Must Buy Items in Grand Cayman?

[I_heart_vaca]

This will be my, and my best friends, first visit to Grand Cayman. We are not much for knick knacks but we do like to purchase items in each port/city that you can’t get everywhere else (we bought an authentic cuckoo clock in Switzerland and great Italian leather handbags in Rome). Can anyone tell me what items are “must buy” items for Grand Cayman? Can be specific food items, liquor, jewelry, etc. Also, if you know a specific store we should get it from that would be great as well.

Thanks!

[TurtleTagger]

How about some Caymanite jewelry?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caymanite

 

London Jewelers store directly across from the North Cruise terminal in the Island Plaza. (345) 949-9861

 

or

 

Mitzi's Fine Jewelry next to the Grand Pavillion West Bay Rd. on the way to Seven Mile Beach

Tel: (345) 945-5014

[twinkletoes4445]

Rum cakes. We like the hurricane rum cake - it's chocolate and white swirled - made by Blackbeards (we get them at Foster's Grocery), but Tortuga Rum Cakes are available all over the island. There's a Tortuga rum cake store right in the port area. It's a short walk from where the ships tender. They are also available at many of the stores. On our first trip to GC, we were on a ship and we bought Tortuga rum cakes on the ship.

[mrsfuzzmo]

Big Black Dick Rum!!!! Super fun!! (And delicious).

[curacaoqueen]

Go to the craft market across the street, handmade items there,sauces,jams from Miss Ivy. Also caymanite jewelry. Rum cakes and rum are always a must for us.

[re-re]

Big Black Dick Rum!!!! Super fun!! (And delicious).

 

Where do you find that,i would love to bring some back as gifts for the girlfriends, that would get some great laughs.

[curacaoqueen]

There are a couple of places in Georgetown to get BBD rum. One is downstairs from Breezes restaurant.

[MissRabbit]

are there other non-touristy places to get local crafts? I can only imagine how much higher the prices are at the craft market, being situated right there by the cruise pier and all.

[twinkletoes4445]

are there other non-touristy places to get local crafts? I can only imagine how much higher the prices are at the craft market, being situated right there by the cruise pier and all.

 

Nothing is cheap in Grand Cayman, no matter where you shop. We love Pure Arts. It's about a mile away from town.

[MissRabbit]

Nothing is cheap in Grand Cayman, no matter where you shop. We love Pure Arts. It's about a mile away from town.

 

yeah i was watching a few youtubes about caymanite and a tiny little pendant was $40 and up!

[twinkletoes4445]

yeah i was watching a few youtubes about caymanite and a tiny little pendant was $40 and up!

 

It's quite a shocker if you're not ready for the prices! You're smart to plan in advance. :)

 

We took our kids there a couple of times for a week, and we found that for once we actually ate everything we ordered, or shared it, or took it back to the condo for later. Another thing is everything is marked in Cayman dollars, which I forget when I am shopping or ordering food. We forgot that it's going to be a little more in USD. It's like the Beverly Hills of the Caribbean, but we love it there ... but we are careful.

[Capt_BJ]

been going to cayman for some 30 years now

 

there are no Must Buy items

 

but if you are there and YOU MUST BUY SOMETHING with Cayman flair, that's a different question

 

Remember that $1 US is 80 cents CI

 

Or $1 CI is $1.20 US (to convert, figure your US tip @ 20% in TWICE, once for conversion and again for the tip)

 

or

 

she may look 20,

 

but she's 16 CI . . . .

[curacaoqueen]

It's quite a shocker if you're not ready for the prices! You're smart to plan in advance. :)

 

We took our kids there a couple of times for a week, and we found that for once we actually ate everything we ordered, or shared it, or took it back to the condo for later. Another thing is everything is marked in Cayman dollars, which I forget when I am shopping or ordering food. We forgot that it's going to be a little more in USD. It's like the Beverly Hills of the Caribbean, but we love it there ... but we are careful.

We tend to see grocery stores are in Cayman money, restauants and shops in US money. The craft market is US money too.

[MissRabbit]

Aside from Caymanite....are there any other items that are expressly Caymanian? (is that the right word?) I don't usually buy souvenirs for souvenirs' sake. I look for things that have the 2 following things...

 

1. it's handmade, locally

2. it's something that you can't readily find at other ports in the Caribbean.

 

Obviously, Caymanite. But what about other things?

[drew sailbum]

The Cayman Islands have a long sea fairing history and early industry revolved around harvesting sea turtles. The Cayman Turtle Farm now raises turtles and does sell some turtle shell products with the disclaimer that such items cannot be imported back into the US. If you do bring turtle products into the States the they are subject to seizure by Customs and Border Protection.

[twinkletoes4445]

We tend to see grocery stores are in Cayman money, restauants and shops in US money. The craft market is US money too.

 

We usually shop at Foster's, but when checking out they are able to give us a receipt that shows us CD & USD. We also typically use credit cards for the most part, but we found the last time a couple of places, when we used USD, gave us USD in change.

 

I don't know about the craft market because we only walked through there once, but all the shops we were in everything was marked in CD. We don't typically visit the shops in the port, which may be why this is this way.

 

I don't recall a single restaurant we ate at having the menu in USD. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but I thought they were all in CD.

 

We sure love visiting there though. It's such a lovely island.

[McDebbie]

The Cayman Islands have a long sea fairing history and early industry revolved around harvesting sea turtles. The Cayman Turtle Farm now raises turtles and does sell some turtle shell products with the disclaimer that such items cannot be imported back into the US. If you do bring turtle products into the States the they are subject to seizure by Customs and Border Protection.

 

Thanks for the head's up.

[Sunebeach]

When I travel I like to bring back some of the local currency...it's alot cheaper then buying junk I'll never use or have to dust ...and I put it in my scrapbook along with pictures of the great places we got to see when we were there. Currency is definitely something from that specific place. And you can bring back different denominations of paper money and coins etc. the money is usually very colorful:).

Then again...if an item is handmade..truly, by locals...not made in china and sold in their stores as 'handmade in cayman etc etc.. like an experience in Cozumel..[but that's another story]:eek:.

[tmt218]

When I travel I like to bring back some of the local currency...it's alot cheaper then buying junk I'll never use or have to dust ...and I put it in my scrapbook along with pictures of the great places we got to see when we were there. Currency is definitely something from that specific place. And you can bring back different denominations of paper money and coins etc. the money is usually very colorful:).

Then again...if an item is handmade..truly, by locals...not made in china and sold in their stores as 'handmade in cayman etc etc.. like an experience in Cozumel..[but that's another story]:eek:.

 

 

We bring currency back as well. It's something different not everyone thinks of. My DD likes to look at money from different countries.

[TurtleTagger]

Aside from Caymanite....are there any other items that are expressly Caymanian? (is that the right word?) I don't usually buy souvenirs for souvenirs' sake. I look for things that have the 2 following things...

 

1. it's handmade, locally

2. it's something that you can't readily find at other ports in the Caribbean.

 

Obviously, Caymanite. But what about other things?

 

Silver Palm thatch-work: Baskets, Hats, fans, etc...

Turtle Stew