Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands are three low coral islands in the western Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba and north-west of Jamaica. On Grand Cayman, Seven Mile Beach runs along the west coast: white sand and calm, clear water. The north and east coasts are quieter, with starfish in the shallows at Starfish Point and a calm sandy beach at Rum Point, both on the North Sound. Camana Bay is a waterfront town centre with restaurants and shops; George Town is the capital, and the botanic park has gardens and woodland trails.

Little Cayman is small and quiet. In Bloody Bay Marine Park the reef drops steeply from the shallows into the deep, a favourite wall dive, and red-footed boobies and frigatebirds at the Booby Pond Nature Reserve are watched from a distance. Cayman Brac has the cliffs of the Bluff, caves and walking trails. Reefs, walls and wrecks such as the Kittiwake make the islands a place for diving and snorkelling.

Food comes from the sea: wahoo, mahi-mahi, snapper and conch, fish rundown (a coconut-milk stew), Cayman-style fish with tomato and peppers, and heavy cake, dense with cassava and coconut — with plenty of restaurants to try them. It is warm all year; roughly December to April is driest. The islands suit couples, families, divers and snorkellers, and anyone after a beach-and-food holiday.