Governor's Beach

[krdougan]

Hi! I will be in the Cayman's in April with a fairly large group for 20 to 30 people. We are looking for a nice beach to hang out at for a rather inexpensive day. We would like the beach to have a nice snorkeling area as well as a place close by to purchase drinks and some food.

 

Is Governor's beach a good choice for this? I like it because it is fairly close to the port and I can see that it has snorkeling. However, I don't know much more about it.

 

If you don't recommend this beach, where would you recommend. I would love to go to Rum Point, but it is too far away and would not look forward to trying to arrange transportation to and from the beach. I also feel like that transportation would be rather pricey anyway.

 

Thanks!

[TurtleTagger]

Love Rum point, but it is a rather far drive for the day. Governor's Public Beach is a nice wide sandy section of Seven Mile Beach adjacent to the Westin. There is a patch reef 50 yds or so off shore with some nice fish counts. Coral is mostly dead, but there is some teeny tiny new growth about.

 

No chairs or beach service there, but the Westin is a few hundred yards walk for food and beverages. You can also walk across the street to the Tortuga Liquor or Big Daddy Liquor (new name, but I forget what it is now called) store or any of the restaurants there: Sunshine Grill, Yoshi Sushi, Legends, EATS, etc...

Calico Jacks beach bar is about a 5-10 minute walk up the beach as well.

 

Beach has plenty of Casuarina Pine trees at the back for shade, a picnic table or two and usually a pot-a-loo as well.

 

Where we go when visiting SMB.

[krdougan]

I am assuming there is access to this beach directly from the road? I see on Google Maps that there is a bit of a wooded area between the road and the beach. Is there a walkway there?

 

Also, how crowded is the beach?

 

I am also looking into some sort of bus service to take us to Rum Point, but I am guessing that is going to be cost prohibitive. We are spending quite a bit of money at the other ports, and we have been here half a dozen times or so, so we don't need to do the whole sting ray city thing. So, we are hoping to keep this day fairly low budget, although, that is difficult to due in Grand Cayman.

[TurtleTagger]

I am assuming there is access to this beach directly from the road? I see on Google Maps that there is a bit of a wooded area between the road and the beach. Is there a walkway there?

 

Also, how crowded is the beach?

 

I am also looking into some sort of bus service to take us to Rum Point, but I am guessing that is going to be cost prohibitive. We are spending quite a bit of money at the other ports, and we have been here half a dozen times or so, so we don't need to do the whole sting ray city thing. So, we are hoping to keep this day fairly low budget, although, that is difficult to due in Grand Cayman.

 

There is a sign for Governor's Beach on West Bay Rd and a large (relative) dirt/sand treed parking lot that goes right up to the beach. No walkway needed.

 

Beach is usually rather empty, but can get some folks on the weekends or local public holidays.

 

There is no bus service to Rum Point. Rental car and self-drive or super expensive taxi (with pre-negotiated return pick-up) are the only readily available options.

[drew sailbum]

For a group of that size you can arrange your own tour bus for your transport needs if you decide to go to Rum Point.

 

Tour operators with appropriate sized buses include:

Majestic Tours

Tropicana Tours

Websters Tours

[krdougan]

I had actually already emailed those 3 companies. One of them told me they couldn't service me because I was on a Carnival Cruise and they had a contract with Carnival. The other company told me the cost for a bus that holds 28 people would be $125 per hour and that they would stay there while we were there. So, if we had them for 6 hours that would be $750. That is just a lot more expensive than we were looking for. I haven't heard back from the other company.

 

So, I am really leaning towards Governor's beach.

[caribsun]

We snorkel 1st at Eden Rock which is a very short walk from tender pier. We then take a mini bus (5.00) p/p to either Royal Palms or SeaGrape Beach.