Jeep rental in Grand Cayman

Does anyone have any experience renting a jeep to self-tour Grand Cayman? How far is the airport from the tender port? How much time will it take to get to shore if not part of a CCL excursion? Is it worth being able to drive, or can you get to most places by bus or taxi?

Thanks

Remember, this is a British Colony so they drive on the wrong side of the road there.

George town is easy to do on foot. There are lots of excursion hawkers right at the pier, so pretty easy to find something to do and have transportation included. Taxis are also right there and pretty plentiful.

You could be off the ship within the first hour of dropping anchor if you get into the line for tender stickers early enough. But honestly, there's really no rush in my opinion.

Never been to the airport there, so can't comment.

Be sure to factor in insurance costs. Jeeps and SUVs are not included in my standard credit card insurance. Also there can be terrible traffic in the port cities.

If you go the ports of call pages and do a search I bet you will get all your information.

The place that rents the heels will come and get you from the port but it could take them 20 minutes depending on how busy they are. The biggest problem with renting a vehicle there is the traffic. There is basically one road around the island and it does get backed up.

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We didn't rent a jeep, but did rent a car when we were in port in May 2016. Although the rental facility will come pick you up, we grabbed a cab to the airport. 10 minute ride. Driving was on the other side of the road, but that's no big deal, since the steering wheel is on the wrong side, too. But, I did find myself thinking, "left side" every time I pulled on to the road.

We were in port 7:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

We had FTTF, so we were off the ship pretty fast, with the first couple of groups on the tenders.

We rented through Dollar, who has an "all in" rate, with car, gas, license, insurance, etc. all in one price.

Although you can get to most places on the west side of the island by taxi, if you want to go to Rum Point or the east side, I would think a taxi would be costly.

Here's what we did:

Because we picked up at the airport and were on the road by 8:00 a.m., traffic was not a big deal. The airport is the other direction from the more crowded 7-mile beach, so when you get in the car, you are not in the worst of the traffic. We jumped in the car and headed out to Rum Point, figuring we would would start at the far point and work our way back to the port. The drive was nice and easy, with only a few roundabouts. We parked about a half mile from Rum Point, grabbed our snorkel gear and jumped in. We drifted with the current towards Rum Point. Although the water was a bit cloudy that day, it was nice. Got out of the water at Rum Point and had a drink (non-alcoholic, as I was driving). After that, we drove down to starfish point and waded out in the water. You come up on the point thorough and abandoned development, giving it a kind of crawling-under-the-fence feel. If you have driven across the island, though, there is no reason not to stop by. After seeing all the starfish we could handle, we got in the car and headed back towards the port.

We stopped along the way for a bite to eat.

The plan was to come back past the airport for another snorkel at Smith's Cove/Barcardre. But, as fate would have it, the airport was having their "once a year" emergency test that day. All the roads around the airport were blocked off for a crash simulation. Given how few roads there actually are, that meant we had a lot of traffic on the open roads. Because we didn't want to get stuck in traffic and miss the ship, we made the decision to head back to the airport and return the car. The rental facility gave us a lift back to port. We got back by about 2:00. We hadn't planned on time in port, and had no plan, so we panicked and just dropped in to Margaritaville for a few drinks (don't do it....just, don't). We had some time for shopping, so we looked around a bit, then went back to the boat. Like I said, we had no plan for port-area stuff, so we were just wandering around.

Was it worth it? I thought it was. After two sea days and one day in Jamaica in the back of a van, we enjoyed the freedom of being on our own. I am not the biggest fan of big crowds, either, so I was glad to be on an adventure alone with the wife, even if it was for only a few hours. I will admit, the chance to drive on the left side of the road was a bit exciting, as well. Once we headed across the island (probably past Bodden town), traffic was not an issue at all. In fact, once we made the turn to cross the island (Frank Sound Road), we may have passed five cars altogether. So, traffic would not stop me from doing it.

Cost-wise, it was as good as anything else, other than the taxi to seven-mile beach. $80 for the all-inclusive rate. I think we were in for $15-20 for cab there and tip for return trip. Another $20 for lunch. So, $120 or so. With two people, we had much more fun than any $60 excursion. Granted, we have our own snorkeling gear, so no additional cost for us. The all-inclusive rate meant no surprises, so cost-certainty was there.

I would do it again. In fact, next May, we will be in Cayman again and probably will do it again. This time we will have three people, so the per person cost will probably be much less than the $60 pp we had this time.

If you choose to rent, I would suggest two things: First, do like we did. Start at the farthest point from the island and move back towards the airport. Second, break it down into discrete items. That way, as you come back towards the airport, you can cut it off and head back whenever it gets too close to departure.

If I do it again, I would: (1) start with Rum Point again; (2) visit Starfish Point; (3) lunch in Bodden Town/Spott's Beach area; (4) consider Spott's beach for a bit, but probably move on; (5) drive down along S. Sound Road to the southwest point of the island, then up Church Street to Smith's cove for snorkeling, then back to the airport. As you can see, if you want to shop, my plan is something you probably want to avoid, as I have no plans for shopping.

ALSO, this time, I will go with a paper map. I was using the GPS that came with the car. While that was WONDERFUL when the roads got closed, I never really had a feel for where I was on the island. I suspect there were times when I was just a few blocks from things we might have liked to visit. But, if it wasn't on the GPS screen, I didn't know about it.