When making a phone call , watch out for hotel surcharges: they can be double the already expensive per-minute rate. A less expensive option is to purchase a phone card, available in most stores, and make your call on a public phone, readily available throughout the islands and in most hotel lobbies.

Post office hours are weekdays 8.30am-3.30pm and Saturday 8.30-11.30am. The main branch is in downtown George Town on Edward Street and Cardinal Avenue (tel 345/949-2474). There are branch locations throughout the island, including one in the West Shore Plaza on West Bay Road in the Seven Mile Beach strip. The main post office on Cayman Brac is in West End, and there is one post office on Little Cayman. Stamps are widely available at grocery stores and most hotels.

Grand Cayman has all the latest high-tech communications infrastructure and devices. Satellite dishes dot most yards, cell phones, fax machines and computers are quite common as well. There are an ever-increasing number of Internet cafés on Grand Cayman, while there's one public Internet outlet on Little Cayman and none yet on Cayman Brac.

The country code for the Cayman Islands is 345.