Stingray City and Seven Mile Beach — the Cayman Islands' capital is where you snorkel with wild stingrays on a sandbar, dive the famous Kittiwake wreck, and find the Caribbean's most sophisticated financial-meets-beach culture
George Town is the capital of the Cayman Islands (British Overseas Territory) on Grand Cayman — a 22-mile island 480 km south of Miami that has become one of the Caribbean's most sophisticated and affluent destinations. Stingray City, in the North Sound shallows near the island's northwest tip, is one of the world's most famous marine experiences — a sandbar where wild southern stingrays congregate (conditioned by generations of interaction with fishermen and dive boats) in water shallow enough to stand in. Seven Mile Beach (actually 5.5 miles) is consistently ranked among the Caribbean's fin…
The Cayman Islands were uninhabited when Columbus sighted them in 1503 and named them 'Las Tortugas' for the sea turtles. The name 'Cayman' comes from a Carib word for the marine crocodile. The islands were used as a base by buccaneers and logwood cutters before British settlement began in earnest in the 18th century. Grand Cayman's main settlement was at the West Bay/George Town area. The Cayman Islands remained a dependency of Jamaica until Jamaican independence in 1962, when they chose to remain a British Crown Colony directly. The modern financial centre developed after the 1972 Cayman Is…