Spanish Bay Reef Resort Grand Cayman

The Reef Resort is located on the East End of Grand Cayman and has a beautiful unspoiled beach area. If you are looking for a great resort that has a restaurant and activities, but without all the chaos of the "tourist" areas, this is the place. We stayed in a studio suite on the first floor and literally walked right out to the beach. It was quiet and the rooms were very well decorated.

The studio suites have jacuzzi tubs which was nice. The Reef also features one and two bedroom units. The two bedroom units are basically a one bedroom and studio together with the lock out feature. The one bedroom units have a full kitchen with a nice patio dining area. The living room has a murphy bed so you can sleep additional guests but still have the privacy in your own bedroom.

There is a restaurant on site called Castro's Hideaway. The food is excellent and well priced (given the prices in Cayman are very high to begin with). The beach bar has an extensive selection of mixed drinks and I definitely recommend a mojito since it's the only place I've been that features Cuban rum. The Cuban rum is incredible and you get to taste the true inspiration behind this Cuban speciality.

Being that the resort has timeshares for purchase (I loved the place so much we bought a one bedroom unit) and they also have fractional ownership condo opportunities now. Not sure what current prices are but in 2006, timeshares started around $10,000 for a studio unit and fractional ownerships were around $250,000.

Prior to purchasing the timeshare, we talked to a number of people who've owned one for many years and everyone spoke very highly of the resort and the staff. I have yet to go back but rent the unit out each year and actually have found you can make a nice little profit after the yearly maintenance fees. They typically give bonus week certificates so I hope I can go back this year since I maxed out my time off last year!

The resort also features a lst of activities, one of which is the popular Stingray City trip. The resort is smart in that they schedule the trips in the late afternoon and often on days when no cruise ships are in port. By scheduling later in the day, we missed the throngs of tourists who flock there daily. It provided a nice opportunity to see the stingrays and not have to wade through a thousand other people.

I see on the website they have new all inclusive packages for 2008. Given the prices on Grand Cayman in general, this seems like a great deal. The nights we ate in town, we typically spent around $100 a night just for dinner. I would definitely give these packages a thought as you might find it will save you quite a bit in bar and restaurant charges. If that does not appeal to you, there is an onsite small grocery store and I heard the new big grocery store they were building has opened. At a minimum, definitely worth buying a bottle of Cuban rum and this great fruit juice they sell to make your own rum punches!

And check out Expedia's list of the 20 best hotels in the world, The Reef resort is now number 14!!!