The dollar sign on Grand Cayman means two different things

The short version: the Cayman Islands dollar has been pegged to the US dollar since 1 April 1974, at one Cayman dollar to one dollar twenty US, and it has not moved since. A price written ashore with a bare dollar sign is very often Cayman dollars. Read it as US money and you have understated it by 20 per cent. The public bus fare is two Cayman dollars, which is two dollars forty in US money, and that is the cheapest place on the island to learn this. Paying with US cash is a separate and much smaller question: shops take US notes at a rate about 4 per cent worse than the peg, and the arithmetic for both numbers is below.

The peg, since 1 Apr 1974CI$1 = US$1.20

So a US dollar isCI$0.8333

Shops take US$ atCI$0.80

Banks buy US$ atCI$0.82

Misreading CI$ as US$Costs you 20%

Bus fareCI$2, which is US$2.40

It is a peg, not a rate

The Cayman Islands dollar has been pegged at CI$1 = US$1.20 since 1 April 1974 (Currency Law 1974). A peg is not a market price. It does not move on a Tuesday because something happened in New York, and there is no live figure to check before you fly. Any page offering you today’s Cayman rate to four decimal places is quoting a number that has not changed in fifty-two years.

The inverse falls straight out of it: US$1 = CI$0.8333. Hold those two numbers and every sum on this page is arithmetic you can do at a counter.

The 20 per cent, which is the one that costs money

A menu, a fare board, a dive shop’s price list. If the number in front of you is in Cayman dollars and you read it as US dollars, you are short by a fifth. This is the whole trap, and it is not subtle at the top of the table.

Written “$” ashore	If it is CI$, you pay	The gap
2	US$2.40	US$0.40
5	US$6.00	US$1.00
10	US$12.00	US$2.00
25	US$30.00	US$5.00
50	US$60.00	US$10.00
100	US$120.00	US$20.00

A CI$100 dinner is a US$120 dinner. Nobody gets that wrong twice, and everybody gets it wrong once. The other direction is worth memorising too, because it is the question people actually type: US$100 is CI$83.33 at the peg.

The 4 per cent, and the sum nobody shows you

The second question is whether to spend US cash or change it. Here are the three rates side by side, which is the only honest way to answer it.

Hand over US$100	You get	Against the peg
At the peg	CI$83.33	—
At a bank, buying US$ at CI$0.82	CI$82.00	Down CI$1.33, about 1.6%
Over a shop counter, at CI$0.80	CI$80.00	Down CI$3.33, about 4%

So paying in US cash costs about four per cent against the peg, and a bank does better than a shop counter by roughly two and a half points. Four per cent is a real cost and it is also a small one. It is a fifth of the twenty per cent you lose by misreading a price, which is why this site spends more words on the symbol than on the cash.

One wrinkle that is genuinely non-obvious. Change from a US-dollar payment is usually given in Cayman dollars, so the four per cent applies to the whole note you hand over, not to the thing you bought. Buy a CI$12 item with a US$20 note and the counter credits you CI$16, hands back CI$4, and keeps the difference between CI$16 and the CI$16.67 the peg says that note is worth. You paid US$0.80 for the privilege of breaking a twenty. Small notes, small penalty.

What I do

I quote visitors in US dollars and say the letters out loud — “that is US seventy-nine” — because on this island a number on its own is not a price. If someone gives you a bare figure, ask which dollar. It takes two seconds and it is the entire difference between CI$100 and US$100.

Where you will meet it first

The bus, if you take one. The fare is CI$2, which is US$2.40, and out past Hutland Road towards Rum Point and Cayman Kai it goes up to CI$5, which is US$6.00. Those are the Public Transport Unit’s own figures. The buses do not run on a Sunday or a public holiday, which matters more than the fare does if your ship calls on a Sunday — that is on getting around.

Taxis are the other place, and here I have nothing to give you. Fares are not metered; they run on a dispatch basis with an approved fare table. Every taxi figure I could find for George Town traces back to a blog rather than to the table itself, so this site prints none of them. Ask what the fare is before the door shuts, and ask which dollar. More on arriving at the tender port.

The notes are CI$1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100, and the coins are 1, 5, 10 and 25 cents. There is a twenty-five dollar note. That denomination on its own is worth a second look at what you are holding.

What this does and does not change about booking a boat

Nothing, and that is the useful part. The seven excursions listed on this site are quoted on the booking platform in US dollars — each activity page’s own currency field was read and returned USD on all seven. The US$79 shared seat is US$79. The ambiguity is ashore, not in the booking.

If you want them in the local currency anyway, the peg does it in one step: US$79 is CI$65.83, US$99 is CI$82.50, and US$650 for a whole boat is CI$541.67. One of them comes out round, which is a small pleasure: the US$1,200 charter is exactly CI$1,000.

What the ambiguity does change is everything either side of the boat: lunch, the beach bar, the taxi back, the photograph package the crew sells you. The full cost of a day, with the per-hour sums, is on what an excursion actually costs. Whether to buy seats or the whole boat is on shared or private.

The only settled rating

Check dates — prices quoted in US dollars

Every tour on this site offers free cancellation up to 24 hours before it starts — checked against all seven listings on 16 August 2026.

All seven, with the unit made unmistakable, are on the tours page. The rest of the island’s money questions — the bus timetable, what you can do without paying an operator at all — are on getting around and what to do without an excursion.

Frequently asked questions

How much is US$1 in the Cayman Islands?

US$1 is CI$0.8333 at the peg, which has been fixed at CI$1 = US$1.20 since 1 April 1974 and does not move. Over a shop, hotel or restaurant counter a US dollar is taken at CI$0.80, and a bank buys it at CI$0.82, so spending US cash costs about 4% against the peg.

How much is US$100 in Cayman dollars?

CI$83.33 at the peg. A bank buying US dollars at CI$0.82 gives you CI$82.00, and a shop taking them at CI$0.80 gives you CI$80.00 — about 1.6% and about 4% below the peg. Read it the other way and a CI$100 price is US$120.

Should I bring US dollars or Cayman dollars?

US dollars are accepted, and the cost of using them is about 4%: shops take a US dollar at CI$0.80 where the peg says CI$0.8333, and your change usually comes back in Cayman dollars. That 4% is a fifth of the 20% you lose by reading a CI$ price as a US$ one, so the currency in your pocket matters far less than reading the price correctly.