Cayman Turtle Centre

This is a great day out for families, couples, visitors and locals. Expect ample parking and a huge cooled reception area on arrival. Do not bring outside food and drinks to the venue. But do bring lots of sunscreen. Cayman is hot! The centre itself is all outdoors. The first thing you’ll want to do is see the turtles. There are turtles galore of every age in open pools (small to very very large) and watching and feeding them is a real treat! Bring your swimmers and a towel! There is a play swimming pool with a small water slide and waterside chairs with shades. There is also a salt water lagoon with snorkelling equipment provided including floatie jackets as well as life guards stationed around both the pool areas so everyone can relax and have a nice time! There are scheduled feedings and you won’t want to miss the shark feeding and stopping by the aquarium! For a small site this facility packs alot in. Then there is the interactive aviaries where you can get up close with our feathered friends and a small nature trail which is short but discreetly educational and gives you some nice countryside feels. Encircling the centre atmm no one end are some lovely features like a Caymanian house front and interactive educational huts (think turtle hatchlings). Of course in the middle is where you can buy all your food and beverages and there is a bar too. The eating area is fully shaded and has fans! You can shower and wash off in the clean facilities on site. The gift shop is really lovely and you may spend a pretty penny or two here! Enjoy! (Tip: avoid visiting on days the cruise ships are in). Note, visitors walk across the crosswalk to the massive carpark for beautiful sea views and look down the coast.

Outstanding. Highly recommend. We visited on our own from a virgin voyages cruise. Took a taxi there and public bus back. Very worth it! The highlight of our entire trip was snorkeling with the turtles. Such a beautiful place doing good environmental work for the turtles. Don't miss the turtle feeding! Thanks!

A little pricey but everything on Grand Cayman is expensive. Highly recommend paying for the option to snorkel with the turtles, it was magical! They have washrooms and showers to change, rinse off, etc. They provide snorkelling gear and life vests. We went when it was empty since there were no cruise ships that day, and didn't pay for a locker and just left our bag on a lounge chair. There was algae in the turtle lagoon but it didn't bother me too much. Got some nice gopro videos. We also saw all the other areas with different ages and sizes of turtles, and feeding the birds was really fun. $1 per cup of bird food. Great place to visit if you like seeing different animals. Nice gift shop too.

By S. Carrelli: The Cayman Tuttle Centre was a very fun experience and there was a lot of activities. It was a good thing to do when it was a windy day and you couldn’t do much water sports. There was wading with the turtles, the breeding bay, the lagoon with a water slide, and more. It was fun to touch the turtles, watch the feeding, and look and the animals. Though I felt bad for the turtles and other animals since some of the tanks they were in were very small and they didn’t look very happy. The breeding bay was fine though, there was enough space for the turtles to swim around and it was a nice bay. On the other hand, I felt like they could have renovated a few things because some of the tanks were looking old. Everything else was fine though. Also I went to the butterfly sanctuary and there were only two butterflies that I saw and there was no one else there so that was odd. Otherwise I had a good experience looking at all the animals and going to the lagoon.

If you care about marine life, go somewhere else. From an animal welfare perspective, this place is genuinely abhorrent. In the large breeding tank, 50% of the adult turtles have wounds on the back of their neck from sunburns, birds picking at them, and overcrowding. Compare this place to a true turtle conservation center, and this one fails miserably. They are not AZA accredited, and you can see why. In the education center they "teach" how they release yearlings directly into the ocean, rather then making them crawl along the beach. Anyone with a basic knowledge of turtles knows this is harmful to them, because then they dont imprint on that beach so they can come back to lay their eggs. They also say that 90% of turtles around Grand Cayman can be genetically linked to this center. After seeing the turtle tanks, im very worried that they are actually contributing to inbreeding. I wish I could get my money back so that I wasn't supporting the mistreatment of the turtles. It was awful.

An amazing experience! There is a turtle wading pool, a snorkel area, sharks, and more! Three snorkeling is great for first timers, as it is controlled within their property. Everyone there is so nice as well! Highly recommend!

We had a great time here! Came on the Disney Treasure… got off in the port and was met by a cab service immediately. Costs about $8 per person and takes about 20 minutes to get there. It was not crowded, there’s tons of turtles and other creatures to see. The salt water pond for snorkeling was the highlight… my 6 year old absolutely loved it. The regular pool and water slide was a great way to cool off before heading back to the ship. Highly recommend.

We visited in the off season and it was a ghost town. All exhibits were still open though. We were given a map which came in handy because this place is pretty spacious. Parts of our tour were sad - turtles that seemed in distress swimming back and forth in small areas. Petting the turtles was fun for our kids but again, some turtles were super stressed out and actively trying their hardest to escape even though there was no chance that they could. Snorkeling with the turtles was a fun experience. I wore water shoes due to not wanting to walk on a slimy pond bottom but others in my family didn’t mind. All of the turtles we saw were probably teenagers - not huge but not tiny. You can get very close to them and some may even bump up against you. The gentleman working at the life jacket/snorkel shack was not friendly at all and had AirPods in and was singing an inappropriate song out loud when my children were nearby. Pool has a fun slide that was fun even for the adults. Lifeguards were professional and keeping at eye on everyone. The gentleman in the bird sanctuary was incredibly knowledgeable about his flock but he ran a tight ship - so follow the rules or he’s going to put you in your place. You can purchase a small cup of bird seed for $1 and the birds will fly into your hand and eat. Gift shop has everything imaginable to purchase and was very nice. Overall our day was ok, but we would not go back.