Tours Available at Pier?

[dluvsd]

Can anyone tell me if there are tours available at the Pier? We'd like to go to the Turtle Farm, Hell and Rum Point. Has anyone done this and in what order would you recommend going to these sites?

[bookbabe]

There are lots of tours available at the pier, so you could easily get a Hell/Turtles tour when you arrive.

 

You won't likely find one tour going to all three of those places, unfortunately. Hell and the Turtle Farm are at one end of the island, and Rum Point is at the other end, about an hour or so away by car.

 

To get to all three places, you'd likely have to charter a private guide for the day and create a custom itinerary, or rent a car and go on your own. You wouldn't have much time at each stop, though, since you'd be spending most of your time driving between places.

[dluvsd]

Thanks for the response. What do you think would be more interesting for us. We're in our early 50's without kids and love beach bars, beaches and siteseeing!

[sallywallygal]

We were at GC last week. There are drivers all over the port shelter trying to get people to come on their tour. I don't remember seeing any with Rum Point signs, though. I've read that Hell isn't that exciting. The turtle farm is expensive. We didn't go to either one.

We did the Rays, Reef, and Rum Point tour with Nativeway and loved it. But we only had about an hour and a half at Rum Point. I would have loved to spend several hours there. So I'm not very helpful with advise on how to get there, but it is very nice. (Of course, Seven Mile Beach is beautiful, too!!)

[bookbabe]

Thanks for the response. What do you think would be more interesting for us. We're in our early 50's without kids and love beach bars, beaches and siteseeing!

 

Hell is over-rated. :) It's a cheesy gimmick stop, good for about 10 minutes' entertainment and a nice place to send fun postcards from.

 

The Turtle Farm is just that, a turtle farm and marine park. Their website is here - http://www.boatswainsbeach.ky/ - so that you can see what it has to offer. It's a bit pricey, but if you're into marine life, it's a lot of fun.

 

For beaches and beach bars, you have a number of options:

- rent a car and drive out to Rum Point

- take a tour that includes Rum Point as a stop (such as Rays, Reef and Rum Point from Nativeway)

- go to one of the beach bars on Seven Mile Beach such as Royal Palms or Sea Grape (short taxi ride from the pier, very easy to get to)

 

There are lots of threads here in this forum on all three of those beach bar options, so a quick search should result in tons of info.

 

You'll have more opportunity for sightseeing if you book a tour of some kind, either with or without the stop at Rum Point. Or, there's lots to look at on the way to Rum Point by rental car. There isn't much to see on the way to Seven Mile Beach, since it's the main tourist area and it's pretty built-up, but it's very easy to get to and one of the nicest beaches I've ever been on.

[kc320]

We were in GC a couple years ago & the tender area was full of driver's offering "island tours" for $20...their signs indicated Hell & the Turtle Farm as stops...after looking at the link for the Turtle Farm, I now realize that admission "probably" is not included... something I did not realize then..it was raining so we just bought our rum cakes & headed back to the ship...

[noleswin]

For those that may not know the Turtle farm is a farm they raise the turtles for FOOD. It is not a marine preserve or anything.

[kc320]

For those that may not know the Turtle farm is a farm they raise the turtles for FOOD. It is not a marine preserve or anything.

 

 

REALLY??? I thought it was to help the sea turtles...that was the distinct impression I got from the previous link....is there more than one turtle farm/toursit stop at Grand Caymen??

 

YUK..just went back & re-read the website... sure am not interested in seeing this now.. Thanks for the heads up!

[bookbabe]

REALLY??? I thought it was to help the sea turtles...that was the distinct impression I got from the previous link....is there more than one turtle farm/toursit stop at Grand Caymen??

 

YUK..just went back & re-read the website... sure am not interested in seeing this now.. Thanks for the heads up!

 

Actually, they raise turtles both for food and to restock wild populations. Even the food aspect is of a conservatory nature, since it means that hunting of wild turtles is greatly reduced if not eliminated entirely. (Turtle is a traditional Caymanian dish, and is very yummy, btw.) And, the new Boatswain's Beach complex also has many other "marine preserve" type attractions and a bird sanctuary section.

 

It's not a "farm" of the style you'd think of when you think of the term, like a cattle farm or something. It's a very well-run and "tourist-y" marine and cultural attraction. Most of the people who have complaints or who talk about negative experiences about the Turtle Farm are thinking of the old pre-Ivan Turtle Farm, which was really just a bunch of turtle tanks and a gift shop. Boatswain's Beach was entirely rebuilt and redesigned after Hurricane Ivan...it's very nice.

[PlanoDebbie]

Thanks for the response. What do you think would be more interesting for us. We're in our early 50's without kids and love beach bars, beaches and siteseeing!

 

Hell - a waste of time

 

Turtle Farm - interesting, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do it again

 

Rum Point Beach - Awesome! I'm sure just about every beach there is really nice. We booked a tour with Nativeway to go to Stingray City, Snorkeling on the Barrier Reef and lunch on Rum Point Beach. We also had nearly 90 minutes after lunch to relax in the water. Lunch was included in our tour price too.

 

Our group of six included three 18 year-old girls who just graduated from High School and three moms ranging in ages from 47 - 50. We all LOVED this tour.

 

There will be tons of tour companies looking for your business on the pier. If you don't pre-book a tour, just be sure you get off on one of the early tenders. Our ship arrived at 7:00 and our tour was scheduled for 8:30. We got in line for the tender about 7:45. Most of the tours left between 8:30 and 9:30, so don't expect to find any good tours left if you don't tender in before 9:30.

[sas80]

Can one do a private tour of the Rum factory, Turtle Farm and the butterfly farm? Are all these things at the same end of the island?