Cemetery Beach or Rum Point: Best Cayman Islands Beach
Published 2026-09-04. Conditions described are typical and never guaranteed.
Here is the short answer before you read a word more. If you came to Grand Cayman to put a mask on and float over a reef, go to Cemetery Beach. If you came to lie in a hammock with a cold drink while small children paddle in warm shallows, go to Rum Point. These are two genuinely good beaches that answer two different questions, and the mistake most visitors make is picking on reputation rather than on what they actually want from the day.
They sit on opposite coasts, they feel nothing alike, and the conditions that make one perfect are the same conditions that leave the other flat. So rather than crown a single winner, this is a straight comparison with a verdict for each kind of reader, plus the exact situations where the loser suddenly becomes the right call.
The one line verdict for each
- Cemetery Beach suits snorkellers, confident swimmers and anyone who wants the powdery north end of Seven Mile Beach without the crowds. You bring everything and you get reef in return.
- Rum Point suits families, floaters and loungers who want service on the sand, shade and calm bath warm water that never gets deep. You bring almost nothing and the day is done for you.
Reef and self sufficiency, or shallows and comfort. Choose the day you actually want, not the beach with the louder name.
Sand and setting
Both beaches are lovely underfoot, but the character is different. Cemetery Beach is the quiet northern tail of Seven Mile Beach, so the sand is that same fine, powdery white coral that made the strip famous, just emptier and calmer than the resort stretch. Getting on to it is part of the charm and part of the catch: you follow a path through a small cemetery and a white wooden gate that is genuinely easy to drive straight past. Once you are through, you tend to share the beach with snorkellers and locals rather than cruise crowds, especially on a weekday morning.
Rum Point trades bright open sand for a softer, shadier feel. The sand here is soft and pale, but the defining feature is the casuarina and sea grape trees that throw shade right down to the water, with hammocks strung along the point. It is a north side beach, reached by car around the coast or by the passenger ferry across the sound, and it has a settled, characterful atmosphere that Cemetery Beach, by design, does not.
The water is where they split hardest
This is the single most important paragraph in the comparison, so read it twice. At Cemetery Beach the water is standing depth for the first few yards, then it drops to around twenty feet at the coral. The reef starts close to shore, with the richer coral roughly sixty yards out, which is exactly why it snorkels so well. It suits beginners close in and confident snorkellers further out, but it is not a place to switch off around young children, because the depth arrives quickly and there is shallow reef rock to keep clear of.
Rum Point is the mirror image. The water is bath calm, clear and sandy bottomed, and it stays shallow a very long way out. That makes it wonderful for wading, floating and small children, and honestly poor for anyone hoping to swim proper laps or find a reef off the sand. There is little to no surf on a normal day. If your idea of a beach day is standing waist deep with a drink and letting the kids splash safely nearby, this shallowness is the whole point rather than a flaw.
Neither beach has full lifeguard cover, so on both you judge the water yourself, read any flags and never treat calm as a guarantee. At Cemetery Beach the specific things to watch are the swim out and the reef rock. At Rum Point the gentle shallows do most of the work, but young children still need supervising.
Facilities: bring your own versus done for you
If you value comfort and hate carrying gear, this section may decide it for you. Cemetery Beach has no facilities at all. No club, no restrooms, no rental on the sand. There is roadside parking nearby and that is it, so you pack water, shade, reef safe sun cover and your own snorkel gear. Walk through the gate without a mask and there is nothing to hire once you are on the beach.
Rum Point is the opposite kind of day. The Rum Point Club and Wreck Bar serve food and drinks right on the sand, and there are restrooms and parking. The Wreck Bar is the home of the frozen mudslide, which is reason enough for a lot of visitors to point the car north. You can arrive with a towel and nothing else and be perfectly looked after, which is a real advantage on a family day when carrying a cooler and snorkel kit is the last thing you want.
Crowds and timing
Both beaches reward good timing, but they get busy in different rhythms. Cemetery Beach is quiet by its nature. It sits away from the resort strip, so a weekday morning is often close to empty, and calm mornings before the trade wind picks up also give the clearest visibility for the snorkel. Early is doubly rewarded here: fewer people and better water.
Rum Point swings much harder between quiet and heaving. Monday to Friday it is calm and pleasant. Come the weekend, and Sunday in particular, it fills with locals and dozens of boats anchoring off the point, which turns it lively and crowded. If you want the peaceful version of Rum Point, visit on a weekday and arrive somewhere between the middle of the morning and the middle of the afternoon.
When the other one wins
The verdict flips more often than you would think, so here are the honest exceptions.
Choose Rum Point even if you are a snorkeller when
The wind is up and the sea at the north end of Seven Mile Beach has lost its clarity. Cemetery Beach snorkels best on still mornings in the dry season from December to April, and on a blowy afternoon the visibility that makes it special simply is not there. On a day like that a calm shaded lounge at Rum Point beats a murky swim out every time. Rum Point also wins outright when you are travelling with toddlers, when nobody wants to carry equipment, or when the group wants food and a bar without leaving the sand.
Choose Cemetery Beach even with kids when
You have older, confident swimmers who actually want to see fish, and you would rather have space and powdery sand than a bar. Cemetery Beach is the best easy shore snorkel on Seven Mile Beach, and for a family that snorkels together it delivers something Rum Point cannot. It also wins when you specifically want a quiet stretch of that famous white sand on a weekday, without the boats and the crowd.
A quick word on the alternatives
If the snorkel is the whole draw but you are based near town rather than the north end, the little cove at Smith Cove south of George Town gives you a reef patch about thirty yards off the sand plus restrooms and grills, which is a useful middle ground. And if you like the sound of Cemetery Beach but want a car park and easy access rather than a hunt for a cemetery gate, the free public entrance at Governors Beach puts you on the same calm strip, though it is sandier and better for swimming than for reef life. We have compared those two directly in our guide to the north end access points if that is your real decision.
So which should you book your day around
Snorkellers and self sufficient beach lovers: Cemetery Beach, on a calm morning, with your own gear. Families, floaters and anyone who wants shade, a bar and shallow water: Rum Point, midweek. The season that flatters both is the dry stretch from December to April, when the water is calmest and clearest, though those are also the busiest months. For a wider look at seasons across the island, our timing notes for Grand Cayman are worth a read before you commit.
Prefer a club day with service on the sand
If your ideal version of this trip leans towards loungers, food and a proper set up rather than a bring your own snorkel morning, browse our Cayman Islands beach clubs to see what is available and to enquire about booking a club day. Start with the shortlist there, then get in touch to confirm the details for your dates.