Best Cultural Attractions & Activities

The following attractions will give you an insight into Cayman’s history and traditions as and well as the local flora, fauna and wildlife. Guides tours are also available for those looking for an even greater understanding of Cayman culture.

The Cayman National Museum is a great introduction to Cayman’s culture. Over the years the building has been utilised for many different purposes including storing armaments, the Old Court House, a police station, a school and for the offices of the first Commissioners. The Museum now houses permanent exhibits, themed displays and artefacts canvassing Cayman’s art and traditions and natural history and includes boats, furniture, textiles, paintings and ceramics. There is also a simulated submarine as well as a children’s gallery with interesting interactive exhibits.

The Mastic Reserve & Trail is an area of 843 acres that runs through a centuries-old dry woodland forest in the centre of Grand Cayman. Set up to protect the largest area of old growth forest remaining in the Cayman Islands, it also protects a variety of animals, plants, endemic orchids, trees and birds.

The National Gallery is home to the Cayman Island’s national art collection. It provides an insight into the Island’s short history, from its sea-faring community to its emergence as a global financial centre and major tourist destination. The gallery hosts up to 10 exhibitions a year showing a variety of Caymanian exhibitions, as well as art from further afield.

The Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park is a 65–acre site made up of a woodland walking trail, floral colour gardens, an undisturbed lake and wetlands for wildlife, a heritage garden with an old Caymanian house where you can learn how early settlers lived. You will also see butterflies, birds, turtles, agoutis, reptiles and the indigenous and endangered Blue Iguana. The Children’s Garden features a splash pad, wooden climbing frames, discovery tower, sensory garden, tunnels and much more.

Pedro St. James Castle was built in 1780 and is set in over seven acres of manicured gardens overlooking the sea. Explore the castle that is often termed “the birthplace of democracy” in the Cayman Islands. It is also where, in 1835, it was announced to the community that slavery had ended in the British Empire. Don’t miss the multimedia show or the rum tasting!

The Mission House was built in the 1800s in Bodden Town and used as many things including a school. On this tour the living conditions of an earlier time in Cayman’s history have been recreated in the home of Presbyterian missionaries who are known to have owned the house.

The Cayman National Cultural Foundation offers tours of Mind's Eye - The Visionary World of Miss Lassie. Tour the house where Miss Lassie lived and view her paintings that cover the walls, ceilings and furnishings.

The Cayman Islands host a wide range of diverse cultural events throughout the year.

Pirate’s Week is Cayman’s most popular festival full of swashbuckling fun with pirates invading Cayman’s shores every November followed by a range of cultural celebrations.

Batabano Carnival in May is a kaleidoscope of music, dance and pageantry, culminating in a spectacular street parade.

In May Cayman Art Week showcases over 30 art venues and offers a week-long curated programme of gallery tours and open studios designed to celebrate and encourage the collection of art in the Cayman Islands.

In December Gimistory, an international storytelling festival, brings together storytellers from Cayman, the Caribbean, North America and beyond to entertain old and young alike. The Festival takes place in parks, beaches and even a private backyard, all of which evoke an atmosphere of the days of yore when storytelling was the only entertainment.