I stepped onto the rooftop just as the last amber slice of daylight slipped behind George Town, Grand Cayman, the trade winds lifting the scent of sea salt and caramelized jerk from the kitchen. At 144 feet up, Byū sits atop ONE|GT — the capital city’s newest high-rise hotel and tallest building — where pastel rooftops give way to the Caribbean Sea.
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Eat Well and Stay a While: Inside the New Grand Cayman Hotel Built for Both
A thin slice of tuna, brushed with yuzu‑infused scotch‑bonnet shoyu and laid atop crisp escovitch vegetables, arrived at the table like a briny map of the island. The bite was a micro‑history of Grand Cayman: Jamaican jerk seasoning, Japanese tataki technique, Caribbean escovitch pickles, and locally caught fish — an expression of the island itself, where influences accumulated over centuries have settled into something wholly Caymanian.
This layered culinary identity began in the shallow banks surrounding the island, rich with conch, snapper, wahoo, and spiny lobster, which made the sea the foundation of daily life and cuisine. Over time, successive waves of immigration expanded that foundation. Today, residents of more than 130 nationalities have brought their own traditions to George Town’s kitchens, making the city one of the Caribbean’s most dynamic dining scenes. By the time celebrity chef Eric Ripert established the famed Cayman Cookout along Seven Mile Beach, an annual gathering that’s drawn the world’s foremost chefs from José Andrés to the late Anthony Bourdain, this small island had become one of the Caribbean’s most interesting places to eat.
ONE|GT feels like a natural extension of that story. The 10-story tower on Goring Avenue sits in the heart of the capital, a notable contrast to the scores of beachside resorts. Its elegant interiors draw on the island’s maritime heritage: organic textures, custom furnishings, woven seagrass wall hangings, and the work of local artists, creating spaces that echo the sea and earning it the distinction of first-ever Cayman Islands property to join Small Luxury Hotels of the World.
The hotel’s three dining concepts deepen that sense of place. Perle, the property’s signature restaurant, is built around an open kitchen and a seafood-forward French-Mediterranean menu — lobster, snapper, and, of course, the Cayman conch — paired with a European wine list. Byū, which transliterates the Japanese word for “view,” celebrates the island’s multicultural palate: lobster-tail maki that honors Japanese sushi technique while using Caribbean lobster, jerk-chicken wontons finished with a smoky scotch-bonnet mayo, and a conch salad presented with house-made vegetable chips. The Italian-inspired Café Bellini opens the hotel to the city at street level. Specialty coffees and house-made pastries serve the commuter crowd as readily as the unhurried hotel guest.
A hotel made for weeks, not weekends
George Town is known as the Wall Street of the Caribbean. Locals trace the territory’s tax-free status to a stormy night in February 1794 when 10 British ships wrecked on the reef off East End, and Caymanians rowed out to pull nearly everyone off the rocks alive. Legend has it that King George III rewarded the rescue with a permanent exemption from taxation. No historian has ever found a record of this decree, but it’s a story Caymanians continue to tell. Today the city is home to dozens of branches of the world’s largest banks, where finance professionals from London to Tokyo to São Paulo settle in for weeks at a time. ONE|GT was designed with those longer stays in mind.
The 95 suites — in one-, two-, and select three-bedroom configurations — accommodate sun-seekers and business travelers alike. Notably, each room comes with a full-size kitchen that lets guests wander the Saturday farmers’ market, bring home fresh mangos and snapper, and cook at their own pace, turning a hotel stay into a home base rather than a time-bound resort itinerary. The hotel even offers a grocery-stocking service pre-arrival. For the solo traveler or digital nomad, the floor plan matters as much as the view: there are distinct spaces to work and spaces designed to let you forget about work.
I spent most of my time lounging at ONE | GT’s two pools, cycling my way through Café Bellini’s menu of fresh fruit smoothies. The rooftop infinity-edge pool is the first of its kind in Grand Cayman, and the Oasis Pool, sheltered among swaying palms, lives up to its name.
Things to do in Grand Cayman
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One of ONE|GT’s greatest strengths is its address. While many visitors experience Grand Cayman almost exclusively through Seven Mile Beach, the hotel places guests in the historic center of George Town, where much of the island’s story began. The capital was once known as Hog Sty Bay — named, without romance, for the livestock kept along its shores. Its sheltered harbor made it a natural refuge for ships crossing the Caribbean, and the sea has shaped nearly every chapter of the island’s history since.
A short walk from the hotel, Elmslie Memorial Church is one of George Town’s architectural landmarks. Completed in 1922 by local shipbuilder Captain Rayal Bodden, its soaring mahogany ceiling was fashioned from salvaged shipwreck timber and framed to resemble the inverted hull of a sailing vessel.
The nearby Cayman Islands National Museum occupies the former Courts Building dating to the 1830s and holds roughly 9,000 artifacts of maritime history, Caymanian culture, and natural heritage. Heroes Square, with its Mariners Memorial, honors generations whose livelihoods depended on the surrounding sea. Pedro St. James Castle, the oldest surviving stone structure in the Cayman Islands, offers a broader window into the island’s political history. It was built in 1780 by an English plantation owner using enslaved labor and later hosted the territory’s first elected parliament in 1831. Four years after that, the proclamation abolishing slavery in the British Empire was read from its stone archway.
The same spirit of exchange that shaped George Town’s streets continues across its restaurants. Cayman Spirits Company’s signature Seven Fathoms Rum is matured in oak bourbon barrels submerged 42 feet beneath the Caribbean Sea, where gentle ocean currents continuously rock the casks throughout the aging process. Tours include tastings and offer a glimpse into one of the island’s most distinctive exports. Kaibo on the North Side at Rum Point stages tasting menus around seasonal catches. Queen Elizabeth II landed by boat at this beach on her 1983 visit to Grand Cayman and was served refreshments at what would become the restaurant. Agua at Camana Bay marries Italian and Peruvian technique to Caribbean seafood, while Jack’s Beach Bar on Seven Mile Beach delivers a more relaxed afternoon of jerk bowls, fish tacos, and cocktails just steps from the water.
The concierge at ONE|GT can arrange everything from dive charters and sailing excursions to island tours, while a complimentary shuttle makes reaching Seven Mile Beach and nearby attractions effortless. Yet I found myself drawn back to the hotel sooner than expected.
On my final afternoon, I settled once more beside the Oasis Pool with an audiobook before making my way upstairs to Byū, where my trip began. A perfectly cooked beef tenderloin arrived alongside crisp fries dusted with shichimi togarashi, another meal that quietly reflected the island’s remarkable openness to the wider world. Grand Cayman may be small enough to cross in an hour, yet it contains an extraordinary concentration of history, cultures, and culinary traditions. ONE|GT captures that spirit with unusual clarity, offering a stay that feels inseparable from the city — and the island — that surrounds it.
Getting to ONE|GT and around Grand Cayman
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To get to Grand Cayman, you’ll most likely fly into Owen Roberts International Airport (GCM) in George Town itself, which is about 10 minutes from ONE|GT by taxi. Nonstop flights serve the island from major US cities including Miami and New York. To get to the hotel, you’ll find a licensed taxi rank directly outside arrivals; fares are government-regulated, so the price is fixed before you get in. Rental car companies are across the street from the terminal.
In town, the hotel’s George Town address puts Elmslie Memorial Church, Heroes Square, and the National Museum within walking distance. A complimentary hotel shuttle handles Seven Mile Beach, as well as other attractions within a six-mile radius. You’ll need a car to reach attractions beyond that, including Pedro St. James, Rum Point, Cayman Spirits Co. Uber and Lyft are banned on the island, but taxis are reliable (although they’ll add up fast). 