Rum Point and Starfish Point sit about five minutes apart at the end of Grand Cayman’s north-east peninsula, and between them they account for most of what people mean when they talk about the quiet side of the island. One is a proper beach club with hammocks and a bar that invented the Mudslide. The other is a shallow sand flat where dozens of red cushion sea stars live in water barely deep enough to swim in.
Both reward a little planning. Here is what is actually there, how to get to it, and — for Starfish Point in particular — the rules that genuinely matter.
What Rum Point actually is
Rum Point is a public beach in North Side district, at the tip of the peninsula that forms the eastern arm of the North Sound. The beach faces south-west, into the Sound rather than out to open sea, which is why the water is so calm and so shallow. You can wade a long way out and still be standing.
The Cayman Islands Department of Tourism lists the public beach amenities as changing rooms, showers, huts, hammocks, snorkelling gear, volleyball and picnic tables, open seven days a week. The snorkelling around and under the pier is better than most people expect — eagle rays are a regular sight.
Rum Point Club is the anchor, and it went through a complete refurbishment in 2022–23. There are two venues: The Rum Deck, a covered open-air bar roughly fifty feet long serving all day, and Solis, the air-conditioned restaurant with an outdoor covered patio over the Sound. Watersports — kayaks, paddleboards, jet skis, sailing, dive and boat excursions — run from the beach and the dock. Trips to the Stingray City sandbar leave from here daily.
Getting there
By car is how most people arrive. The Department of Tourism gives roughly 45 minutes from most hotels and the cruise terminal; local mile-by-mile directions put it at about 24 miles and 45–55 minutes from the airport roundabout. There is parking at the beach. Driving is on the left, and the roads out here are unlit at night — worth remembering if you are staying elsewhere and planning a late dinner.
By ferry is the more interesting option, and the one most often described inaccurately. Cayman Ferries runs a scheduled passenger service from Camana Bay across the North Sound, Tuesday to Sunday, with a crossing of about 25 minutes. Three key details:
- The published destination is Kaibo, on the same peninsula as Rum Point — not Rum Point Club’s own dock. Plan the last stretch accordingly.
- Tickets are sold only through the operator’s mobile app. You cannot buy on board.
- The timetable changes weekly. Check it the day before, not the month before.
There is no scheduled public ferry from George Town or the cruise terminal. Separately, Red Sail Sports operates a dinner ferry from Safehaven Marina to Rum Point Club, but it is restricted to guests dining at the property and is not general transport.
Starfish Point
Starfish Point is a shallow, sandy stretch a few minutes further along Water Cay Road, near the tip of Cayman Kai. The Department of Environment records its formal location as Ivory Key, North Sound — a detail that almost never makes it into travel writing.
You can drive there and park; it is not a boat-only site. The water is calm, clear and shallow enough for young children, which is precisely why it is popular and precisely why it needs care.
The animals are red cushion sea stars, Oreaster reticulatus, also called West Indian sea stars. They are echinoderms, not fish — “sea star” is the accurate term, though the Department of Environment uses both. Two practical notes: the beach can effectively disappear at high tide, and the sea stars move, so there is no guarantee of how many you will see on a given day.
The rules that genuinely matter
This is the part worth reading properly. Handling sea stars at Starfish Point is permitted under a narrow, specific exemption that applies to this one species at this one location. Everywhere else in Cayman waters, echinoderms are protected and may not be handled or taken at all.
The Department of Environment’s guidance is explicit about what crosses the line into “take” under the National Conservation Act — which is a prosecutable offence. Illegal:
- Elevating any part of the sea star out of or above the water
- Bending any part of it in any direction, including manipulating its arms
- Holding it by the feet, or inserting anything into any part of it
- Anything causing limb separation, or breaking or piercing the skin
Permitted, at Starfish Point only: positioning the sea star flat in the water while supporting it with your hands, including turning it over, and gentle petting or touching underwater.
The reason is not sentimental. In the Department’s own words, rough handling “would disturb and harass, if not outright injure” the animal, repeated mishandling “can even kill them,” and chronic mishandling “can also result in damage which is not obvious to external observation and can cause starfish leave an area, such as Starfish Point” (Department of Environment). The short version, from the Department’s own plain-language guidance: never lift a sea star out of the water.
Photographs are fine. Photographs of a sea star held up in the air are the specific thing the rule exists to stop — and they are the shot people most often try to take.
Best time of day to go
Both sites take cruise excursion traffic, and the pattern is predictable enough to plan around. George Town’s cruise volume is heaviest Tuesday through Thursday, and passengers are generally back aboard by early afternoon. Local operators consistently point to weekends, early mornings, and after about three in the afternoon as the quiet windows.
The Port Authority of the Cayman Islands publishes a queryable ship schedule — it is the right source to check before committing to a specific date, with the caveat that cruise lines change arrivals without notice.
If you are staying on the peninsula, this barely matters: you can simply walk down at eight in the morning or five in the afternoon and have the place close to yourself. That is one of the quieter arguments for basing yourself out here rather than visiting.
Making a day of it
A workable shape for a full day on this end of the island:
- Early. Starfish Point first, before the tide and the tour boats. Twenty minutes is usually enough.
- Mid-morning. A boat out to the Stingray City sandbar — the run from this side of the Sound is the shortest on the island.
- Lunch. The Rum Deck at Rum Point, or Kaibo Beach ten minutes back along Water Cay Road.
- Afternoon. Hammocks, paddleboards, or the snorkel around the Rum Point pier.
- Evening. Solis or Upstairs at Kaibo. On a night near the new moon, a bioluminescence tour — the display in the bay off this coast comes from dinoflagellates, microscopic plankton that light up when the water is disturbed, and it only really works when there is little or no moonlight.
Staying nearby
Most of our portfolio sits on this peninsula, and the practical advantage is simply that Rum Point and Starfish Point become part of the daily rhythm rather than a forty-five-minute expedition.
In Rum Point the range runs from four-bedroom houses like Iggy Blue and Coral Kai through to larger estates such as Rip Kai Villa and the eleven-bedroom Timeless Paradise.
In Cayman Kai, closer to Starfish Point and Kaibo, look at Crystal Waters or Kaiku Villa, which sits on the bioluminescent bay itself.
One thing we would flag on this peninsula specifically: the land is narrow with water on both sides, and shoreline type varies lot by lot — some frontages are soft sand, others are seagrass flat or ironshore. We describe each property’s water access individually rather than applying a blanket label, and it is always worth asking us directly if walk-in swimming from the house matters to you.
Not sure which end of the peninsula suits you? Start with our guide to where to stay in Grand Cayman, or tell us about your trip and we will shortlist.