th please let me know!

 

Best regards,

 

Shirley

[2-laner]

We are going with Shirley in January. My sister has been in charge of the arrangements and talking with Shirley. She seems to come highly recommended by those that have went on tours with her. We are really excited about going. Evidently she allows for some variations to the tour if there is someplace that you really want to see.