Cayo Coco and Jardines del Rey

A Chain Of Low Keys Off The North Coast Reached By A Seventeen Kilometre Causeway, With Its Own International Airport And A Concentration Of All Inclusive Resorts · Moron, Ciego de Avila

Off the north coast of Ciego de Avila, a chain of low sandy keys called the Jardines del Rey carries some of the best beaches in Cuba and almost nothing else. Cayo Coco is the largest and is reached by a seventeen-kilometre causeway built straight across the bay - an engineering solution that has been criticised ever since for restricting the water flow behind it. The beaches are the reason to come: long, pale, shallow and backed by scrub rather than development, with Playa Pilar on the neighbouring Cayo Guillermo regularly called the best beach in the country. Hemingway fished these waters and named his boat for the same saint. Flamingos feed in the lagoons behind the causeway. What there is not is Cuba: this is an enclave of all-inclusive resorts with an airport, and the nearest real town is an hour inland, which makes this a beach holiday that happens to be in Cuba rather than a Cuban one.

Cayo Coco, Jardines del Rey, Ciego de Avila, Moron, Ciego de Avila, Cuba

The keys are reached by a toll causeway open through the day and night, with a checkpoint. Resorts run all year. Playa Pilar on Cayo Guillermo, the boat trips and the diving operate in daylight. The large resorts run generators and are largely insulated from the power cuts affecting the mainland. Hurricane season closures happen.

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