The Caymans have some excellent beaches, the best-known of which is Seven Mile Beach (actually a little over 5 miles [8km]), a long stretch of powdery white sand along West Bay. The main drawbacks are that it's also the most popular and most developed beach in the islands, so you'll be towel-to-towel with fellow sunbathers during the peak winter season. There are other, less crowded strands along the northern coast of Grand Cayman, west of North Sound; at the southwestern end of Cayman Brac; and at Point of Sand at the eastern tip of Little Cayman.
Coral-encrusted trench walls, year-round warm, clear water, and little or no current make the Caymans one of the best places to dive in the Caribbean. On the main island, West Bay and the reefs along the mouth of North Sound offer the most sites. West Bay's Victoria House Reef, just off Seven Mile Beach, features sea fans, parrotfish and brilliant orange tube sponges. The North Wall off Jackson Point on Little Cayman hosts sting and eagle rays, turtles and masses of coral. Cayman Brac has shallow elkhorn gardens off its southwestern coast and a steep virgin wall where the bluff continues below the eastern shore.
If you really want to get down, consider taking a trip on the Atlantis Deep Explorer. This research submarine takes two passengers at a time down to a depth of 1000ft (330m) - it's ghostly, dreamy, freaky, oh, and expensive. For a more interactive diving ding-dong, you can go for a hickey from a ray at Stingray City. Stingrays gather at this North Sound sandbar, where they know they'll get fed (fish food, not snorkelers), and there are lots of operators who will take you out for the half day trip.
Those same private operators will happily take you fishing. Though no license is required for deep-sea fishing, regulations require the angler to keep only that which can be consumed (some restaurants will cook your catch for you). Tarpon and bonefish are for sport only - all must be released.
With nearly 200 native winged species, the islands have outstanding birding. Cayman Brac has a Parrot Preserve and colonies of boobies and yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Little Cayman is home to the Booby Pond Nature Reserve, where red-footed boobies, herons and egrets are common sights. Meagre Bay Pond, on the southern coast of Grand Cayman, features grebes, plovers, shovelers and snowy egrets.
The National Trust has produced self-guided walking tour booklets for George Town and Central West Bay, easing your passage to the past with explanation and anecdote. Most of the islands' hiking trails are flat, but you could try speed-walking the 140ft (45m) bluff at the eastern end of Cayman Brac if you're desperate for a workout. The Botanic Gardens on Grand Cayman have a carefully laid-out educational trail through acres of orchids and flowering fruit trees. Cayman Brac also has great caving, especially in the recesses of the bluff, where (as local legend has it) you might find pirate treasure - or a rusty bottle cap or two.
If those romantic sunsets are really doing it for you and your special someone, why don't you all get hitched? Increasing numbers of visitors come to the Caymans to get married - waiting time and fuss is minimal, you're sure to have a gorgeous background for the photos and it's not far to the honeymoon suite.
