Car Rental-I highly suggest renting a car! Although be prepared for the steering wheel to be on the opposite side and driving on the left side of the road. Austen took the wheel, physically and metaphorically with the driving and was able to pick it up pretty quickly. There are roundabout everywhere so the flow of traffic is pretty smooth. If you are unable to rent a car, there is a public transport bus for a small fee. There are also taxi’s but they seem to be expensive. We enjoyed the freedom of a car and we were able to see more of the island that way!

Seven-Mile Beach- Technically only 5.5 miles but with lots of public beach access points. We stayed at the Westin a few days and they provided chairs and food and drink services throughout the day. If you are not staying at one of the hotels, you can easily access the beach. Probably the clearest water I have ever seen, we could walk out to shoulder height in the water and still see our toes below! Baby powder soft sand that never got too hot. People walked up and down the beach so it was great for people watching. The water was a comfortable temperature and felt so good after sitting in the sun!

Rum Tour at Cayman Spirits Co. Distillery - If you are of legal drinking age I highly recommend this tour! I booked off of the Travelocity app (make sure you book by Cayman Spirits Co. Distillery). The tickets should be $15. You can pay ahead or pay when you are done with your tour. We started in the tasting room and was able to taste over 12 different flavors of rum. The second half of the tour we went to view where they actually make the rum. Be prepared, the room is very hot but they kept the garage open so there was a breeze. It was neat to see the process of how they make the rum, all in house, and our guide was hilarious and very knowledgable about the whole process. We learned a lot and left with the coffee rum-yum!

Night Bioluminescence Tour- Book. This. Tour. Wow is all that I can say! I booked through Travelocity with George’s Watersports. We met at the Yacht Club around sunset and we took about a 15 minute boat ride to the bay. The company provided all of the snorkel and wetsuit equipment but you could bring your own. I don’t want to spoil this experience but this was a must! If you have ever seen the movie Avatar, that’s what it felt like! I do not recommend booking the kayak tour, you absolutely want to be in the water when you experience this.

Starfish Point- The nice thing about renting a car was that we could take the scenic drive up to Starfish point. Located near Rum Point, we drove through some residential areas until we got to the tip of the island. We parked our car in the lot and started walking along the beach. This was a popular spot for boats but there was plenty of room for us to walk out and see lots of starfish in their natural environment. The water stays shallow for quite some time so you can walk out pretty far. If you are going to hold a starfish, just make sure you keep it under the water and don’t lift it out of the water. If you hold it in your hand long enough, you’ll start to feel its little feet suck on to your fingers!

Stingray City-Another must! This seemed like something everyone does on the island. I booked through Travelocity with Capt. Marvin’s Watersports Lt. They can either pick you up from a location or you can meet at their store front and they can drive you to the canal where you get on a boat and head out. The boat ride was about 30 minutes. The experience included two snorkeling stops and wow. Our first spot was in the coral gardens where you can bring your own snorkel gear or they provide you with some. We even saw sea turtles and stingrays! We then headed to Stingray City where we were able to walk out into shallow water that came up to about your chest. I lost track of the amount of stingrays that were there. We felt very safe and were assured that these were not the same rays that Steve Irwin came into contact with. The guides were very professional and efficient as they got everyone pictures with stingrays and we were able to feed them too! We ended up purchasing the photos (about $50 USD) and those will absolutely show up on our Christmas cards this year. We ended up with about 15 high quality photos of us holding the ray and giving it a kiss! We then left for our second snorkeling location at the barrier reef and were amazed at the beautiful sea life and coral.

Snorkeling at Eden Rock- There are a lot of fantastic snorkeling locations around the island but one of our favorites was Eden Rock. By this time, we ended up renting equipment from The Dive Shop but the storefront at Eden Rock also has rentals available. We snorkeled in shallow water for a while before coming up on the coral. Truly so beautiful and peaceful. Plenty of brightly colored fish and coral to see! Other snorkeling spots we went to were Macabuca. That location was alright, not as much to see as Eden Rock. We drove up to Barkers Beach. It’s a beautiful location but not very snorkeling friendly. We wanted to snorkel by the wreck of the Cali but didn’t get to it.

Spa at Ritz Carlton- I treated myself to a spa day and I felt like it was worth every penny! The staff was friendly and the massage was one of the best I have ever had. All of their amenities were clean and I felt so pampered. Since we had been in the water I added on a scalp treatment to my service and it keep my hair hydrated!