Beginner Cayman Islands
Cayman Islands
Vertical walls that drop two thousand meters and a sandbar full of stingrays
A few hundred meters from shore, the bottom simply ends: a vertical wall drops from a depth of between fifteen and twenty-five meters to depths of more than two thousand. Looking over that edge is the dive that defines this destination.
In this guide you'll find how these walls were formed, what the main island offers between walls, wrecks, and shallow reef, what the stingray sandbar is and what's debated about it, when to go, and what level you need.
These are the most accessible walls in the Caribbean, and the destination where dive infrastructure is most developed in the entire region.
Geography and access
The Cayman Islands are a British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean, made up of three islands: the main one and two smaller sister islands.
The islands are the emerged peaks of an underwater massif that rises from a very deep trench. There's no continental shelf: the rock drops almost straight down.
This geology produces walls that begin between fifteen and twenty-five meters and descend vertically for hundreds or thousands of meters, with ledges, arches, and crevices.
The west coast of the main island is sheltered from the prevailing wind and concentrates most of the sites, including wrecks deliberately sunk as artificial reefs.
On the north coast there's a shallow sandbar where southern stingrays habituated to human presence have gathered for decades: a famous and also debated site.
Access is convenient: direct flights from North America and connections from Europe. Infrastructure is excellent, and cost is high.
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