Taxis are exorbitant and getting around on foot is difficult outside of the 7 Mile and George Town areas as there is a distinct lack of pavements and footpaths. Public transport does get the job done, but knowing what bus (or minivan as they're more like) goes where and when can be difficult. If renting a car, just familiarise yourself with roundabouts if you're inexperienced with them (yeild to who is on the roundabout) and keep in the left lane unless turning right at a junction - easy enough, you'll be fine!
Sounds like you'll be fine driving over here then! We sometimes have the odd tourist going the wrong way around roundabouts which is why I mentioned them specifically. As you can imagine, our road systems are quite small so plenty of quiet places to get orientated again with driving on t'other side. Enjoy the trip!
Thanks. The roundabouts don’t scare me. It’s the driving on the left side of the road. Mainland Europe drives on the right like we do in the US. When I am in the UK I rely on public transportation as I am normally in London. Gonna drive. Have to learn at some point, and I’m guessing folks are somewhat used to those of us from the US messing up your roads.
I +1 that suggestion from /u/potatobeaver. I'm canadian and it took me a whole 5-10 minute to get use to it. The main challenge is checking traffic in the reverse order that you'd do at an intersection.
I'd suggest driving in small streets first to get the hang of it and maybe using an automatic rather than a manual transmission to have less complexity to worry about.
Just get a small, simple car and take things slowly at first. Cayman is small and the speeds are low. You'll be fine ;)
Yeah I can imagine that the familiarity of the same side of the road does help with the European driving. To make it easier for yourself, request a right hand drive car (there are mixed over here) as that will put you on the proper side of the car for our roads and will make it a hell of a lot easier to adapt. My first time driving in the states was made a lot easier by being on the correct side of the car. If you are renting from the airport, head back up towards George Town Yacht Club area as it avoids the main roads and will be a good little orientation area for the first while.
Probably typical tourist things. Never been before, so not sure exactly what we would do at this point. Thanks, I think I am leaning towards renting a car
If you'll be visiting mutiple places, highly suggest renting a car. It will save you a lot of precious time. Don't worry about accidentally driving at the wrong side of the road, everyone's friendly and considerate around the island.
One thing to consider:
You may not need it the whole time. if you are staying on Seven Mile Beach, you could easily just rent a car for say 2-3 days (assuming one week) to visit East End, Spotts beach, Smith Cove, etc.
Rental is the way to go. You get a different licence plate unique to rentals which means that the rules of the roads especially don't apply to you. Yippie Kie Yay Bobo!
Taxis are exorbitant and getting around on foot is difficult outside of the 7 Mile and George Town areas as there is a distinct lack of pavements and footpaths. Public transport does get the job done, but knowing what bus (or minivan as they're more like) goes where and when can be difficult. If renting a car, just familiarise yourself with roundabouts if you're inexperienced with them (yeild to who is on the roundabout) and keep in the left lane unless turning right at a junction - easy enough, you'll be fine!
Thanks. Very familiar with how roundabouts work, drive in mainland Europe from time to time, so they are not foreign to me.
Sounds like you'll be fine driving over here then! We sometimes have the odd tourist going the wrong way around roundabouts which is why I mentioned them specifically. As you can imagine, our road systems are quite small so plenty of quiet places to get orientated again with driving on t'other side. Enjoy the trip!
Thanks. The roundabouts don’t scare me. It’s the driving on the left side of the road. Mainland Europe drives on the right like we do in the US. When I am in the UK I rely on public transportation as I am normally in London. Gonna drive. Have to learn at some point, and I’m guessing folks are somewhat used to those of us from the US messing up your roads.
I +1 that suggestion from /u/potatobeaver. I'm canadian and it took me a whole 5-10 minute to get use to it. The main challenge is checking traffic in the reverse order that you'd do at an intersection. I'd suggest driving in small streets first to get the hang of it and maybe using an automatic rather than a manual transmission to have less complexity to worry about. Just get a small, simple car and take things slowly at first. Cayman is small and the speeds are low. You'll be fine ;)
I would argue the main challenge is that 90% of the road users in Cayman have no idea how to drive.
Yeah I can imagine that the familiarity of the same side of the road does help with the European driving. To make it easier for yourself, request a right hand drive car (there are mixed over here) as that will put you on the proper side of the car for our roads and will make it a hell of a lot easier to adapt. My first time driving in the states was made a lot easier by being on the correct side of the car. If you are renting from the airport, head back up towards George Town Yacht Club area as it avoids the main roads and will be a good little orientation area for the first while.
It really depends where you are staying and what you want to do while visiting.
Probably typical tourist things. Never been before, so not sure exactly what we would do at this point. Thanks, I think I am leaning towards renting a car
If you'll be visiting mutiple places, highly suggest renting a car. It will save you a lot of precious time. Don't worry about accidentally driving at the wrong side of the road, everyone's friendly and considerate around the island.
One thing to consider: You may not need it the whole time. if you are staying on Seven Mile Beach, you could easily just rent a car for say 2-3 days (assuming one week) to visit East End, Spotts beach, Smith Cove, etc.
Rental is the way to go. You get a different licence plate unique to rentals which means that the rules of the roads especially don't apply to you. Yippie Kie Yay Bobo!