CAYO SANTA MARIA, CUBA FEB 2012

Susan from our Chilliwack office , has just returned from Cuba, this time travelling to Cayo Santa Maria, instead of Varadero area. Here are some of her comments…

This is a fabulous beach destination. There is 12 km of white powdery sand beach. When we were there, sometimes the water is as smooth as glass, but there were days when the wind picked up that you did get some good waves coming in and red flag days. Sometimes the beach is pure white sand with no seaweed, but again when the ocean got stormy there was seaweed in the ocean and some days plenty that got washed up on shore. The beach was fantastic for walking on.

We stayed at the Memories Azul section. It is a very large resort, and the Azul side has more hills going up and down. The property is wheelchair accessible, but I would tend to recommend the Paraiso side, for those that don’t want to walk up and down hills, and the Paraiso side is also closer to the little village. The Azul side has the quieter beach section at the one end.

Rooms were a good size, very clean. There is a small fridge with a large bottle of water, 2 beer and 2 pop. They will replace whatever you use from the fridge once / day. There is a one cup coffeemaker in the room, and a safe with no charge.

If you are interested in doing any tours, the Catamaran trip is very popular and can get booked up. It is about 99.00/ person and includes a dolphin encounter, and a snorkeling trip on the Catamaran. In the Azul section there was a Sunwing tours desk to book tours, and a Gaviota tours desk. They both sell the same tours, and Sunwing was always lined up, so we booked our tour at the other desk, and did not have to wait in a long line. She also arranged a tour by cab for us to go to Santa Clara and visit the sights.

Internet access is extremely slow, and sometimes you cannot even get a connection. A card can be purchased from the telephone shop at a cost of 6.00 for 30 minutes. It may take you the full 30 minutes to sign on and send one message. The connection is generally better in the morning.

Susan can be reached at our Chilliwack office, 604 792 4696