Sea Grape Beach - Forget It

[Giorgi-one]

Went to Sea Grape beach based on recommendations on this board. I can honestly say this was the worst beach I have visited during 17 Caribbean cruises. There were only three ships in port, but this beach looked like Coney Island on the 4th of July. Wall to Wall people and $10 to rent a lousy chair, $10 more for an unbrella which you will need since there is only one tree on the whole beach. The beach is only about 30 feet wide so you can see, hear and smell the traffic going by. I stood there looking up and down seven mile beach and every other beach was beautifully uncrowded.

 

I believe some pople on this board said this beach was at the West End. This is not true. The West End has beautiful beaches with many trees and that's where I thought I was going. We were traveling with three other couples or I would have immediately grabbed another cab to the West End.

 

Unless you are looking for wall to wall crowds, stay away from Sea Grape beach.

[twinkletoes4445]

That's too bad you had such a bad time. The biggest problem, IMO, is that they are letting too many ships in port, and this happens. Can you imagine what the place is like when there are nine ships in port? I really think Grand Cayman needs to rethink how many cruisers they are going to allow on the island on any given day. I read where they recently increased it to 9,500 or so, but that doesn't make sence because there are days there are 7 or 8 huge ships in port.

 

The one thing you have to remember about the rest of the beach (the part that looked uncrowded), is that even though the beach part is public...you can plop your towel down anywhere, you can't use the chairs at the condos or hotels. A couple of the hotels offer a "day fee" but many don't. The condo we stayed at had a guard that ran any cruisers off if they attempted to use the chairs...which was nice because we wanted to be able to use the chairs when we wanted...since we paid almost $5,000 for our condo for the week.

 

If you look the oposite direction (away from the condos), you probably saw more empty beaches, but other than picnic tables (at the public beach), there's no services offered. Most people are looking for food, restrooms, water toy rentals...and such...and Sea Grape, Royal Palms, and Beach Club Colony offer this for day visitors.

 

Sea Grape is in the West Bay area. If you want to see no one...and unspoiled beaches, you need to rent a car and head off to the Bodden Town, Savannah, and East End area.

 

There are a couple of other areas that cater to cruisers...Royal Palms...and Beach Club Colony (which is an all-inclusive type place, I believe). Other than Rum Point (which was packed the day we drove over there), there are really no other beach areas...not that we found the week we were there...that off food, restrooms, etc.

 

It's expensive to spend the day on Grand Cayman. We were there for a week and didn't have a meal that wasn't at least $200 at a sports bars type place (there were five of us) and it even more expensive to eat at the nicer restaurants. We had two pizzas, a couple bottles of pop, and breadsticks delievered one night, and it was $70 before a tip! But...as much as it cost...we love Grand Cayman. But I do think they need to stop allowing so many ships in port...the place is a zoo. I do know that we'll never visit Grand Cayman by cruise ship...it just too rushed. When you are there for the week, you can work around the crowds and do many more things.

 

Again, sorry you had a bad time...

[jmo1]

I agree that Sea Grape Beach gets very crowded with cruisers. We stayed at GC for a week a few years ago at a Condo called Indies Suites that is across the street from Sea Grape Beach. We usually went to the beach in the late afternnoon and had the beach to ourselves. We watched the sunset and the cruise ships steam off on the horizon. The one day that we went to the beach earlier in the day when there were two or three ships at port, it was very crouded. We did meet a group of people from our home town though. We learned weeks later that our best friends were on the island at the same time on a cruise. Next time there, ask a taxi driver to take you to Cemetery Beach. It is a little farther west, and very sucluded. There are no services there though.

[ronnyboy007]

From reading a number of posts I think I'm getting the picture.......All beach areas are free and open to the public. If it's crowded in front of the place at Sea Grape that rents the chairs and you don't like crowds (some people do) All you have to do is walk a little ways in either direction to get away from the crowds. I suppose you could even take a rented chair a little ways off to avoid being scrunched, (probably not far). I'm going to see how the crowd situation is in Jan 07 when we'll be there. If it's cramped we'll just use beach towels in an uncrowded area. I think the crowded conditions are amplified because a lot of travelers think the beach on either side of the rental area is private and hesitate to spread out. Apparently the beach is open and free to us all,,,,,,so spread out and be free........

[drew sailbum]

Indeed the Sea Grape section of Seven Mile Beach can become crowded when many cruise ships are in port. Others correctly surmised that this is due to services being available. Simply, there is not as much demand to visit sections of beach with no restroom facilities and no food options.

 

The beach from the water up to the mean high water mark is Crown property and free and open to the public. The police really do not want to get into the fine points of where exactly public lands end and private lands begin.

 

Services, such as beach chairs and umbrellas are not free of charge. These are provided by various hotels and condos for the use of their guests. Some of these locations will rent the use of these items to the general public.

 

Sea Grape is most certainly on the west end (no capitalization!) of the island. This is purely a geographic reference, distinguishing it from East End, West Bay, or North Side (proper names of political districts) as well as North Sound and South Sound (bodies of water). Sea Grape falls in the political district of West Bay.

 

Finally, beaches are naturally evolving ecosystems. They grow and shrink with storms, tides, and changing winds. The next time you visit Grand Cayman, Sea Grape may be wider or narrower.

[Sheils65]

Does anyone have any pics of Sea Grape Beach that they would like to share?