Travel Tuesday: Grand Cayman

Although I’m not forty quite yet, it’s quickly approaching. My twin sister and I celebrated a few weeks early with a dive trip to Grand Cayman last weekend. Grand Cayman is such an easy spot to get to from Atlanta…two hour direct flight, but it feels worlds away. This is my third visit to Grand Cayman, and I fall more in love with this friendly island every time I visit. Alison and I stayed at the Kimpton Seafire Resort for the duration of our stay and I cannot think of one single negative thing to say about the hotel. It’s absolutely stunning with the BEST employees ever. Every person we encountered seemed so happy to help. The views and restaurants are just as wonderful as the staff members. My sweet mother in law had a cheese board and bottle of wine sent to our room at check in, which was the best way to kick off our trip. View from our room. Grand Cayman is home to some spectacular water, no?The whole purpose of this trip was for Alison and me to get to dive together. I was super anxious Saturday morning when we woke up to a wicked thunderstorm, complete with crazy lightning and plenty of rain. I was worried our dive would be affected, or worse, cancelled, but our dive company picked us up right on time and our guide and the boat captain assured us that the weather wouldn’t affect anything. I’m happy to report that they were both correct! Although things looked ugly on the surface, our dive time was spectacular. We saw turtles and rays and even a shark! We dove with Living the Dream Divers and they were wonderful. I will definitely dive with them again.Our favorite dinner of the trip was at Ave, which is one of the restaurants at Kimpton. The menu is phenomenal and the service is top notch. Plus, it’s one of the prettiest spaces I’ve ever seen. That actually applies to the entire hotel, come to think of it.After our day underwater, we spent Sunday above water. SUP and local lager….can’t beat that with a stick. We ended our weekend with a trip to the spa (fabulous!) and Mexican food at the beach bar, Coccoloba. Coccoloba is another Kimpton restaurant and throughout the course of our stay we had lunch, dinner and drinks at this prime spot. I’m happy to report that all of the selections we tried were delicious. If you’re thinking of planning a trip to Grand Cayman, I can’t stress the Kimpton Seafire Resort enough. I’ve stayed at the Ritz and the Marriott along Seven Mile Beach during previous stays, and the Seafire is definitely my favorite.