A couple enjoy each other's company at Rum Point Restaurant.

e’re sitting in a white gazebo, decorated with tiny white lights. A large bell tops its peaked roof like a wedding cake. Candles glimmer on the table. The sound of surf mingles with romantic piano music. Beside the gazebo, a wedding wall displays tiles with the names of the 120 couples married last year, here in the Grand Old House, a 90-year-old former plantation house. We sip Champagne and nibble on coconut shrimp as we peruse the menu.

For an island that measures only 32 kilometres long, Grand Cayman has an extraordinary number of romantic restaurants. Its location, just 290 kilometres northwest of Jamaica, means that seafood is especially fresh, although virtually every type of cuisine is available, from Chinese to Tex-Mex, from casual to elegant.

A to-die-for white chocolate crème brulée
One evening, we take a ferry from the Hyatt Hotel across North Sound to a tropical hideaway called Rum Point. Double hammocks stretch between feathery casuarina trees along the sandy beach. Laid-back Margaritaville-style music entices us into the Rum Point Club Restaurant. We sip Cayman coladas (piña coladas made with rum and raspberry liqueur) at a bar, painted like an aquarium with fanciful coloured fish. The island’s most popular musician, Barefoot Guy, soon has everyone dancing to Jimmy Buffet-style music. Ceiling fans slowly turn above our table, on the breezy porch, as we eat lobster and a to-die-for white chocolate crème brulée.

Lobster with saffron lemon butter at Lighthouse Restaurant at Breakers.

Turtle cooked in coconut rum
The next morning, we visit the Coffee Grinder, Cayman Island’s Starbucks, which serves a wonderful variety of coffees, cappuccinos and espressos. We sit at a tiny round table, just big enough for two and share an almond croissant with our coffee.

Fortunately, the Cayman Islands offer calorie-burning activities like snorkelling and swimming which help us work up appetites for more feasts. The most bountiful is undoubtedly the Sunday Champagne Brunch at the Hyatt Regency. Waiters keep our glasses filled with Champagne and orange juice as we walk from station to station filling our plates with fresh shrimp and crab, pastas and omelettes cooked-to-order, roasted meats, salads, cheeses and desserts.

Since Cayman Islands is a Dependent Territory of the U.K., it was only fitting that we enjoyed a proper English Tea. The Landmark serves a Cream Tea with pastries, traditional scones, apricot jam and whipped cream, and a High Tea which also includes cucumber and smoked salmon with cream cheese sandwiches. Don’t miss the washrooms. The flowered fixtures are the prettiest on the island!

A good place to try Caymanian specialties, like conch fritters and turtle steak, is at the oceanside Cracked Conch. The turtle, which is cooked in coconut rum, is fabulous. (It resembles veal in taste and texture.)

Chef Mathai with peppercorn charred tuna dish at The Grand Old House.

The Lighthouse at Breakers restaurant is so close to the water that surf crashes just below the tables on the verandah. It serves superb lobster with saffron lemon butter, wines from a Wine Spectator award-winning cellar and yummy chocolate nut cheesecake. Their bakery offers take-out treats including decadent coconut palm tree cookies, rum raisin cookies and tropical granola bars.

On our final night, we dined under the white arches of Casa Havana at the Westin Casuarina Hotel. A harpist serenaded us with romantic melodies as we enjoyed Nuevo Latino delicacies.

No trip to the Cayman Islands is complete without indulging Icoa Chocolates. At the shop in George Town, we could not choose just two chocolates from the many unique flavours: key lime, Caribbean spice, hazelnut praline truffles or passion fruit-filled white chocolate hearts. Fortunately, the owner packs them in boxes of eight, "to go."

During the winter season, Signature Vacations, Air Canada Vacations and World of Vacations offer packages to the Cayman Islands from Toronto. At other times, travellers can book daily flights from Montreal or Toronto to Miami with Air Canada and connect with Cayman Airways. Canadian consumers receive an American Express Travellers Cheque for C$100 when they book a Cayman Islands vacation through Air Canada Vacations or World of Vacations, up to and including April 30, 2000. For more information on the Cayman Islands, call (416) 485-1550 or (800) 263-5805, or check their Web site, www.caymanislands.ky.

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