CAYO COCO

This 364-square-kilometer cay is a stunner on account of its 21 kilometers of superlative beaches divided into five sections, westward: Playa Colorada, Playa Larga, Playa Prohibida, Playa Los Flamencos, and, most importantly, Playa Palma Real (Royal Palm Beach).

Cayo Coco, which is named for a bird—the roseate ibis, or coco—was immortalized by Ernest Hemingway. In Islands in the Stream, his protagonist, Thomas Hudson, sets foot on the beach at Puerto Coco seeking traces of Nazi soldiers. Wandering farther inland, he discovers the lagoon where flamingos come to feed at high tide.

Cayo Coco has one of Cuba’s largest flamingo colonies, concentrated between Punta Almácigo and Punta del Perro. The rose-pink birds seem to float atop the water, like mirages. Every day, they fly over the north end of the tombolo shortly after sunrise and again at dusk. Flamingos are one of 158 bird species here, including the miniature hummingbird, Cuban cuckoo, ibis, herons, egrets, and sea swallows. Migratory birds flock here, too, in vast numbers, and ducks and other waterfowl are common in the shallows. The most prominent animals are jabelis—wild pigs—and endemic iguanas. There are even deer. Much of the island (90 percent of which is covered by scrub vegetation) is supposedly a protected reserve, though Jet Ski tours through the mangroves harass the bird and fish colonies, and dynamiting for hotel development does the same.

The Centro de Investigaciones de las Ecosistemas Costeros (tel./fax 033/30-1151, ciec@ciec.fica.inf.cu), immediately east of the Tryp resort complex, is responsible for protecting the local ecology.

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Parque Nacional El Bagá

This 769-hectare national park (tel. 033/30-1063; 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. daily), protecting the west end of Cayo Coco, features a cultural center, a recreation of a native Taíno village, a crocodile farm, butterfly reservation, bird-watching areas, and nature trails. A three-hour guided tour of the park costs CUC18. Guided 90-minute bird-watching (CUC18) and nature and cultural tours (CUC10) are also offered, as is a “Flamingos and Crocodiles” tour (CUC5).

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Entertainment

All the hotels offer theme parties, cabarets, and discos. A cabaret espectáculo is offered at the Cueva del Jabalí (tel. 033/30-1206; Tues.–Sat. at 10 p.m.; CUC5). Excursions are available from the hotels. Bring repellent.

To jive with Cubans, head to the disco at Villa Azul (Tues.–Sun.; free), the hotel workers’ complex one kilometer west of the roundabout.

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Recreation

The hotels all have water sports. Nonguests can pay for banana-boat rides and water skiing, snorkeling, and catamaran and personal watercraft rental. You can rent an Ultralight from outside Meliá Sol Club for flights over Cayo Coco (CUC3 per minute).

Diving is available at the Hotel Tryp Cayo Coco and Blau Colonial Cayo Coco, and through Blue Diving (tel. 033/30-8179, www.bluediving.com), between the Sol Cayo Coco and Meliá Cayo Coco. Single dives cost CUC40.

Horseback riding is offered at Sitio La Güira (tel. 033/30-1208; CUC7 per hour), a rather hokey facility inland, about six kilometers west of the roundabout. You can even ride a water buffalo, and there’s an animal show with trained acrobatic dogs.

Sportfishing trips are offered from Marina Marlin Aguas Tranquilas (tel. 033/30-1328; from CUC250 for four hours), east of the main roundabout.

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CAYO GUILLERMO

This 18-square-kilometer cay lies three kilometers west of Cayo Coco, to which it is joined by an umbilical pedraplén elevated over the iridescent waters. Egrets and herons pick in the shallows, which are also favored by flamingos.

The star attraction is chalky, five-kilometer-long Playa El Paso. There are other beaches, including Playa del Medio, Playa Pilar, and Playa Larga, at the far western end, where sand dunes pile up 15 meters high (the road is a potholed piste). At low tide, you can wade out for 400 meters or more on the sandbars. The inshore fishing is excellent: Snapper, grouper, mackerel, and bonefish are the species of choice. Farther out, beaked marlin and swordfish run through the Old Bahama Channel—Hemingway’s “great blue river.” One of the first people to discover the charms of Cayo Guillermo was, in fact, the great fisherman and novelist. (“On the inner side, gentlemen, is Guillermo. See how green she is and full of promise?” says Hemingway’s alter ego and main character, Thomas Hudson, in Islands in the Stream.)

There’s a Banco Financiero Internacional outside the entrance to the Iberostar Daiquirí.

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Recreation

Scuba diving is available at the Meliá Cayo Guillermo (tel. 033/30-1738). Sportfishing is offered from Marina Marlin (tel. 033/30-1718; from CUC250 four hours), at the east end of Cayo Guillermo.