7 MILE BEACH... Please explain...

[Elaine515]

It has got to be old age!!! I can't for the life of me figure it out.. Is it called 7 Mile Beach and then there is a bunch of "little" beaches on it? Is it all one big long beach?

 

How do you know where to tell the taxi driver to take you? How do you pick one spot over the over? Is there a "spot" that is better than another one?

 

I am really looking for someplace where we can use lounge chairs with umbrellas, eat, drink but also something for the teenagers to do, i.e, parasailing, banana boats etc?

 

Thnx for straightening me out...

[drew sailbum]

As the name implies, Seven Mile Beach is a long ribbon of sandy beach (actually about 5 and a half miles long) that runs along much of the western shore of Grand Cayman.

How do you know where to tell the taxi driver to take you?

In a nutshell, answering this question explains why there are so many names for particular sections of Seve Mile Beach. With a beach this long, you really need a way to speak specifically about a particular location on that beach.

 

Some names are obvious... Cemetery Beach is the section of Seven Mile Beach right beside the West Bay Cemetery. Most of the spots take their names from whatever is along the shoreline there.

 

Other commonly used names for sections of Seven Mile Beach include: Courtyard by Marriott, Sea Grape, Governor's Beach, Westin, Beach Club, Royal Palms, Public Beach, and West Bay Public Beach.

 

A few beach spots are not a part of Seven Mile Beach: Smith Cove, Heritage Beach, Coewood Beach, Barkers, Rum Point, Ivory Point (aka Starfish Point), and Cayman Kai Public Beach are a few of these.

 

This board has several discussions about facilities available (or not available) at various spots. Search, read, and enjoy your visit.

[runner15km]

Here is some info from another poster.

 

Seagrape beautiful beach....but the snorkeling isn't great. The reef there has been over snorkeled and is mostly dead. You'll see a few fish, I wouldn't reccomend it for that. Sea Grape is good because it is between the big PublicBeach - Sir Francis Drake, and the MariottCourtyardBeach. It allows you to choose between 3 beaches from one taxi stand. It is also the only bit of 7 mile beach left without condos and hotels smothering the natural beauty. Sea Grape is right across the street from the Courtyard Marriott. Plenty of cabs lined up there. Just give youself plenty of time to get back to the tender line, at least 45 minutes. If you have time to spare, you could always walk around town and do a little shopping. Sea Grape has Calico Jacks bar and grill, changing rooms, bathrooms, etc... and you don't have to rent a chair. You can sit at the tables or just bring a beach towel. Public beach is great, and is completely free... Mariott's beach is lovely as well. They have beach chairs ($10.00), umbrellas ($5.00 if you rent them with a chair), towels ($5.00) and lockers ($2.00 per day) for rent. water sport rentals onsight. It depends on the traffic...it's a 10-15 minute drive to get to Sea Grape.

 

Royal Palms is closer to the port area, 7 minutes The beach is free to enter. This area had lockers, showers, bathrooms. Chairs were provided on the beach. The water was the most beautiful shade of blue and off in a distance we could see our ship. I cant wait to go back. We ate lunch at the Royal Palms lunch stand, we had burgers that were $10. each, the cab ride was less than 5 minutes from the tender drop off to this beach.

[jean-lynd]

If you want to check out Royal Palms/Reef Grill their website is http://www.reefgrill.com. They have a webcam so you can see what the beach is like. They have food, drink, showere and restrooms and rental chairs, umbrellas, etc. Not the best snorkeling because the area is very sandy.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Enjoy!

[Roadtripster]

We are going to be dropped off at the far end of the beach and then walk our way back to the ship area. We will stop every so often and swim, sit, eat, whatever, pick up our stuff again and continue walking. By the time we are finished, we will be near the ship and have seen all of 7 mile beach.

[runner15km]

We are going to be dropped off at the far end of the beach and then walk our way back to the ship area. We will stop every so often and swim, sit, eat, whatever, pick up our stuff again and continue walking. By the time we are finished, we will be near the ship and have seen all of 7 mile beach.

 

I did half of the beach back to the ship and it was fun stopping at the drinking establishments along the way. You will run out of sandy beach near the end but don't fret there is one more bar on the water before you need to go back up to the road.

Have fun.

[Elaine515]

I forgot to mention that we have 2 passengers who can't walk far so starting at the far end and walking it wouldn't work for us. I also forgot to mention that we don't snorkel or scuba drive.

 

But I did mention that old age thing!!!

 

What we really want is just the name of the beach that we can tell the cab driver to take us to that will allow us to use their lounge chairs (with umbrellas) at no charge. We want to be able to eat and drink there. And, we want the kids to be able to parasail, banana boat rides, things for them to do.

 

Thnx again for all your answers/help...

[jean-lynd]

I think you are out of luck. I don't think there are any places that will let you use their chairs and umbrellas for free.

[drew sailbum]

Indeed, no place on Seven Mile Beach will offer free chairs and umbrellas. Parasailing is availabe from most any spot along Seven Mile Beach that has a waterspors operator - they just call the parasailing boat and it makes a stop to pick you up. Banana boat rides are hit or miss.

 

Rum Point (rent a car to get there) offers free use of chairs and has lots of natural shade so umbrellas aren;t really necessary. Rum Point has jet skis but banana boat rides are normally not available. Parasailing is definitely not available there.

[Elaine515]

Thanx again guys... So, when we get into the taxi cab, which "beach" should we tell them to take us to that the kids can parasail, perhaps banana boat, and we can pay for the lounges and umbrellas ???

[bookbabe]

Tell them Royal Palms or Sea Grape. Royal Palms is the closer of the two, but both have pretty much the same types of facilities, etc.

[Elaine515]

Tell them Royal Palms or Sea Grape. Royal Palms is the closer of the two, but both have pretty much the same types of facilities, etc.

 

 

 

GR8T!!! Thank you soooooooooo much....

[maofthree]

if this is where i chose to go , how do they know if i'm not staying at the hotel , as for paying for chairs???:confused:

[bookbabe]

if this is where i chose to go , how do they know if i'm not staying at the hotel , as for paying for chairs???:confused:

 

Usually they'll ask to see your room key. :D

[drew sailbum]

if this is where i chose to go , how do they know if i'm not staying at the hotel :confused:

 

 

Well.... many cruise ship guests are carrying things that a person who is staying at the hotel would probably just leave in his/her room. For example, hotel guests don't carry their shopping bags to the beach. They leave purses and cameras in their rooms.

 

Other dead giveaways include

• wearing your ship card on a lanyard around your neck.
  
• wearing a t-shirts/hats purchased at your last port of call (Mexico or Jamaica logos)
  
• wearing cruise line logo clothing.
  
• a certain lost and bewildered look :rolleyes:
  

[maofthree]

in other words just fack it.... i thought maybe they had a wristband on.:eek:

[maofthree]

know anything about "Eats" restraunt.... ,? if we get dropped off bus stop by westin (1/2 )block. from .will this beach be quieter than others , less people .?:confused:

[bookbabe]

in other words just fack it.... i thought maybe they had a wristband on.:eek:

 

Some of the hotels do use wristbands, but even the ones that don't will be able to spot a cruise ship visitor at 40 paces. :D When you are used to seeing 5-10 thousand of them a day, you get pretty good at ID'ing them...

 

Just go to the regular beach (which is free!) and drop your towel down on the sand if you don't want to pay the $5 rental for a chair. As has been said frequently here on CC, the Royal Palms and Sea Grape sections of Seven Mile Beach have great FREE facilities as well as all the rental and for-purchase stuff you could want. Why risk trying to scam a hotel when you can easily access the virtually the same facilities for free or for a really reasonable cost?

[TLHB70]

Tell them Royal Palms or Sea Grape. Royal Palms is the closer of the two, but both have pretty much the same types of facilities, etc.

 

 

We plan to do half of our GC day as a beach day. I have it narrowed down to these two beaches. I am trying to decide between the two.

Does one of these tend to get more crowded than the other? We are going in September, an off time, so that may help answer.

We like a relaxed, laid back beach. We do not need all of the water sports, music, etc. The one that is more relaxed, less crowded, etc. is good for us.

[loveysbydesign]

I'd love to know which one is best for a family with 3 kids, 10,6 and almost 2, Royal Palms or Sea Grape?

[runner15km]

I'd love to know which one is best for a family with 3 kids, 10,6 and almost 2, Royal Palms or Sea Grape?

 

The only thing that I can think of that sets the two beaches apart for a family is there is a small playground about 100yds down the beach from Sea Grape.

[loveysbydesign]

The only thing that I can think of that sets the two beaches apart for a family is there is a small playground about 100yds down the beach from Sea Grape.

Thanks, also is there any shade at any of the beaches or is there just umbrellas to rent? My kids and I have blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin.

[corkyanige]

I did half of the beach back to the ship and it was fun stopping at the drinking establishments along the way. You will run out of sandy beach near the end but don't fret there is one more bar on the water before you need to go back up to the road.

Have fun.

 

Can you really walk all the way down the beach? I guess I assumed that some of the sections of the beach would be considered "private" and wouldn't allow people to just wander through?

 

If it's possible, that sounds like a great idea!!

[bookbabe]

Can you really walk all the way down the beach? I guess I assumed that some of the sections of the beach would be considered "private" and wouldn't allow people to just wander through?

 

All Cayman beaches are public to the high water mark. If you're just walking through, you're fine to walk as far as you like. The only thing you may not do is use the facilities at any of the hotels, condos or private residences you pass along the way (ie. hotel pools, lounge chairs, and such).

[maofthree]

got a taxi to drop us off at the westin,,,$5pp used the beach at the governors beach, right next to westin, we used the restrooms between the hotel with no problem.... good restraunt across the street EATS, and bought some beer at a little market, to take back on the ship, no problem with taking beer on the ruby princess cought the bus #1 or #2 back to ship $2.50pp best beach ever..... quiet, there was only 8 of us on that beach.