Stingray City first. Then the rest of Grand Cayman.
Which sandbar boat leaves before the cruise ships tie up. What a three-stop trip actually covers. When the bay is dark enough to glow. Every tour on the island, reviewed and priced.
Wild southern rays, waist-deep off Grand Cayman.
The sandbar sits a mile out in the North Sound in four feet of water, and the rays have met the boats there since fishermen cleaned their catch on it. Most trips add the reef at Coral Gardens and the shallows at Starfish Point on the way back.
Everywhere on Grand Cayman worth a boat or a drive.
The North Sound sandbar, the starfish shallows, the reef stop, the beach strip, the caves inland and the bay that glows. Six places carry almost every trip sold here, and each one books differently.
Three ways to reach the Stingray City sandbar.
All 66 Stingray City trips →
Shared boat, whole boat, or the three-stop run that turns the sandbar into a morning. These three carry the most travellers between them; the full list splits the rest by how you want to get there.
Two stops, one morning, a seat on a big cat
The cheapest way onto the sandbar and the busiest. Boats leave Camana Bay and the Yacht Club in waves; the first departure has the water to itself for about half an hour.
Your own captain, your own running order
Split between a family or two couples this lands close to a shared seat, and nothing about the day is on anyone else’s clock. Sandbar first, reef second, Kaibo for lunch if you want it.
Sandbar, Coral Gardens and Starfish Point
The combination most visitors actually want: rays in standing depth, a reef with something to look at, then the shallows at Rum Point where the cushion stars sit on the sand.
Grand Cayman’s most popular tours.
Every Grand Cayman review →The trips more travellers take than anything else on the island, and what each one gets you for the money.
1
Stingray City Experience Plus Two Snorkeling Stops on Grand Cayman
Swim with stingrays at Grand Cayman’s famous sandbar, then snorkel Coral Gardens and the Barrier Reef on a practical three-hour boat trip.
From · $80
Read our review →2
Starfish Point, Stingray City & Coral Garden (3-STOP Adventure)
from $80
3
Night Bioluminescence Snorkel Tour
from $145
4
Stingray City and Starfish Experience with Coral Reef Snorkeling
from $65
5
Stingray City Experience Plus One Snorkeling Stop
from $75
6
Private, luxury, custom charters to Stingray City, Snorkeling & More
from $609
7
Private Half Day Stingray City, Snorkeling and Starfish Beach Tour
from $600
8
Small Group E-Bike Grand Cayman Ecological Half-Day Tour
from $129
Starfish Point rewards the early boat.
Cushion stars sit in ankle-deep water off the north shore at Rum Point, close enough to count the ridges on their arms. Look, photograph, and leave them in the water: lifting one out to pose with it kills it. Get there before mid-morning and the sand is still clear.
All 30 Starfish Point trips →
Charter a boat and Grand Cayman empties out.
Close to half the trips sold here price by the boat rather than the head. Split six or eight ways a private charter lands near the cost of a shared seat, and you set the order: sandbar before the fleet arrives, reef second, back on the dock before the afternoon chop builds.
- 1Private, luxury, custom charters to Stingray City, Snorkeling & Morefrom $609
- 2Private Charter 34ft Express Cruiser Stingay City Reef Snorkelingfrom $1,000
- 3Private Stingray City and Snorkeling Half Day Charter for 6 Guestfrom $1,100
What a day on Grand Cayman costs.
Every tour on the site, from the cheapest ticket to the biggest charter. Read the top band carefully: most of those are private boats quoted for the whole group, not per person.
Entry tickets, the distillery pass and the guided ticket at Pedro St James Castle.
Where the island lives: shared sandbar boats, three-stop combos, the caves, and the bioluminescent bay by night.
Mostly private charters quoted per boat for six to twelve people, plus the jet ski days and the long luxury runs.
Three things you can only do on Grand Cayman.
Reefs and white beaches run the length of the Caribbean. A sandbar full of wild rays, a bay that lights up when you touch it and a cave system under the woodland belong to this island alone.
The Stingray City Sandbar
Fishermen cleaned conch and fish on this shallow bar for decades, and the southern rays learned to come when the engines cut. They still do. You stand in four feet of water a mile from land while animals the width of a dining table circle your knees. Nothing about it is fenced, ticketed or staged, and the rays leave when they feel like it.
- 1Stingray City Experience Plus Two Snorkeling Stops on Grand Cayman★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,477 reviews
- 2Starfish Point, Stingray City & Coral Garden (3-STOP Adventure)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,168 reviews
- 3Stingray City and Starfish Experience with Coral Reef Snorkeling★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 924 reviews
The Bioluminescent Bay
In a mangrove-ringed bay on the north side, single-celled plankton flare when the water moves; trail a hand and it lights blue behind your fingers. It runs on the moon rather than the clock. The nights either side of a full moon wash it out completely, so operators sell by lunar date and pull the trip when the sky is too bright.
- 1Night Bioluminescence Snorkel Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 987 reviews
- 2Bioluminescent Bay Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 288 reviews
- 3Private: Bioluminescence Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 44 reviews
The Cayman Crystal Caves
A short drive inland the ground opens into chambers hung with stalactites and a still black pool that mirrors the roof. It is the one outing here that wants shoes instead of fins, which also makes it the one that still runs on the morning a norther shuts the boats down.
- 1Cayman Crystal Caves Tour in Grand Cayman★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 376 reviews
- 2Cayman Crystal Caves & Pedro St James Castle or Botanical Garden★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 18 reviews
- 3Cayman Combo Tour: Stingrays, Starfish Point and Crystal Caves★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 10 reviews
What Grand Cayman does once the boats are tied up.
All bioluminescent bay nights →Cayman Spirits Co. Distillery Tour Pass Ticket Only
Read our review →
Cayman’s Classic Food Tasting & Cultural Experience
Read our review →Book these before you fly to Grand Cayman.
Most of this island can be booked from the hotel the night before. These four cannot. They run on the moon, on one small operator, or on a cruise-ship schedule that fills every boat by nine in the morning.
- 01Night Bioluminescence Snorkel TourSold by lunar date. The dark nights either side of a new moon go first, and the bright ones do not run at all.
- 02Cayman Crystal Caves Tour in Grand CaymanOne site, timed entry, and every ship’s excursion desk sells it before you land.
- 03Private, luxury, custom charters to Stingray City, Snorkeling & MoreOne boat, one captain, one party a day. High-season Saturdays are spoken for months out.
- 04Small Group E-Bike Grand Cayman Ecological Half-Day TourSmall groups by design: the tour is only as big as the number of bikes on the trailer.
The mornings the sandbar boats stay tied up.
A winter norther puts a metre of chop across the North Sound and the sandbar trips are cancelled by phone at seven in the morning. It is not a lost day. The caves are dry whatever the wind does, the distillery pours regardless, and the East End lanes are better on two wheels than they ever are from a boat.
The six places, by name
Stingray City Sandbar66 tours
Starfish Point30 tours- Coral Gardens15 tours
Seven Mile Beach9 tours
Crystal Caves5 tours
Bioluminescent Bay12 tours- The whole Grand Cayman catalogue →
A week on Grand Cayman, in the order that works.
The newest Grand Cayman reviews.
See the newest first →
Exclusive Cayman Underwater Adventure: Yellow Submarine Cayman
Read our review →
Grand Cayman Reef & Stingray City Snorkeling Adventure
Read our review →
Stingray City and Seven Mile Beach Adventure Tour
Read our review →
Stingray City Sandbar, Snorkel, Star fish Beach (Family operated)
Read our review →
Stingray City, Coral Gardens & Frankie’s Local Lunch & Juice
Read our review →
Owen Roberts Airport GCM to George Town-Arrival Private Transfer
Read our review →
Private Stingray City Snorkeling and BioBay Charter for 10 Guests
Read our review →
Private Vacation Photoshoot with Photographer in Grand Caymen
Read our review →