My wife and I booked a one-week all-inclusive vacation at the Gran Marena Cayo Coco, Cuba for the week of February 8th to February 15th. Our 6:00 am TS884 flight with Air Transat from Ottawa to Cayo Coco was not on time due to late boarding and for the de-icing process of the plane.
We landed at Jardines Del Rey Airport at around 10:20 am. Immediately after landing, two other flights landed on the Jardines tarmac, one from Air Transat and another from Sun Wing. This is a small international airport located on the eastern end of Cayo Cay Island, and serving the many resorts destinations of Cayo Coco, Cayo Guillermo, Cayo Paredon and Cayo Cruz. Waiting for mostly Canadian vacationers, many parked coaches would within 20 minutes, drive to our hotel giving us a warm welcome to Cuba while having a cold beer.
On arrival, we were met by the hotel’s Cuban Band and the hotel’s greeting staff. At that time, my wife and I had met two couples from Ontario, Canada. The hotel’s staff arranged, with the help of Transat Vacations, for a personalized check-in with the concierge representative at the Sunset Section. That check-in had great timing since our room was not ready yet when we got there. However, baggage handlers were ready to bring our luggage to our room.
Finally, we were provided with a non-smoking second floor Sunset Junior Suite with a large king bed with balcony, and beach towels in our room upon arrival. There were also two bathrobes, slippers, a full mini bar, a sitting area, a coffee/tea maker, an iron/ironing board, a satellite TV, a hair dryer, and a safety deposit box. The washroom included all the basics in toiletries. From our balcony we had a particularly good view of the entire Sunset grounds with pool, gazebos, chairs and of the restaurant. During the first evening, while having a welcome cocktail in the Sunset lobby, the hotel’s Cuban Band played their favorite songs to us.
The Sunset room categories (previously known as the Collection) provides an exclusive adults-only (18+) section at the resort, separated from the main hotel with a unique ambiance. The area is congregated around four hotel blocks, deemed to be a separate section with its free Wi-Fi, separate reception and concierge area, an exclusive lobby with lobby bar, an exclusive snack bar and a fine dining restaurant, an exclusive pool, a jacuzzi, and a separate beach section.
Other Sunset benefits included a preferred room location, three guaranteed à la carte dinners per stay, access to the on-site gourmet restaurant, and other concierge services such as personalized check-in and check-out. We did try a few a la carte Restaurants such as the French “La Perla” and the Italian which are a fairly good option.
During our weekly stay, we spent most of our time chatting and enjoying fun and sun with friends at the pool, during lunch, dinner and at the beach. We even played the morning pool towels reservation game for gazebo couches and chairs with other early risers. “If you can’t beat them, you might as well join them.” If ever management does anything about how long chairs can be left unattended for hours, such as posting strict rules and enforcing them, we will see!
Gran Marena grounds and flower bushes are impeccably well taken care of. Everywhere you look, hotel staff are working at it, trimming and cleaning. This hotel is a little different, because every day we could see cats and kittens lounging near the coffee bar or looking for food, a clutch of chickens with a silkie rooster, a tied white goat eating the grass, and a docile family of wild turkeys roaming the grounds. We walked kilometers on the beach on both sides of the complex to admire nature at its best. This Cayo Coco beach has stunning white sand and the beach portion, over six hundred meters fronting the Gran Marena with its many huts is incredibly wide, where you can see for kilometers only sand and the crystal-clear Caribbean Sea.
Our Sunset housekeeper was particularly good at getting our room all tidied up, as the many bartenders and restaurant staff, the piano players, are all excellent at what they do, but you need to tip them which is part of life in Cuba. As many travelers have commented, everyday items such as peanut butter, ketchup, mustard, chips, salt, and pepper are scarce or not available on certain days. Even our bar was low or out of white wine, orange juice, and soft drinks such as sprite and cola. If you wish to keep having those little comforts from home, it is a clever idea to bring condiments, snacks, chips, sun cream, insect repellant and even toilet paper. You cannot buy these here.
For tipping, we noticed what went on, and it is recommended in most cases to bring US paper money such as US $1.00 bills, US $5.00, US $10.00, and yes Canadian CAN $5.00 and CAN $10.00. This will make it a lot easier for hotel staff to exchange paper money at their own banks or between themselves. Loonies and tunnies are used sometimes but they are not useful to Cubans; they sometimes come over and ask you to replace coins with paper money.
For St. Valentine’s Day on Wednesday February 14th, the entire complex was decorated with pink hearts, flowers, and all kinds of festivities and music and dancing were going on. Gran Marena staff know how to have a great party. However, the next day we had to leave this wonderful place. The hotel is a top-rated family resort with a high repeat guest rate. We would recommend the Gran Marena Cayo Coco to family and friends for an enjoyable time.
