Why You Need to Visit Little Cayman

BY ALEXANDER BRITELL

Before the planes land, the cars have to stop, and so do the chickens.

That’s what happens when your runway is also the Island’s main road.

There aren’t Islands left like Little Cayman, the frontier outpost of the Cayman Islands with less than 200 people. Maybe there never were any to begin with.

There’s a single main road here, the one that begins with the airport and stretches along to Point of Sand.

Lots of Islands claim to be the Old Caribbean, the ones that escaped time and mass tourism and retain their old charm.

Little Cayman is different. It didn’t need to escape.

And that’s what makes it just so perfect.

Even electricity didn’t take its wires here until about two decades ago, but there’s another kind of energy here, happy go lucky and full of quirks, the kind that puts the liquor store in the same room as the car rental office.

Everyone here knows they’ve found someplace special, a place with just a few hotels, empty sand and some of the world’s greatest diving.

There’s the Little Cayman Beach Resort, the lovely dive resort and then the colorful, delightful Southern Cross Club, or you can rent a little bungalow or villa and make a go of it.

The afternoons are simple: a beer or a bottle of Havana Club on the beach, a grill or a suntan.

Little Cayman is about what isn’t here, the crowds and the construction and the sound.

Come here for a day or two or seven.

Just watch out for the chickens on the landing.

How to Get Here: There are approximately 166 flights every week into the Cayman Islands, including 42 every week between Miami and Grand Cayman.

Little Cayman is accessed via four-times-daily flights from Grand Cayman. The Cayman Airways flight takes about 35 minutes, although some flights stop first to drop off passengers in Cayman Brac.

— Alexander Britell