I recently stayed at this small resort for my first visit to the Cayman Islands and to Grand Cayman in particular. Like many people visiting Grand Cayman for the first time, I soon discovered that resorts on or near Seven Mile Beach are extremely expensive and ended up staying here because it is cheaper. This place does have a few advantages which I liked. It directly faces a shoreline and is relatively affordable. The swimming pool is large, deep, clean, well-maintained, and in excellent shape. I greatly enjoyed swimming laps during my stay. The furniture around the pool looks new. The room had been well-renovated, well-maintained, smelled good, and was quiet. The AC was super-cold when I walked in but I was able to quickly adjust the temperature from a frigid 66 degrees to a more pleasant 72 degrees. The bed was comfortable and I slept well. No unusual sights, sounds, or smells noted. There was plenty of parking available and I never had trouble finding a space. The landscaping is lush and carefully maintained. There was a large refrigerator in my room that worked great. I was able to save a little bit of money by buying some food at the Foster's supermarket and then eating that rather than visiting the hotel restaurant. Now, here are the disadvantages. This is what we all read Tripadvisor for! As others have noted in their reviews, the Holiday Inn Resort is very isolated. It sits in a rather remote location about a mile east of SMB. You will need a rental car, or prepare to spend a fortune on taxi rides. The single most obnoxious thing about this resort is that to get in and out, you have to take a slow, tedious drive across a golf course, and that means you have to build in a time cushion when planning to go anywhere. You will have to keep slamming on the brakes for speed bumps as you traverse the golf course. Even if you are an expert at speeding up between speed bumps and slamming on the brakes right before you hit the next one, you will rarely get the chance to do that, because so many other resort guests and local drivers stubbornly prefer to plod along instead. You will have to hope your rental car doesn't take damage from flying golf balls. Getting in and out requires lots of backtracking on Esterly Tibbetts Highway. The Cayman government failed to build an interchange or roundabout to serve Safehaven Avenue when it was cut off by the new highway. Instead, users have to go around the roundabouts to the north or south. There is a large high-rise condo complex under construction to the north of the resort, so you will have to dodge construction traffic too. I suspect the traffic issues will only get worse once the new condo complex is complete. Then there is the fact that the Holiday Inn Resort does not face SMB, which explains why it is so affordable. It faces eastward, towards Grand Cayman's North Sound. The Holiday Inn Resort does not have a real beach, only a rocky shoreline with some sa
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