If you didn’t already know, the original name given to the Cayman Islands was “Las Tortugas,” referencing the large number of turtles that were present on the islands upon its discovery in 1503. Comparatively, sea turtles are now an endangered species in the Cayman Islands! Even though we no longer have a huge population of wild sea turtles, the species is still extremely important in Cayman’s culture.

Every year from May to November, there is a turtle nesting season that the island takes very seriously. The Department of Environment within our national government manages the nests, eggs, and releases back into the ocean. It is quite a spectacle to witness, so if you ever have a chance to experience a baby turtle hatching and release, make sure you wake up early to do so!

With the sea turtles being endangered, it is especially important to protect the nests and eggs, providing an environment that is safe and viable for the female turtles to carry out the entire process. This relies on the cooperation of all residences, buildings, and businesses along the beaches of Cayman. Plantana is actually a turtle nesting site and we have been known to have a few nests present right on our beach throughout the years!

Through the last year that the island has been closed to overseas short-term guests, Plantana has been working closely with the Department of Environment to produce a plan to install all new turtle-friendly lighting throughout the property. Our pool lights, beach lights, and walkway lights may all look different the next time you’re at Plantana! Keeping our guests safety in mind, there will be no loss of illumination, but picture a warm glow in certain orange-tinted hues throughout the pool and beach areas at night. With our transition to becoming a turtle-friendly property, we hope it can contribute to the success of the turtle monitoring program along Seven Mile Beach.

There is still about 6 months left in the turtle nesting season for 2021, and we sure hope you’ll be able to see some of the magic for yourself!

While the Grand Cayman airport remains open only to approved travelers, Plantana guests are welcome to explore the option of visiting us under slightly different terms. It is still possible to travel to Plantana during this time – just visit our specials page for more details on the process!

We spoke to a few of our overseas guests who have made the journey to Cayman during COVID-related travel restrictions and got their take on what quarantine was like. Read on to see what they had to say!

What made you decide to come to Cayman during this time?

Diane: We look forward to coming to Cayman every year. If there was any way at all that we could do it, we were going to figure it out. The US being “locked down” was so draining, we needed the break, but safely.

Jeff & Gayle: We are regular vacationers at Plantana and have been coming here for 10 years. As COVID hit in early 2020, we left Cayman early in March – in the middle of our spring stay – catching the last flight out before the island was closed. We thought surely, we’d back for a summer trip – but definitely for a Nov/Dec trip! But alas, NO… COVID had other ideas. Finally, this winter, we decided COVID or no COVID, it was time to return to Cayman and we would not cancel our spring trip. It would be almost a year and we were prepared to overcome any obstacle!

Upon your arrival to the island, what was the airport like?

D: Impressive is the only word that comes to mind. The airport was staffed with many health workers ready to receive you from the plane, tell you what to do and how to do it. They were extremely organized and safe.

Did you find the process upon landing in Cayman to be organized?

J&G: This was a very efficient and organized process. From touch-down to departing the airport in the government-provided transportation to our condo, it was about 90 minutes. We were efficiently checked in to verify our Travel Approval, fitted with our monitoring bands and handed our monitoring phones to activate upon arrival in our quarantine location, processed through the usual immigration/passport check, and then given our PCR nasal test. The entire time, we felt “expected” and on every list and checkpoint to efficiently move us through the process. Then we joined other fellow travelers in a minibus provided by the government to take us directly to our quarantine location. (And the Plantana staff was standing by at the office to wave, shout hello, and greet us from a distance as we walked masked to our condo!)

Was there anything that made carrying out the quarantine at Plantana special?

D: Because we are very active people, we arranged for a treadmill and a spin bike to be delivered to our condo for the duration of the quarantine. While we couldn’t be outside to walk or run, we got our exercise in every day which helped physically and mentally to be stuck inside. We made it a point to spend as much time on our porch as we could and got our sun in the afternoon. Ended quarantine with a bit of a tan!

J&G: First and foremost, it was definitely the Plantana staff! From the first time we let them know we were hoping to make the trip, they were so helpful and very supportive at every step. They provided insights on the process, on how to fill out the application, and how to do our advance grocery (and libations) ordering so that everything would be in our unit (which they took up and put away in our unit on the morning of our arrival). And then they were very attentive to all our needs while in quarantine, even strolling by our lanai on occasion to wave and say hello!

After quarantining for 14 days, how would you describe the experience?

J&G: There is no question for us that the experience was much better than we had imagined. We have to give a shout out to the delivery services – the folks on the island have perfected the technique! Our grocery deliveries were “next day,” and everything was as ordered. Our delivery from Blackbeard’s for essential libations were same day when ordered before 2pm. And the restaurants – most of our favorites delivered to our door within 45 minutes of ordering online! Our days were full – meals, working out, reading the paper, books on our Kindles, an occasional Zoom with friends back home, happy hour watching the sunset from our lanai! We found that the 14 days went by quickly, and we truly enjoyed the “down time” and peace & quiet!

Do you have any tidbits or advice to help future guests through their quarantine?

D: The best advice I can give is to make sure you plan ahead. The management and staff at Plantana are fantastic and helped us get through the process with great advice. We had a hiccup with our COVID test not arriving within 72 hours, so our first arrival date had to be changed to two weeks later and they were so kind and felt so badly for us.

J&G: (1) Start with a positive attitude and don’t view it as quarantine, view it as a retreat! (2) Read the Travel Time info carefully, understand the process, and plan for each step (3) Know that the Plantana staff will happily provide insights and help along the way (4) Don’t get anxious about the airport arrival unknowns, testing, etc. – the process works well!

Now that you have completed the quarantine, would you say that it is worth it to have a restriction-free life on the island?

D: It has been absolute pleasure to be here. We honestly feel like we have the beaches to ourselves right now. It is quiet and beautiful and worth every bit of the preparation to get here. It is definitely our happy place and will continue to be as long as we can make the trip.

J&G: Yes, definitely! It has been so refreshing to return to life as we knew it pre-COVID. No mask wearing, no one giving you the evil eye if you stand too close, discussions NOT dominated by COVID-this, COVID-that, and hearty handshakes and warm hugs with all your friends on the island! Hopefully we won’t have to, but we’ll quarantine again when it is time for our next trip!

 

If you’re interested in spending some time at Plantana in the near future, please get in touch to take us up on our “Stay for 7, Pay for 5” special offered to all stays from now through to August 31, 2021. See you soon!

Call us at 1-404-474-4344 or 1-345-945-4430 or email us at info@plantanacayman.com

One of our repeat guests recently went through the process of travelling to Cayman and quarantining at Plantana and is now enjoying the freedom of life on a COVID-free island in the Caribbean. His words resonate on the ease and relief of going through a quarantine to exit into a restriction-free, mask-free environment. We hope you enjoy hearing about Cayman’s current situation and feel a little closer to us in this time of distance.

As Thanksgiving approached, we decided that enough was enough. Did we really want to continue in New York where restrictions would get worse as the cold weather and holiday season approached, or could we plan an escape? Leaving friends and family behind was sad, but practically speaking, we could not in good conscience spend time with them, so we made the decision to head down to one of the few COVID free zones in the world — the Cayman Islands.

The Cayman Islands eradicated COVID early on with draconian lockdowns and effectively closing the island to outsiders. Now it is COVID free and remains that way because of strictly enforced 14-day quarantines upon entry. So once your 14 days are up you are in a world that you have not seen for almost a year — no masks, no restrictions, just people having a good time and enjoying the relaxed lifestyle of pristine beaches and fabulous places to eat and drink.

As of October 2020 the island started a phased reopening focusing on returning residents, property owners, participants in their Global Citizen program, where people work remotely from the Cayman Islands and, in some cases, longer stay visitors that are considered on a case-by-case basis.

The journey was a bit more work than just booking a vacation. We booked our flights with Cayman Airways, who at present are the only authorized carrier into Grand Cayman. They have flights from Miami and London, so we had to transit via Miami. With flights booked, we applied on the Travel Cayman portal for government authorization to travel. Authorization came 3 days later, and we were good to go.

The arrival process could not have been smoother. We received a bracelet and phone to ensure that we honored the terms of our quarantine. After a COVID test and the normal customs and immigration checks, we were whisked off to our condo at Plantana on Seven Mile Beach. We had ordered groceries online from Hurleys that were already delivered and unpacked. Two slick apps (Bento and Let’s Eat) get you quick deliveries from the top restaurants on the island. The first night we had amazingly fresh ceviche from Agua and a few days later some very authentic tacos from Casa 43. Wine and spirits can also be ordered online.

Units at Plantana have a screened in porch so you can sit outside to sun or just enjoy the views of the beach or the lush gardens. A 14-day quarantine is a serious matter but with Netflix and some regular exercise within our unit the days passed in no time.

On the 15th day we were taken to a testing location, given a COVID test and by that evening we got the good news that we could cut off the wristband and were now free to enter the Cayman bubble. It was late so we took a walk around the property to admire the Christmas lighting knowing that tomorrow we could head out in earnest to enjoy our new found freedom.

Grand Cayman is a unique destination in the Caribbean. It has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world yet is a real community where locals live and work in harmony with tourists. It is missing the large economic disparities found in many parts of the Caribbean making for a very relaxed and tension-free experience wherever you go. After a year of fretting over COVID it was the perfect antidote.

Having been to the Cayman Islands many times, we were in no hurry to pursue the usual attractions such as swimming with stingrays or snorkeling the colorful reefs. Instead, we craved normalcy and headed over to Camana Bay, a modern waterfront mall, to take in a movie. Then we settled into what would be our new lives for the months to come.

The cost of living is higher in Cayman because everything has to be imported and given that there is no income tax, the import duties are an important source of revenue. The Cayman dollar is pegged to the US dollar at 1.2 which makes things appear to be closer to what they cost in the US. Food shopping is a pleasure with stores such as Kirk Market being reminiscent of a Whole Foods. The quality is superb with a fantastic selection of fresh local fish as well. Once a week a farmer’s market sets up at Camana Bay with a selection of fresh local vegetables. For those wanting to splurge on prime meats, a new butcher, Carnivore, has opened featuring top cuts of meats.

Grand Cayman is really a comfortable environment and we are glad we made the choice to wait out the rest of the pandemic there. Life feels normal again.

Traditionally, there are dreams of a white Christmas… songs, movies, and television show us gorgeous snowy backdrops, lit evergreen trees, and families bundled by the fire, drinking eggnog. Here in Cayman, we have a different kind of white Christmas – expansive white sandy beach views, lit palm trees and bougainvillea bushes, and families enjoying the “Christmas breeze” on their docks, drinking sorrel with rum! Don’t be surprised if you catch Santa Clause in shorts and flip flops!

If you didn’t already know, we take Christmas seriously in Cayman. Christmas lights and decorations are at every street corner, and some of the residential areas could compete with award-winning light shows. There are homes that open their front yards to the public so everyone can enjoy the grandeur and Christmas spirit. There are even life-size gingerbread houses in two of the hotels on island and a holiday theme on almost every menu in town! We cannot boast frosty evenings or snowflakes in the air, but Cayman is the place to be for Christmas when the holiday spirit and quality time with family is at the top of your wish list. Hundreds of families that flock to our shores every year for this season can certainly agree.

Here at Plantana, we want to wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season, filled with joy, memories, and reflection! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

From its crystal blue waters and white coral sand to the sweet sea breeze, Seven Mile Beach is definitely top of mind when it comes to beautiful beaches.  Of course, its popularity often attracts an influx of foot traffic that can become overwhelming. If it’s a more tranquil spot you’re after, we’re here to fill you in on some hidden gems that the island has to offer.

Smith’s Cove

Encased in an iron shore cove, Smith’s Barcadere is a fitting alternative to Seven Mile Beach. With some of the best snorkeling on island, shower facilities, plenty of shade, and barbecue facilities, this beach is definitely the top pick for a beach day that’s fun for the whole family.

Barker’s Beach

This beach is right in the center of a national park! It is quiet, tranquil, and a must for the more adventurous folks. It is the perfect place to kayak, paddleboard, kitesurf, and snorkel. There are established pathways through the mangroves, so take your bike and enjoy a spin around this beautiful area of West Bay.

Barefoot Beach

Tucked away off the Queen’s Highway, Barefoot Beach is the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of Seven Mile Beach. Can you imagine anything being more tranquil than one of the world’s best beaches? It is secluded and takes a hunt to find it, but once you do, you won’t want to leave! Close in proximity to the Crystal Caves and many amazing restaurants in East End, it makes for a great day of adventure.

Spotts Beach

Last but certainly not least, our personal favourite, Spotts beach. As part of Cayman’s protected marine parks, this beach by far is the perfect beach to spot sea turtles and other sea life. Although this is a great beach for snorkeling, you may need to stick to relaxing beneath the palm trees if you’re visiting on a day when the currents are strong. The dock is a must for the perfect family photo backdrop.

If visiting these hidden gems don’t fit into your vacation schedule, you can enjoy the sunset and calm Caribbean Sea every day of the week from the comfort of your private beachfront at Plantana.