Seagrape beach, Royal Palms, or Tiki Beach???

[cml88]

Which area of 7 mile beach do you recommend...I've heard of the 3 separate sections (Seagrape, Royal Palms, Tiki)...Have you been to any? What are they like? What are the differences?

[bookbabe]

They're all sections of the same beach, so are all very similar, with food/drink, chair/umbrella rentals, watersports, restrooms, etc.

 

Tiki Beach and Sea Grape are often used by cruise excursions. Tiki Beach is the newest of the three. Sea Grape has small picnic shelters and a playground nearby. Royal Palms has an adults-only pool and has rental pool and beach cabanas.

[cml88]

They're all sections of the same beach, so are all very similar, with food/drink, chair/umbrella rentals, watersports, restrooms, etc.

 

Tiki Beach and Sea Grape are often used by cruise excursions. Tiki Beach is the newest of the three. Sea Grape has small picnic shelters and a playground nearby. Royal Palms has an adults-only pool and has rental pool and beach cabanas.

 

Bookbabe, How would you compare the 3 in terms of prices? Which is the most expensive?

[bookbabe]

Bookbabe, How would you compare the 3 in terms of prices? Which is the most expensive?

 

Prices are going to be pretty similar all over the island...expensive. :-)

[chellencrette]

They're all sections of the same beach, so are all very similar, with food/drink, chair/umbrella rentals, watersports, restrooms, etc.

 

Tiki Beach and Sea Grape are often used by cruise excursions. Tiki Beach is the newest of the three. Sea Grape has small picnic shelters and a playground nearby. Royal Palms has an adults-only pool and has rental pool and beach cabanas.

 

 

Do you know how far apart the 3 are? Is the beach really 7 miles long? Also, do you happen to know how much it is to rent a cabana at Royal Palms? Thanks

[EBM]

I am trying to make a decision between these three beaches as well for September. When you say, expensive, what does that mean? Can you give a monetary amount? Is there a fee to get into the beach, as well as additional fees for chair rentals, snorkel rentals, etc?

[TurtleTagger]

Do you know how far apart the 3 are? Is the beach really 7 miles long? Also, do you happen to know how much it is to rent a cabana at Royal Palms? Thanks

 

The beach+sand portion of Seven Mile Beach is Five and a half miles long.

Royal Palms is closest to port, I don't know maybe 1.5 miles from the pier. Seagrape is about 2 miles further and Tiki Beach is a few hundred yards further still.

 

Royal Palms cabana rental info http://royalpalmscayman.com/private-beach-cabana/

[chellencrette]

The beach+sand portion of Seven Mile Beach is Five and a half miles long.

Royal Palms is closest to port, I don't know maybe 1.5 miles from the pier. Seagrape is about 2 miles further and Tiki Beach is a few hundred yards further still.

 

Royal Palms cabana rental info http://royalpalmscayman.com/private-beach-cabana/

 

 

 

Thanks so much for your help!!!!! :)

[bookbabe]

I am trying to make a decision between these three beaches as well for September. When you say, expensive, what does that mean? Can you give a monetary amount? Is there a fee to get into the beach, as well as additional fees for chair rentals, snorkel rentals, etc?

 

Think prices equivalent to a theme park or nice hotel in a tourist area. <eep> A menu for Royal Palms (and many other restaurants) can be found here - http://caymangoodtaste.com/restaurants_menu.asp?restaurantID=7&menu_headingID=81 - $1US = $0.80CI

 

There's no fee to access the beach itself. Royal Palms charges $2 to use their facilities (restrooms, showers) but the others don't. Rentals of chairs, etc. are extra at all places.

[EBM]

Thank you! Is there snorkeling at royal palms? If so, is it a good spot to it?

[TurtleTagger]

Thank you! Is there snorkeling at royal palms? If so, is it a good spot to it?

 

Technically if there is water and you have the gear, you can call it snorkeling. Not much to see do to the sandy sea floor there. Walk down to the Marriott where they have installed some "reef balls" to prevent beach erosion. A bit more to see in terms of fish.

[maplevale]

If we go for a walk down the beach - can you pop into the different resorts to get a drink at the bar? Or would you have to pay for the day?

[TurtleTagger]

If we go for a walk down the beach - can you pop into the different resorts to get a drink at the bar? Or would you have to pay for the day?

 

The various resort bars and restaurants are open to the public.

[pcvtmom]

Think prices equivalent to a theme park or nice hotel in a tourist area. <eep> A menu for Royal Palms (and many other restaurants) can be found here - http://caymangoodtaste.com/restaurants_menu.asp?restaurantID=7&menu_headingID=81 - $1US = $0.80CI

 

There's no fee to access the beach itself. Royal Palms charges $2 to use their facilities (restrooms, showers) but the others don't. Rentals of chairs, etc. are extra at all places.

 

Tiki Beach requires $25 pp if you want to use a chair and "facilities", which we thought was a tad expensive. If I remember correctly, Sea Grapes charged $10 pp for a chair, etc.

[aggiemom11]

Wow, I wasnt aware that Seagrape Beach charged.

[cb at sea]

They only charge for chair/umbrella rentals....not access to the beach. The beach is public and free to anyone to go on the beach. It's only if you want to rent a lounger and stuff that you will pay.

[marshhawk]

Thank you! Is there snorkeling at royal palms? If so, is it a good spot to it?

 

If you are looking for snorkeling to see fish, think rockier than 7 mile beach. Check out Eden Rock-free. They charge to rent locker or equipement. Once off the ship head to the right. 7 mile beach is to the left.

[marshhawk]

Technically if there is water and you have the gear, you can call it snorkeling. Not much to see do to the sandy sea floor there. Walk down to the Marriott where they have installed some "reef balls" to prevent beach erosion. A bit more to see in terms of fish.

 

Just adding this as it is something I found out this week. Cruise Critic has a page of beaches and day pass hotels listed on one of their information pages. It, however, has not been updated for quite sometime, so I called the Marriot in Grand Cayman and they are no longer offering day passes. They did this post hurricane to get some business back to their hotel. :(

[TurtleTagger]

Just adding this as it is something I found out this week. Cruise Critic has a page of beaches and day pass hotels listed on one of their information pages. It, however, has not been updated for quite sometime, so I called the Marriot in Grand Cayman and they are no longer offering day passes. They did this post hurricane to get some business back to their hotel. :(

 

Unfortunately the beach in front of the Marriott has seen some steady and severe erosion the last year or so. The beach is currently so narrow only a row or two of loungers can be accommodated. Knowing that, it is not surprising they are unable/unwilling to accommodate day-pass guests, as their stay-over guests would literally be run off the beach. :(

[vickykay]

We went to Royal Palms last March and enjoyed it very much. We rented chairs, etc and had lunch. We did not think the prices were that much more than other Caribbean islands (it's vacation)- very good food, etc. Enjoy.

[Arubalisa]

Seagrape beach, Royal Palms, or Tiki Beach???

Do all of these beach facilities accept credit cards or U.S. dollars?

 

Do taxis on the island accept U.S. dollars?

 

Thanks in advance for any help :)

[vickykay]

Yes, we used dollars for taxi, entrance to Royal Palms and lunch. Enjoy!

[reney313]

We just returned from our cruise where we had reserved 2 cabanas (pool and beach) at Royal Palms.

 

I really loved this little "resort". It is more a condo complex, I believe. Anyway, from my past visits to 7 mile beach, I knew there weren't many places to sit and enjoy the beach where you could get drink service, etc.

 

We had 9 people in our group; however only 6 ended up going to the beach. We never used the pool cabana. If I had to do it over, I would have booked both the beach cabanas instead. The pool cabanas are nice, have a large table to eat on and a wrap around/curved couch type seating. There were loungers around the pool that could be used.

 

The beach cabanas were great! We had 4 chairs around the table and 4 loungers. It worked fine since there ended up being only 6 of us. I did reserve when it was showing as $50 per cabana..however they billed that in CI money, I believe. They just added it to the total tab for our food/drinks, etc. They may have billed it as less than $50 for CI and then adjusted, to be honest, I didn't pay too much attention.

 

The service was GREAT in the cabana and I found the food good. The pizza and chicken sandwiches were excellent and the burger OK. We drank the local beer, which was good as well. Overall, very relaxing and relatively affordable day in Grand Cayman.

 

One note: When we arrived, they tried to collect the $2 per person. I let them know that we had cabanas reserved. The guard seemed a little taken aback, not sure what to do. He was getting ready to direct me to a desk but fortunately the lady in charge of the cabanas came by right then and called me by my name, expecting me. She was surprised as she thought we would have been in earlier. We got there about noon, which to me was reasonable. The tenders started at 10:00am and I think we got everyone together and onto the tender at 11:00am. Then the ride to the port, off the tender, and straight into a cab. We had to wait 5-10 minutes for it to fill up and then off we went. The other ships in port were all there much earlier, so she may not have been aware of the later time for the Mariner OTS. You might mention on your reservation comments what time you expect to be there.

 

anyway, that was all about a 3 minute confusion and we walked directly to our cabana which was reserved and loved it!

 

i would not hesitate to book this again. It was a no-brainer for the $50 per cabana rate. $100 each, it would depend on how many people. With 4 people, it would be $10 for a lounger each + $2 to get in so $48. Now it would be about $50 more for the cover. Now that I type that out, I definitely would do it for 4 people. 2 people maybe not just because of the minimum food/drink purchase.

[Aldeya]

We just returned from our cruise where we had reserved 2 cabanas (pool and beach) at Royal Palms.

 

I really loved this little "resort". It is more a condo complex, I believe. Anyway, from my past visits to 7 mile beach, I knew there weren't many places to sit and enjoy the beach where you could get drink service, etc.

 

We had 9 people in our group; however only 6 ended up going to the beach. We never used the pool cabana. If I had to do it over, I would have booked both the beach cabanas instead. The pool cabanas are nice, have a large table to eat on and a wrap around/curved couch type seating. There were loungers around the pool that could be used.

 

The beach cabanas were great! We had 4 chairs around the table and 4 loungers. It worked fine since there ended up being only 6 of us. I did reserve when it was showing as $50 per cabana..however they billed that in CI money, I believe. They just added it to the total tab for our food/drinks, etc. They may have billed it as less than $50 for CI and then adjusted, to be honest, I didn't pay too much attention.

 

The service was GREAT in the cabana and I found the food good. The pizza and chicken sandwiches were excellent and the burger OK. We drank the local beer, which was good as well. Overall, very relaxing and relatively affordable day in Grand Cayman.

 

One note: When we arrived, they tried to collect the $2 per person. I let them know that we had cabanas reserved. The guard seemed a little taken aback, not sure what to do. He was getting ready to direct me to a desk but fortunately the lady in charge of the cabanas came by right then and called me by my name, expecting me. She was surprised as she thought we would have been in earlier. We got there about noon, which to me was reasonable. The tenders started at 10:00am and I think we got everyone together and onto the tender at 11:00am. Then the ride to the port, off the tender, and straight into a cab. We had to wait 5-10 minutes for it to fill up and then off we went. The other ships in port were all there much earlier, so she may not have been aware of the later time for the Mariner OTS. You might mention on your reservation comments what time you expect to be there.

 

anyway, that was all about a 3 minute confusion and we walked directly to our cabana which was reserved and loved it!

 

i would not hesitate to book this again. It was a no-brainer for the $50 per cabana rate. $100 each, it would depend on how many people. With 4 people, it would be $10 for a lounger each + $2 to get in so $48. Now it would be about $50 more for the cover. Now that I type that out, I definitely would do it for 4 people. 2 people maybe not just because of the minimum food/drink purchase.

 

Thank you so much for such detailed report. We were thinking about renting a beach cabana on our cruise in December at Palms.

 

There will be 3 of us so I'm not sure if it's worth it for $100 + $50 minimum food/drinks purchase.

 

Decisions, decisions..:)

[IBookHePays]

Reney, can you tell me if there are umbrellas to rent, as well as loungers? There are just two of us, and we don't really need a cabana, but would like some shade when we want. :)