2026 Cayman Islands
Scouting Trip
(5/24/2026 - 5/29/2026)
2026 Cayman IslandsScouting Trip(5/24/2026 - 5/29/2026)
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On 5/24/2026 Brian and Katherine flew from Austin direct non-stop to Grand Cayman, The Cayman Islands. Why? I looked at all the direct non-stop flights from Austin, and this was one of them. So it was 3 hours, direct non-stop, Austin to GCM Airport. We had never been to the Caymans before and decided to scout it out. It was fun! Definitely a relaxed, smaller island, not really a place for partying or night clubs, but a nice beach vacation. Click on any picture for the largest, very highest quality original.
This first picture is just a screenshot to remember our flight was direct non-stop. Also, the frequent flier club for "Cayman Airways" is "Sir Turtle", LOL.
In the picture below, we are going through TSA security, and a woman has her cat with her. Very cute. The cat carrier has to go through the scanners so she was holding the cat just for a few minutes here.
So we originally chose the Cayman Islands because of the direct non-stop flight from Austin. What we did not realize until we arrived at the gate was it was the very FIRST direct non-stop flight from Austin to the Cayman Islands on Cayman Airways! They flew in dancers and a band, and Miss Cayman Universe, and had free drinks and food for us. Below is Katherine on the right and the table of drinks and food behind her in the Austin airport. There is a little info here: https://www.flyaustin.com/news/aus-welcomes-cayman-airways-inaugural-nonstop-service-grand-cayman-launching-carriers-only
A close up of the "Charcuterie CUPS".
We're still waiting for the airplane to arrive in the picture below, but they have setup a stage.
I can't figure out who the reporter is in green (see below) but she checked in through TSA with us from Austin. So she wasn't on the flight from the Caymans. However, she was then in our row on the flight from Austin to GCM.
I have worked in digital media (as a programmer) for over 30 years, and it has been fun watching the technology change over my lifetime. When I started my career the cameras a reporter would use would be these massive boxes. In the picture below you can see she is just using a nice Android or iPhone which is actually MUCH better than anything they had for any amount of money in 1992. So she has a tripod for an iPhone, and an external microphone (she is holding in her hand).
In the picture below the "officials" are making some statements, and on the left you see Miss Universe Cayman Islands 2025 (Tahiti Seymour).
The picture below isn't for you. It's just a reminder I need a pen and my passport number when traveling internationally, because heaven forbid they notice that I've entered that information digitally three separate times to get onto the airplane and the seats are all assigned on the airplane and I'm tracked up, down, left, and sideways with facial recognition as part of the "Global Entry" system.
The picture below shows a Cayman Airways flight attendant. They wear straw cowboy hats as part of their uniform! I like the originality.
Here we are disembarking the airplane in Grand Cayman (the main island). I wanted my own photo of the airplane.
Welcome to the Cayman Islands! They have computers now for passing through customs and immigration control to take your photo and let you answer the questions without talking with a person.
A short taxi ride later, we arrive at the Kimpton Seafire Resort. I think it is owned by the San Francisco based firm IHG. Out front of the resort before we entered, Katherine noticed this "Moke Car". Moke has a very interesting history starting as the "Mini Moke" back in the 1960s in England. It has been revived as "Moke" now. The word "Moke" is old slang for a mule.
Here we are entering our room (number 901 on the 9th floor) in the Kimpton. It was very clean, modern, and outfitted quite nicely with induction stove, microwave, full size refrigerator, etc. Below is the main living room/kitchen area.
A close up of the personal note and welcome fruit and cheese plate left for us.
Below is a picture of the bedroom. If you notice, I like taking photos QUICKLY after entering a hotel room while the bed is still made and before we have strewn our stuff everywhere. Ha!
The view from the corner of the bedroom. This is room 901, on the 9th floor. I think there are 11 floors total?
The main bathroom. There is also a "powder room" (toilet and sink) in addition to this room.
The next few photos aren't for you! They are to remember notes for Katherine and I about what we like in the bathrooms since we are building a bathroom soon for ourselves in Austin. In the picture below, notice they used the same flooring for the waterproof floor of the shower as in the rest of the entire suite, which we like. Also, the drain in the shower is a long "slot" near one wall which we like.
Again, not for you, notes to remember: Katherine liked the mirror didn't have a metal edge that catches water if it gets splashed. I kind of liked the "box" with lights around it.
Again, notes for our construction project in Austin: this closet is a great model and shows important sizes. The light comes on automatically when you open the closet door (good for guests). There is a drawer (hopefully with room on one side for full length suits/dresses to hang).
Again, notes for Katherine and Brian, not for you! The important thing to think through is a place large enough to put a carry on size airline luggage (see picture below). Also notice the drawer in the closet clearly has metal skid strips on top of the drawers which as a user interface encourage you to place a bag there. (See picture above to see the metal skid strips.)
The picture below is from our private balcony. This area is called "Seven Mile Beach".
Another picture (from a different day) closer to the corner of the building.
The picture below is confusing because I took a "panorama" with my camera. The "bend" in the railing doesn't exist, it is straight. But the photo shows the pool area down below our balcony. If we come back, I want to bring some old fashion balsa wood gliders to launch from this balcony. Don't worry, I'm not a savage, I would go fetch them from the ground/beach afterwards.
This next picture is just technical details. One of the outlets in our hotel room had the label "CAUTION: LAMP LOADS ONLY". There was a central piece of plastic on it which would prevent a standard plug from going there. The lamp in the room had a "gap/hole" that allowed it to seat over the piece of plastic. I have literally never seen that before in my life, but it turns out it is a USA electrical standard. It specifically means that outlet is on a dimmer switch. A dimmer switch can damage regular electronics, it is only for lamps. There is a Lutron spec sheet here: https://assets.lutron.com/a/documents/030825e.pdf
The next morning I woke up, and while standing on the balcony I noticed somebody had parked a sports car on the beach half in the water! See picture below. It turns out it is a boat, but "skinned" to look like a car. I thought that was adorable. I found the rental info here: https://redsailcayman.com/tour/grand-cayman-jet-car-equipment-rental/
Below is a picture of a person getting into the sports car jet boat.
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Click the thumbnail below to play a very short movie of the sports car jet ski zooming around in front of our hotel. Click here for the highest quality original.
Below is a picture taken from our balcony on the 9th floor of Kimpton Seafire Resort where you can see (it is tiny) the red sports car jet boat is moored next to two jet skis.
Same picture as above, just zoomed in to see the sports car boat next to the jet skis.
Later on I walked up close to one of these sports car jet boats. See the "skin" in the picture below.
A picture of the sports car jet boat cockpit:
A picture of the "jet propulsion" rear end of the jet boat. The important part is it doesn't have an external propeller, it is more like a jet ski so it can hit the sand on a beach and not get damaged.
The next day we spent 5 hours out on a boat ride. Below is the taxi driver taking us over to the Marina. We met the boat in front of "Morgan's Seafood Restaurant" which was very close to the Kimpton Seafire resort.
Okay, so the map below come from the bread crumb train my Garmin InReach leaves. You can click on the map below for a larger version to read the text. But the main points are the time and location we left at "Begin Day", we went out by "Stingray City", then passed by "Rum Point", had lunch at "Kaibo", then sailed home to "End Day". That took about 5 hours, to give you a size/time/relative feel for how big "Grand Cayman" is. It isn't huge.
I never figured out the name of the boat we were on, but it was a "Leopard 39 Catamaran". It is a boat built in South Africa. The boat was hired through "Epic Charters" who is also "Epic Divers".
I never figured out the name of our captain, LOL. He had a slight South African accent, but had worked in other Caribbean island countries also as a dive instructor. Juan was his first mate, and Juan was originally from Colombia. Below is the captain sailing our boat.
Below is a picture just to show the electronics on the boat. A fairly basic setup with marine map GPS, auto-pilot, and basic depth-finder.
The boat came with a jet ski, but we chose not to use it.
Here we are leaving port out of what Google maps calls "Governor's Creek". MapLink: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zW5iXhFauw8SmYVRA
In the picture below, notice the "Roll Down Hurricane Shutters" on the outside of windows. I think of this as a "regional adaptation" but the concept could be used in other places. You know, like Austin, Texas when winds hit 75 mph. Or over the top of solar panels during hail storms. It just isn't that expensive or complicated to have a garage door type electric mechanism that closes a blast shield.
Yeah, the picture below is about as generic as you can get (I'm an idiot and should put part of the boat in the photo). If you look closely, there is a buoy marker which is probably marking the channel or a reef or something.
First interesting stop, Stingray City, Grand Cayman! Here is the concept: fishermen would anchor in this shallow area to clean their fish, and the stingrays showed up to eat and learned "boats mean food", and now it is a tourist attraction where you can pet stingrays. The very light blue area is shallow, like 4 feet deep. The tourists are just standing up petting stingrays.
Below is a satellite GPS map from my Garmin Inreach showing the coordinates. Everything you see is under water, that isn't an island or anything in the top third of the screenshot. The deepest water is like 10,000 feet deep, then there is a reef, and the cluster of boats is in Stingray City in 4 feet deep water.
Another satellite view showing where we got lunch a little later in relation to Stingray City (it's close). Remember you can see the overview map here.
In the picture below you can see tourists petting stingrays.
We floated over a few stingrays, they are kind nebulous blobs under the water. That is Juan the first mate on the bow.
Some jet skis zoomed out from shore to the area around stingray city.
Sailing on, that is "Rum Point" on the left in the distance. Map Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/LpHKQi9AiJrmpyZ59
I think this is Rum Point below, or alternatively "Starfish Point" (we did not stop). Either way there are camping spots you can pitch a tent.
I took a picture below just to remember to look up the little "erosion walls" (there are 4 sticking out from the beach below). I think the idea is it slows down beach loss.
We stopped at the restaurant Kaibo. It is a lunch spot.
The Kaibo restaurant has tables on the beach. You can see our catamaran on the end tie in the upper left of the photo.
The drinks menu.
After lunch we raised a sail and kind of zig-zagged home. Katherine and I sat up front on the "trampoline" in bean bag chairs. They were VERY comfortable.
A self portrait of my (Brian's) legs. With the sail up.
The picture below has map link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/QciGzGKTcrefZVEW9 and we are told it is a private home being developed. It is controversial because they clear out the native Mangrove Trees (which provide an ecosystem and also protect the shore from erosion). This is at the entrance to "Governor's Creek" and is a large property being developed by two guys.
Back at home base at Kimpton Seafire Resort, Katherine (bobo) and I walk to dinner.
Here is Katherine (Bobo) sitting at Coccoloba at sunset on Grand Cayman.
A random panorama of where we ate dinner. This is technically on the Kimpton Seafire property.
The next morning while Katherine was still sleeping, I took a quick taxi ride to a bank to see if I could open a Cayman National bank account. Short version: failure. I needed something called "Nexus" (or put differently, a legit reason to need a Cayman Island bank account). I went to this branch:
This ATM machine was mocking me in the lobby as I left the bank in shame.
Later that day, on Tuesday, May 26, 2026 we hired a driver to drive us around Grand Cayman. My Garmin InReach recorded the bread crumb trail seen below. I have an older version of the Garmin InReach, I should upgrade to one of the smaller new ones! Click on the map below for a much larger, clearer version. To give you an idea how large Grand Cayman (the one island) is, we departed around 1:30pm, drove over to the far east end to eat lunch on the beach at 3pm, and we were back to the Kimpton Seafire Resort by 4:30pm.
We hired a van and driver from "IslandLuxe". I would link to that URL you see on the side of the van, but it's dead, just parked like the van. (sigh) Here is their X/Twitter page: https://x.com/islandluxe_ci
The picture below shows the driver (can't remember his name?) on the right side of the vehicle. In Cayman Islands they drive on the left side of the road (like England, Australia, and India). What is interesting is they have cars that have steering wheels on the left, and also cars with steering wheels on the right! Also in the picture below notice the "Caribbean Bright Tropical Colors" of homes. We saw that more on our day out away from the largest city (George Town).
The next few photos are just silly. I noticed they have some familiar chains in the Cayman Islands, like "Dominoes Pizza" seen below.
The also have Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits.
We took a tiny detour (half a mile) to see "Pedro St James" (also known as "Pedro Castle"). It is the oldest surviving building in the Cayman Islands. Among other things, it hosted the birth of democracy in the Cayman Islands. Map Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/4Hyx8PYhyCzmMUBZ9
I took this photo as we drove by the front gate just to remember the name.
Right nearby is "Thatch and Barrel" seen in the photo below. Map Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pGD8akRud5gciCjh8
As you might expect, I saw a lot of different types of antennas. In the photo below is definitely a cell tower, but there are some OTHER types of antennas on it also. I still haven't figured out what they all are.
The tall "directional" antenna kind of scooped was fairly common. I think it might be a WiFi Directional Antenna, or possibly to boost cell phone signals.
Another picture of that same directional antenna I saw over and over again. They tended to be pointed all in the same direction in any one neighborhood.
Some very old school large satellite TV antennas. We used to see these in rural America back in the 1980s, but they were all replaced by smaller versions for DirecTV.
A house on a hill our tour guide pointed out. It might belong to the Cayman Islands billionaire Kenneth Dart. He is an interesting guy, born in Michigan, gave up his US citizenship, keeps a pretty low profile for a billionaire, and quietly owns like 20% of the real estate in the Cayman Islands.
There are too many hospitals on Grand Cayman for the number of people here. It is some sort of money laundering thing, but I haven't got anybody to explain it clearly to me yet. Below is one of those hospitals.
We stopped to take a photo at "The Blow Holes" on Grand Cayman. Map Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ri46xhMq1QgKf7A2A
One of our planned destinations was lunch at "Big Tree BBQ". Map Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/s4EKCiUsVrpDjeKs6
"Big Tree BBQ" is a family run place, they sell out of their "storefront" which is this two car garage seen below. The guy told us it all started when they would make BBQ for themselves, and people would stop and ask if it was for sale. He said he visited Austin, Texas and tried the BBQ there to see how others do it.
The tree with fruit pictured below is in front of Big Tree BBQ. It is a "Sapodilla" but the locals call it "Naseberry". It is an edible fruit (but we didn't try it, unfortunately). Our tour guide is seen below picking up some fruit to break it open so I could see inside it. It kind of makes me sad there are so many interesting fruit in the world, and I have only had a very few of them.
Below is a zoomed in satellite map view to remember the name of the beach we ate lunch on was "Colliers Beach". Here is a Map Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hoHSfXQ6NdRp2NZR8
The main sign at Colliers Public Beach. It is a VERY pleasant setup with picnic tables, covered from the brutal sunshine (or rain if it happens). Even little doggy poo bags! (Ava, our small dog, would like it here, we should look into what it takes to bring a pet dog on vacation to the Cayman Islands.)
Below is a panorama of Colliers Beach where we ate our Big Tree BBQ lunch.
Katherine got jerked chicken, which was very good. Katherine really liked the corn bread (it was very moist). I liked it also, but most of mine I fed to the free range chickens wandering about. After I fed them a little cornbread one got a bit aggressive jumping up on the table trying to steal my cornbread, LOL. The chickens LOVED to cornbread.
I got the BBQ pork ribs, which were ALSO very good.
Katherine also got BBQ ox tail. I tried it, it mostly tasted like jerked sauce on tender beef?
The free range chickens. At first I thought there was only one, but after I fed one several more came running up.
Another random picture of a different Dominoes Pizza.
Back at home base near Kimptons Seafire Resort, we walked down the beach to "Bonny Moon Beach Club" for our final dinner in the Cayman Islands. Below is a panorama, it is very pleasant and we liked the food.
Our food (which was excellent, the flat bread on the left was particularly good). I have no idea what the little spherical balls are, but I thought I was ordering "rolls". They were tasty though. The menu is here: https://cms.bonnymoon.ky/assets/54d72dba-afff-40c1-adbf-cf391c1c6f5a (website: https://www.bonnymoon.ky/ ).
The next day at noon (Wednesday, May 27) we flew home to Austin. As we were leaving, there was this sign saying, "NOTICE: No Photos". I took a picture of it so I could remember. This is very important, you cannot take photos in the airport while departing!
Boarding our American Airlines flight home. Unfortunately the direct non-stop flights are only on Sundays, so we connected through Dallas DFW.
Bye bye Cayman Islands! It was a very pleasant scouting trip. We might be back!
That's it, all done!!!
This is not for you! Stop reading! I'm old, I forget
things, this helps me remember for next time.
That's it!