Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, Grand Cayman
Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park—known simply as Botanic Park—is the most convenient site in the Cayman Islands for finding endemic and specialty landbirds. The property includes both natural habitat and ornamental gardens, including ponds, all easily accessed by a mile or so of broad, level walking paths. Here, in the space of two to three hours, a visitor can reasonably expect to find most of Grand Cayman’s target birds, including: Vitelline Warbler, Grand Cayman Bullfinch, “Cayman Parrot”, “Grand Cayman Woodpecker”, “Grand Cayman Spindalis”, and West Indian Whistling-Duck.
Orientation
Directions
Botanic Park is about 45 minutes’ drive (26 km) east of the George Town pier. An adequate visit takes about four—preferably five—hours, including transit time, so it can be accomplished during a typical cruise ship port call.
The turn-off from Frank Sound Road is well signed, 2.4 km north of the junction with Bodden Town Road. The side-road to Botanic Park is just 1.1 km north of the side-road to the Mastic Trail—the drive between Botanic Park and the Mastic Trail takes only about 5 minutes.
Attractions
Botanic Park.
Garden Spot. Botanic Park is among the most visited sites on Grand Cayman for reasons unrelated to its birds. It’s just a very pleasant place to walk.
Botanic Park.
Blue Iguana Recovery Program. The marquee wildlife attraction at Botanic Park is its population of endangered Blue Iguanas (Cyclura lewisi), some captive and some free-range.
The largest lizard species in the Americas, and endemic to Grand Cayman, the Blue Iguana is recovering from a recent brush with extinction. In 2003, the remaining wild population was believed to be between five and fifteen individuals, with no evidence of recent success in reproduction.
Conservation efforts based at Botanic Park have increased the global wild-living population of Blue Iguanas to about a thousand.
Blue Iguana at Botanic Park.
Birdfinding
The key species—including all six Caymanian endemics—can be found by strolling the Woodland Trail, a one-mile loop through mostly intact dry forest with a few small ponds. Interpretive signs explain the geology, hydrography, and botany of Grand Cayman, including the various microhabitats that exist side-by-side along the trail.
Predominant species along the Woodland Trail include “Grand Cayman Woodpecker”, “Cayman Parrot”, Caribbean Elaenia, La Sagra’s Flycatcher, Loggerhead Kingbird, Thick-billed and Yucatán Vireos, Vitelline Warbler, “Cayman Bananaquit”, and Grand Cayman Bullfinch.
Returning to the landscaped gardens, the large pond beside the pavilion often hosts a handful of waterbirds, including West Indian Whistling-Duck.
Services
Accommodations
There are any number of expensive hotels along Seven Mile Beach, with the Ritz-Carlton and the Westin being the largest and most conspicuous. Budget options are scarce.
Mid-Range. One of the best values along Seven Mile Beach is the Sunshine Suites Resort, which has fairly low rates and basic kitchens to help keep expenses down. The beach is three blocks away. As a bonus, however, Sunshine Suites is situated beside fields that are known hunting grounds for “White-winged Barn Owl”.
On the opposite side of the peninsula but still nearby, along North Sound, the Holiday Inn Resort offers probably the best value among Grand Cayman’s large, name-brand hotels. The Holiday Inn is family-oriented, with economical suites and recreational options that include excursions to Stingray City and the bioluminescent lagoon at Rum Point departing from its dock. Its rates are somewhat less competitive during school vacation periods.
Similarly priced, at the farthest tip of the peninsula in West Bay, near Barkers National Park and the Cayman Turtle Center, is the Cobalt Coast Resort, which caters especially to divers. It is on the waterfront and has a small sandy beach, but a jagged, dry reef separates the sand from the ocean. There is, however, a boardwalk and dock that give divers direct access to the ocean without having to leave the property.
Budget. In George Town proper, south of Seven Mile Beach, is the renowned budget hotel Eldemire’s Tropical Island Inn (a.k.a. Eldemire’s Guest House). It is a ten-minute drive from the airport and a five-minute walk from Smith Cove Beach.
There are a handful of bed-&-breakfasts that can be identified and arranged through AirBnB and other online booking services. One such option in West Bay, near Barkers and the Turtle Centre, that can be arranged directly with the owners, is Cayman Pace (+1-345-325-6540).