Honest Review of The Kimpton Seafire: What To Expect from IHG’s Flagship Caribbean Resort

Rating: 4.5/5 (incredible modern property, top notch service, but very expensive)

Price Paid: 70,000 points per night + $80 nightly resort fee (note: I booked using the fourth night free benefit from my IHG premier card, bringing the nightly points rate down do 52,500 per night). Normal cash rates here go from ~$700 per night (low season) to ~$1,500 per night (high season)

For the final vitamin D recharge before NYC winter, I headed down to the Cayman Islands for a long weekend. Overall, the Kimpton Seafire was great and I’d love to stay here again (if I’m ever able to replenish my IHG points balance). This property is one of the best uses of IHG points, especially given how close it is to the US.

Pricing & How to Book for Cheap(er)

First thing first – this hotel is incredible, but also incredibly expensive. Paid nights range from $700 per night in the low season (summer, hurricane season) to ~$1,500 per night in the high season (winter). Note, this hotel charges an $80 additional daily resort fee (although they do give some perks for this, more on that later). This pricing approaches Maldives over-the-water bungalow territory, although it makes sense given (a) how nice the hotel is and (b) how close it is to the US, especially southern and eastern US with many nonstop flight options.

I am not in the appropriate tax bracket to dish out $1,500 per night for a room (yet, one can dream), so I of course used points. This is why I think hotel points are generally slept on and can provide such outsized value. I’d never spend $1k per night on any hotel at this point in my life, but the credit card game augments your ability to achieve these luxury experiences.

In terms of points rates, currently the lowest reward night goes for 70,000 points per night. This is quite high, although makes this property one of the best redemptions on a cents per point basis in the IHG portfolio. IHG points can generally be valued at 0.5 cents per point, so redeeming 70k points for an average $1k per room night offers value of at least 1.4 cents per point, which is pretty great for IHG.

Furthermore, you can leverage the fourth night free benefit from the IHG Premier Card (highly recommend this card for those looking for their first hotel credit card, as it’s a keeper card that pays for itself every year). This perk gave me a $1,000 night for free, more than paying for its $99 annual fee.

Check In & The Room

Getting to the hotel is possible by Taxi only (there’s no uber on the island). The fixed rate was $40 USD for a 15 minute ride from Owen Roberts International to the hotel.

Check in was nice although a bit hectic, as I landed with a bunch of other flights with folks looking to check in. I had to wait a bit for my room to open up, so I went out to explore the beach for a bit.

Once the room was ready, I received a text and I was good to go.

In terms of my specific room, I booked the Premium King Ocean View room with points. Upon check in they recognized my Platinum Status and offered 600 points or $15 raid the bar credit. 600 points is worth like $3, so I feel like this question is them testing intelligence…

Welcome champagne and a note was a nice touch. The hotel proactively emailed me two weeks before the stay to ask if celebrating anything or if I wanted to spend $500 to reserve a beach cabana (no thx!).

And my favorite part, the outdoor balcony:

And the view from the balcony:

Property Review

Okay, on to the exciting part, the actual resort property. The Kimpton Seafire has one main accessible pool. There’s technically another although that’s only available to Seafire Residences. I did not swim in the pool a single time – I prefer the ocean. It looked nice though.

In terms of location, the Kimpton Seafire is on a relatively quiet part of Seven Mile Beach, which I think is a huge perk vs. some of the other resorts further down the beach. There’s no large properties directly north of the Kimpton, and south is another IHG property (Hotel Indigo), so IHG has really carved itself a nice secluded piece of Seven Mile Beach here. There’s a roped off area of the ocean intended for Seafire guests only, which is a nice touch. When I was there, it never got too busy, but further down the beach towards the Westin / Ritz, it was definitely a bit crowded.

The white chairs are available to all guests for no charge, although the Cabanas are rental only, and go for ridiculous rates – $500+ per day when I visited. I stuck to the regular chairs. Front row seats would usually get claimed around 7am or 8am, but given this was November there was still plenty of seating open at any point in the day.

Amenities & Food

In terms of included amenities, the hotel offers:

1. Daily morning coffee
2. 5pm free wine and snacks, nightly
3. Water sports toys including kayaks, standing paddle boards, water tricycle, floating rafts, and sail boat
4. Snorkeling gear
5. Daily fitness classes; beach yoga, Boxfit, paddle board yoga, and Beachfit
6. Complimentary dining for children under 5 in main restaurant or beach restaurant
7. Complimentary access to the Splash at Seafire waterpark for ages 4 – 12
8. Valet Parking

The hotel also has three onsite restaurants (not included, and moderately expensive at that):

Coccoloba (casual eats, cheapest)

Ave (restaurant, bit of everything – this is where the morning breakfast buffet is set up)

Avecita (nicest restaurant, tapas)

Coccoloba also services anyone on the beach, and they actually have pretty good food (I had a Latin burger every day, don’t judge me).

For food only, I’d probably budget at least $50 – $75 per day per person. Prices are equivalent to eating out in SF / NYC / LA, and I’d add even more if drinking. They do have a free 5pm wine night social hour every night though, and you can take as many glasses as you like (I did this).

Ave was also great, although more expensive. I only went there for breakfast. I tried the breakfast buffet my last morning, which runs out to $50 per person. I’d say it’s worth it though, because they have a pretty crazy opulent buffet spread with just about every food you could imagine:

The hotel also has a small cafe for grab and go bites called The Pantry. Food here was overpriced IMO and I’d rather just go with Coccoloba on the beach, but for a small breakfast sandwich or croissant this place is your best bet on property.

The hotel also has a pretty nice bar called Library By the Sea. Apparently this bar is top 35 in the Americas (according to the front desk, which is of course not biased). It was actually pretty good, and had a cool menu.

Right next to the hotel is a tour and sports rental shop called Red Sail Sports, where I went everyday to rent a paddleboard, a snorkel, and a gopro. As far as resort fees go, I feel like this is pretty good value.

The hotel also offers free bike rentals. I rented one hoping to bike off property for a bit, but the paved waterside path quickly ends leaving only road on both sides. I was able to bike over to the sister property (Hotel Indigo) though which was nice, although it’s walkable as well.

The hotel also has a decent gym, which I checked out for a bit when it was raining one afternoon.

All in all, most of the trip looked like this, which was the goal:

And of course, make sure you ask the front desk for one of these:

Throughout the trip, the hotel service was always impeccably good, and everyone I spoke with was kind and helpful. The resort also did a very good job with small touches – for example, they’d pass around free snacks (frozen grapes, popsicles) to all guests on the beach every few hours:

Things to Do Nearby

One downside (or upside, depending on how you frame it) of the resort is the fact that there’s not a whole lot to do nearby. I think this makes for great 3-5 night trips where the goal is to just relax, but I could see myself getting antsy during a longer stay. You can walk to other restaurants via the beach, but that can take 30-45 minutes. The closest outside restaurant / beach club is next door, called Bonny Moon, which is part of Hotel Indigo, the sister property to the Kimpton. I ate here one night and it was great, and also great music.

Another night, I took a $20 taxi up to the Cracked Conch & Macabuca Tiki bar on the north side of the Island. The food here was great (and a bit cheaper). I ate at the outdoor bar, which was more casual but still had great food.

Weather considerations

One thing to note is that with cheaper rates come hurricane risk, which is a very real threat for a good chunk of the year now. When I went, tropical storm Sara was kicking up a bunch of rain in the Carribean.

The forecast showed rain every day I was there, but in actuality the rain just came in 1-2 hour spurts and would pass. Next time, I’d be cautious about booking during hurricane season, or if I did would do so very last minute if the forecast was clear.

Conclusion

All in all, I had an incredible time at the Kimpton Seafire and would love to return one day for another long weekend. It’s definitely expensive (points or cash), but for the price you get quiet, exclusivity, and very good service.