Are you tired of the cold and only think about the summer? Summer is synonymous with beach and sea and many people cannot conceive of the summer season without a few days on the coast. Europe has good beaches and Spain's are lovely, but there is nothing like the tropical landscapes of the Caribbean Sea.
In the Caribbean there are many possible destinations, many islands have tilted their economy towards international tourism, but there is only one with a great offer of tropical landscapes, history and great cultural heritage: Cuba. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the island has received tourism and has hotels and resorts everywhere, but the Cuban keys are the true paradise so today we will take care of the best keys in Cuba to enjoy the summer.
The Jardines del Rey keys
The keys are nothing more than islands and islets that are on the Atlantic coast and on the Caribbean coast of Cuba. Above and below, if you see a map. Those who they are over the atlantic ocean They were baptized by the colonizers at the beginning of the XNUMXth century with the name of Jardines del Rey, in honor of Fernando the Catholic. Imagine the paradise that these sailors must have seen! This archipelago is one of the four that surround the largest island and the most numerous.
The Gardens of the King are located to the north and the Cayo Coco, Cayo Sabinal, Cayo Santa María, Cayo Romano, Cayo Guajaba and Cayo Guillermo. The most touristy are Guillermo, Coco and Santa María. These keys, due to the distance that separates them from Havana also are the cheapest options.
- Cayo Guillermo: it has an area of 13 square kilometers and there are four all-inclusive resorts. It has a small airport and also a marina and is linked to the larger island by an embankment over the sea that connects it with the province of Ciego de Ávila. This near the second largest barrier reef in the world, there are pink flamingos and it has one of the considered best beaches in Cuba, the Pilar beach in honor of Hemingway's ship that used to sail around here.
- Cayo Santa Maria: it is linked to the main island by the same 48-kilometer-long embankment and has five hotel facilities and long white beaches that stretch for 10 kilometers. It is known as "The White Rose of the King's Gardens" and it is the largest of a subgroup of keys named Cayos de la Herradura (Santa María, Las Brujas and Ensenachos). Four of the hotels belong to Sol Meliá and the other to the Barceló chain. There are five and four star category.
- Cayo Coco: It has 370 kilometers of surface and all inclusive hotels. It is also connected by the embankment that part of the coast connecting successively to the keys and that at the time was quite discussed due to the environmental impact that it could cause. A natural path connects it in turn to Cayo Guillermo, so both can be visited on foot. It has an international airport and in addition to hotels and white beaches there are dozens of wild flamingos to contemplate.
I said above that They are the cheapest options because they are not very far from Havana and the most common tourist packages always include a couple of days in the Cuban capital and the rest in one of these keys. A small plane flight and you are already in one of these paradises. Different is the case of the next key, the Cayo Largo del Sur.
Cayo largo del sur
This is, for me, the best key of all. Its location is superb since it is not on the side of the Atlantic but rests on the Caribbean Sea, at one end of the Canarreos archipelago. It has an area of around 37 square kilometers and 24 kilometers long. It is surrounded by coral reefs inhabited by a beautiful flora and a variety of fish. It is almost a huge beach floating in the warm and turquoise waters of the sea.
Count with one international Airport that can operate with large planes and thus direct planes arrive from Montreal, Toronto, Milan or Frankfurt, for example. There is also flights every day to and from Havana and hotel guests can organize excursions to important cities from the historical and cultural point of view such as Santiago de Cuba, Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Varadero or Pinar del Río. And it does not lack a marina so whoever uses a sailboat can also reach the key.
Available seven hotel facilities of between two and four stars category. They are Barceló, Sol Meliá and Gran Caribe hotels: the 4-star Sol Cayo Largo Hotel, the 4-star Gran Caribe Playa Blanca, the Sol Hotel, the South Island, and so on. To move around the key there are taxis and can rent a car or jeep or move in minibus in a group. There is also a little train that loads hotel guests and takes them to and from Paraíso and Sirena beaches.
The best beaches in Cayo Largo consist of lindamar, five kilometers white as flour, located south of the key and very close to the hotel zone, the mermaid beach, to the west, with its always fresh sand so you don't get burned, the Los Cocos beach, with its beautiful coconut trees that provide shade and Paradise Beach, the best to find privacy. These, in addition to being the best beaches, are also the most accessible. In Cayo Largo there are other less known beaches, virgin beaches, but there you already have to rent a car because the tourist transport does not arrive.
For example? The Tortuga Beach, Blanca Beach or Punta Mal Tiempo Beach. And Los Cocos could also include it in this select list. Although it rains more between May and October because it is summer and it is hot, so one can still enjoy it. There is no maritime transport to Cayo LargoIn other words, if you don't like to fly, you can't get to the coast of the main island and take a boat from there. The plane or plane is the means of transport and since the distance from Havana is greater, the walk is expensive and many tourists end up opting for one of the first keys that I named you.