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> Destinations > Cuba > Trip Reports > Trip Report
We stayed at the 5* Melia Cayo Coco for one week (March 30th - April 6th/03).
Our initial impression of the resort was quite good. While rated a 5 star resort, I think by North American standards, it would probably rank around a 4. But nonetheless, an impressive property.
Check-in was a bit slow. Cuban people are extremely friendly but they tend to work at a slower pace than we are used too. We had a superior lagoon room which was quite a hike from the hotel lobby. Thank god they had a shuttle service for guests! The room was very nice... roomy.. and we had a bottle of Rum and fruit plate to greet us! Nice view of the lagoon. It appears they use the lagoon as a garbage dump judging from all the crap floating in the water. Lots of jellyfish as well. Wouldn't want to fall over the railing into that cesspool!!!
The hotel grounds are kept very nice. The pool was fairly large but also quite shallow. Not a bad place to hang for the day though. They are missing two things -- a hot tub and a swim-up bar. These would definitely be nice additions.
The beach and ocean were definitely the highlight. Nice white, fine-grained sand contrasted against beautiful turquiose water! One of the nicest beaches we'd ever seen! You can snorkel right off shore and see all kinds of fish, starfish, etc. They also have bar service right at the beach which was nice.
The restaurants were all okay. We visited the Cuban, French and buffet. Unfortunately, the Italian restaurant was full the night we hoped to go. The food is not excellent nor is it awful. We spent most of the time going to the buffet. One day, we had a burger at the Beach Grill and the meat was pink! Yuck! But I ate it anyways and am still alive! I would definitely ask to have it cooked well-done if I were you though. The pizza'a were pretty good.
Drinks were great at all bars but make sure you bring along a travel mug. The plastic drink glasses they give you are slightly larger than a thimble!!!
We took two tours -- a city tour to Moron and a full day catamaran trip. The Moron tour was cool! It's like they are caught in a time warp in the 1950's! Old, old cars, lots of bicycles, old buildings and houses.. but the people were very friendly. It was definitely an eye-opener! Makes you realize how good we have it living in Canada!
The catamaran trip was probably the highlight of our vacation. The snorkeling was amazing... like swimming in a fish aquarium! It's a little disconcerting however as they anchor way, way out in the open ocean with no visible land in sight! But the water was relatively shallow with very good visibility! Then they fed us lobster, shrimp, rice and veggies for lunch! It was a terrifc day!
It was a great one week vacation. The only negative part was our departing flight was supposed to leave Sunday at 10:30am. The night before, a delay was posted on the front counter informing us it wouldn't leave until Monday at 3:30am. Then it was delayed yet another hour! We used Air Transat Holidays and I would NOT, repeat NOT use them again!!!! We missed a connecting flight from Toronto to Calgary via Westjet thanks to them, which cost us $108!!! We are trying to get them to refund it but no luck yet!!!
Thanks to Kevin for this trip report ...
April 2003
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