7-Mile Beach is a crescent of beautiful sugar sand covered with beautiful clear water. Voted one of the top ten beaches in the world it is 5.5 miles not 7 miles as the name suggests. The beach is lined with a mixture of private homes, condos, and hotel resorts. We walked close to an hour on the gorgeous hard sand admiring the beautiful water view.
As the sun got too intense we cut through the Westin 7-Mile Resort to the ring road. One of the staff members directed us to the bus stop across the road rather than taking a $25 taxi fare back to the centre of Georgetown.
The buses in Grand Cayman are actually family vans with Public Bus written on them. They have two front doors and a sliding side door. The cost to go back downtown George Town was 2 Cayman dollars per person. A Cayman dollar is equivalent to $1.25 USD. The ride back into town was $5 USD ($7.75 CDN) for the two of us.
The buses are air conditioned. The person closest to the sliding side door assists in opening and closing the door as people exit and enter to sit on one of the three regular van seats. The people were all friendly and chatty so we all had a good time talking to each other. We loved getting the low down on the island from local residents going about their daily routines.
You can take a public bus all around the island. The island has two separate sides. The Western side is the modern side. The other side is the old side. The van buses all end up at the bus depot where you can catch another bus that will take you to the last stop of the East island. Here you catch another bus that goes around the West island. The homes are traditional. The roads are narrow and curvy as they follow the property lines. This side is also the windy side of the island with a large bluff overlooking the ocean. Our time at port was only 6 hours so unfortunately we did not have time to go exploring the island.