If you’ve ever wanted to get up close & personal with stingrays or sea turtles, Grand Cayman Island is the place for you! Home of the Cayman Turtle Farm and Stingray City, Grand Cayman Island offers one-of-a-kind animal encounters.
Cayman Turtle Farm
The turtle farm is home to over 11,000 Green Sea Turtles, ranging in size from six ounces to six hundred pounds. Visitors walk around pools of water where different sea turtles are housed. It’s interesting to see these animals up close and watch them swim in the water. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not an underwater kind of girl, so I welcomed the chance to see sea creatures without having to actually swim with them.
Even better, we got to hold them! They are stronger than I expected and a little more wiggly than I would have liked. But it was amazing just to hold one for a minute. Then I was happy to put him back in his pool and watch him swim away.
Stingray City
I didn’t even attempt this encounter. Stingrays are one of those creatures that give me the creeps. I’ve seen them from the side of a boat and that was enough for me. I skipped this ship excursion and let my husband and kids enjoy their stingray experience without me.
What’s nice about Stingray City is that the animals are not enclosed. This area is their natural habitat and the stingrays swim freely. It worried my daughter a little as she gingerly waded through the water. She’d been instructed not to step on any because that’s when you’re likely to get stung. I give her a lot of credit — hearing of this possibility would have been my cue to get out of the water completely. But she hung in there, a little frightened, but brave. Afterward, she told me she felt stingrays swim between her legs. I almost fainted.
Because it’s a huge tourist attraction, you also have the opportunity to have your picture taken with a stingray. Who knew the stingray would smile, too? 🙂
Don’t tell me this isn’t creepy.
Can you imagine yourself interacting with stingrays or turtles?
Browsing The Atlas 
Ohhh the stingray smile is alluring! You wouldn’t get me near it either. I like looking up close but not within touching proximity.
It’s so creepy to me. I can’t get past that.
Lover of sea turtles 🙂 Careful around stingrays, jellies and sharks though. Happy Day!
Wise. 🙂
Creepy, yep. 🙂 –Curt
I’m impressed the stingray paused long enough for you to take that picture! I’ve touched one before at an aquarium and they were a lot squishier than I thought they’d be. Kudos to your family for getting so up close and personal with one!
Ew! Squishy? I’m soooo glad I didn’t go.
They look as if they might be quiet tasty, fried and served with a green pepper sauce. That way they wouldn’t wiggle or sting 🙂
You’ve got a dark side, Roy…
No way, Jose! I would be safe on the sand, drinking a pina colada and marveling at the crazies canoodling with the stingrays.
That’s pretty much where I was, though I picked a shady spot. 😉
I loved the pictures of your family with the stingrays–very cool! I could imagine myself doing this kind of thing. I’d like to swim with manatees, too. Your daughter was so brave!
Manatees is a great idea. I’d definitely be onboard for that.
Hilarious! Smiling stingrays! I’m with you, I like turtles. I actually got stung once walking along the beach shore in southern Calif when I was a kid. The lifeguard told me what it was when he saw the v-shaped slash on my toe. Made me nervous of the beach after that, and seeing Jaws totally finished me from the ocean! I still like turtles, tho, they’re cute! ❤❤❤;^)
I’ve stepped on jellyfish, but never get close enough to anything else. I prefer to experience the ocean via boat.
I was looking forward to reading your stingray post ever since you mentioned it. Your daughter is brave, haha! The stingray in the last photo looks like it is smiling which makes it looks quite cute.
My daughter is very brave. She leaves her comfort zone all the time. I should strive to be a little more like her.
When we snorkel in Hawaii or The Virgin Islands, we have seen and swum with turtles. We keep a respectful distance from them, but love to observe. I’m with you on the stingray thing! I have no wish to swim with stingrays! I’ve seen them in the water while I’m swimming, but keep a safe distance!
I don’t think I could even swim with turtles. I’m kind of a wuss about sea creatures.
We just go into the water and see what we can see. Turtles are such quiet gentle creatures that you just mostly watch them drift by, generally one or two at a time at most.