The Cayman Islands are crawling with a fun-loving mix of deal-cutting bankers with briefcases and cell phones, scuba divers in neon-hued wetsuits and English folk checking the cricket scores over a tipple. The islands vibrate with colour: coral reefs, bright orange frogfish, sociable stingrays and reggae beats on the street.

Thanks to a thriving tourism and cruise-ship industry, resorts and condos have sprung up all over, and you can count on every convenience, from air-con and cold beer to swanky shopping and ESPN. But if you want to get away from it all, it's easy to escape satellite dishes and slickness, not least of them underwater.