Even though my husband Lucas and I have been with each other for almost eight years, we had never previously celebrated Valentine’s Day together. The first six years of our relationship we were separated by distance and last year, when we were finally in the same city, he had to work the entire day. Thus, we decided that for our first Valentine’s Day together we had to celebrate it in an unforgettable way. Thankfully, we were in the Cayman Islands, which offered a plethora of extraordinary adventures both on land and under water.
There is no denying that the main attraction in the Cayman Islands is the picturesque Seven Mile Beach, as it is the most developed area of Grand Cayman and is home to the island’s most popular accommodations, restaurants, and bars. A short boat ride away from the beach, however, brings you to the famous Stingray City, an area known for its abundance of stingrays. This fun shore excursion allows you to participate in either scuba diving or snorkeling in relatively shallow water. There you are afforded the opportunity to get up close and personal with these magnificent marine animals while you feed, pet, and play with them. To us, it was the perfect way to spend the most romantic day of the year.
We booked our Stingray City tour through Get Your Guide, a website that offers unique and interesting activities all over the world. The tour operator was Divetech, which is a dive resort and shop located in the beautiful West Bay area of Grand Cayman.
Once our entire group had arrived, we embarked on a small boat that would have us in Stingray City in less than thirty minutes. Along the way we were provided with magnificent views of the Caribbean Sea.
Stingray City will be the highlight of your Grand Cayman vacation if you should choose to experience it — it was most definitely ours! Enticed with a small amount of squid by our guide, within minutes of descending to the bottom, dozens upon dozens of curious and hungry stingrays came to us looking for food.
While I was diving, my husband stayed up at the surface snorkeling, since he has yet to get his diver’s license. Our guide was nice enough to bring some of the willing stingrays up for him to touch.
Out of nowhere a gigantic moray eel came charging at us. I was the first to spot him and to alarm my guide. Turns out his name is Pyscho and he is friends with all of the guides, since they feed him along with the stingrays. Every time they bring a group out to dive, he joins in on the fun.
The dive only lasts about forty-five minutes and is considered “the world’s most shallow dive.” The guide also brought Pyscho up to Lucas and they became fast friends.
Later in the evening, we chose to eat at Ristorante Pappagallo, which is less than a five minute walk away from our villa at the Cotton Tree. This restaurant is for those with discerning palates and big appetites. They serve delectable homemade Italian specialties with a liberal selection of wine to wash it all down. Its name is due to the owner’s adoration of pappagallos, or exotic birds. He built large, comfortable cages throughout the restaurant, so that guests could observe his beloved pets while they dined.
For our appetizer, we shared fried calamari and zucchini.
For my entrée, I had small portions of eggplant parmesan and butternut squash ravioli.
For Lucas’ entrée, he had a shrimp and pasta dish with a secret sauce.
For our dessert, we both later agreed that it was without a doubt one of the best we have ever tasted in our entire lives: fried dulce de leche cheesecake with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. In case you were wondering, we argued over who got the last bite! Looking back, we should have booked a hotel closer to these incredible restaurants. And for our next trip we are definitely going to go online and plan accordingly. If you are planning a trip to the Cayman islands, you owe it to yourself to look for a nice hotel online that is close to some good restaurants. You will most likely want to be close to some of island’s many fine eateries to save time and potential cab fare. Besides, booking a hotel is a snap if you have not done it before. It just takes a few clicks to have a major part of your travel planning taken care of.
OMG of all the morays I’ve seen in my life, I’ve never seen one get so close! You must have been terrified–those suckers are not kind.
Love all the shots of your master with the rays in the foreground! And you weren’t scared diving without a suit that a stinger would brush up against you?
He was blind and they said that as long as you didn’t put your fingers near his mouth he would be really nice. If he hadn’t had been blind, I would have probably freaked!!! The guy literally came out of nowhere, it was so strange! I HATE diving with suits. If the water is warm, I usually take the chance. About 50% of the time I get stung and it sucks.
Okay, I’m actually giddy from reading this post!!! Everything from the stingrays and Psycho and the kissing birds just makes me want to squeal in delight!
Hahahaha me tooooo! 🙂
This is such a cool post!!! What an unforgettable way to spend your first Valentine’s Day together. And thanks for the tip, because Stingray City is definitely going to be next on my to-dive list. I love your photos – what kind of camera do you use underwater? When my boyfriend and I went on our first (and only, so far) dive trip in Key Largo, I used a disposable underwater camera just for kicks. The pictures came out blue and underexposed, obviously. Yours are incredible.
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 How awesome that you plan to dive Stingray City too!!! I know you’ll love it as much as we did. We shot with a Canon S90 with an underwater casing. If you plan to dive a lot you should definitely invest in a camera you can bring underwater. XO
This looks like so much fun!! Especially the eel, sounds scary, but it would be awesome to get so close to one that’s friendly!
It was SUCH a fun day!!! The eel was definitely freaky, but he turned out to be so sweet.
That dive looks like so much fun! I love stingrays. I do not, however, love eels of any kind, so I would have been a bit freaked out to see one swimming toward me like that! Glad that you had such an amazing day.
Hahaha I don’t think I’ve met one person that loves eels, although this guy might have changed your opinion on them!!! 🙂
Beautiful, Andi! I’ve been hearing a lot about the Cayman Islands lately:)
Thank you!!! Yes, it’s definitely becoming quite a popular place!
Wow, what a great underwater adventure you had! Seeing Psycho would have definitely freaked me out. 🙂 On our way back to Mass. we flew over the Cayman Islands and had an awesome view of all that beautiful, blue Caribbean water.
Hahaha everyone is saying the same thing about Pyscho! Isn’t the Caymans from the air magnificent???
What a great way to spend the day!
Yes, it was unforgettable!
Oooooooh I was loving it up until the eel photo!! They get fed here in Roatan too and once the company stopped feeding them they got aggressive with the divers, and chase & bite us now 🙁 The stingrays look fun though!
OMG really??? That’s so awful! I’m pretty sure that’s the only eel they feed and he’s blind, so he will probably not live much longer. I’m so sad to hear that about the eels in Roatan!
Holy moly! You are so brave being that close to the eel! Even just the picture is freaky. Such a memorable way to spend V-day.
I actually touched him several times (not near his mouth of course haha)!
The water looks so inviting – what an experience!
The water was AMAZING!!!
Wow what an amazing life you have!
Thanks Lisa!
Wow, absolutely gorgeous. I’m beyond jealous 😉
Hopefully, you can get there one day!
That is one incredible day and one you would remember for the rest of your lives even if it did not have the specialness of being your first Valentine’s together. Even more incredible due to the special significance.
Yes, I can’t believe the timing, so perfect. 🙂
How beautiful! I love, love, love posts that are picture heavy! I’m glad I know of yours now 🙂
Awww well you’ve found the right website! You’ll find lots and lots of photos here haha!!!
I love the shots of the stingray just chilling while being brought up to Lucas! That would be me hovering on the surface, and I know I’d be really excited to get to join in the fun. The eel also is pretty scary, but I’m glad he turned out to be friendly. Definitely a different Valentine’s Day celebration!
Very different indeed! But, we’re a unique couple so it was perfect for us haha. Hopefully, one day we can all go snorkeling together!
I like what you guys did for Vday day. So different yet so romantic!!!
Awww I think so too! 🙂
You take the best photos ever!
Awww thank you Abbey!
What great shots!
Thanks!!!
Wow, this seems like an unforgettable experience! I’d love to learn scuba diving one day, people always seem to have the best experiences! Though I do have to admit that the moray eel would have creeped the heck out of me! 😉
xx
It truly was unforgettable!! I hope you learn, it’s a magical sport.
Wow, that was quite an adventure both at sea and on land 😉
Looks like you had a fab time in a picture-perfect location!
Yes yes yes!!! TOO much fun! XO
looks awesome that eel would freak me out though
Hahaha seems he’d freak out a lot of people!
Ahhh beautiful pictures as always!! Truly inspirational! Btw that moray would have scared the sh*t out of me:))
Hahaha I think it would have scared the sh*t out of a lot of people according to the comments! 🙂 Thanks for your kind words!!!
What a romantic adventure. Much better than flowers and chocolates for Valentine’s Day! and your dinner and dessert looks good, too 🙂
Yes, you’re so right!!! Much better!
Beautiful pics!
Thanks Lisa!
My goodness Andi you sure know how to live 🙂 Love it love it love it!
Live.love.travel. 🙂
love following your blog and all your amazing travels. Your photos are great, I so wish I was there!
Awwww hearing that makes my heart smile with joy! Thank you so much!!!
I want to go diving with stingrays!
It’s awesome, you really should one day!
So happy that you loved both Stingray City and Papagallos! You’ve got me itching for a return trip to my old stomping grounds!
Yes, we loved both, thank you soooo much for the recommendations sweetheart!!!
OMG amazing!!!!
Haha totally!
I am glad to see your valentine day adventure. Your under water journey is awesome and the way you mange these clicks is surprising. Thanks for writing about this hidden world.
Thanks for your awesome comment!!!
Everything is just amazing! The place, photos , you two….
I have to visit this place!
Awww thank you so much sweetheart! I hope you can go one day!!!
Great underwater shots! I went diving the day after Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray so needless to say, it wasn’t the most relaxing experience. The ones you were with look very friendly though!
Oh gosh, how scary! These were very friendly, so I wasn’t worried at all.
Omg how frickin’ COOL!!! That is seriously amazing and totally on my bucket list now.
It was such a cool day! I’m glad you’re inspired to do it now. 🙂
I can never quite get past your stunning photos and epic adventures! Once again, this is unreal! 🙂
What an amazing compliment, thank you sooo much!!!!!