# Cayo Largo del Sur: Are These Cuba's Best Beaches? > Discover what makes Cayo Largo del Sur special, the island Columbus called the most beautiful land. We find out whether it really has Cuba's best beaches. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/naykrashchi-plyazhi-kuby/ - Language: en - Published: 2023-05-23 - Categories: Leisure, Beaches, Cuba, Swimming, Relaxation, Seas & Oceans --- With 3,570 miles of coastline, it's no surprise that Cuba boasts an abundance of beaches with white sand and clear blue water. Legend has it that when Christopher Columbus landed here in 1492, he called the island "the most beautiful land human eyes have ever seen." Ever since, appreciation for the natural beauty of Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean, has only grown. Right up until the 1950s, Cuba was a favorite getaway for Americans looking to soak up the sun on a sandy beach. When Fidel Castro seized power on the island in 1959 and soon after cut ties with the U.S. government, Cuba's tourism industry all but vanished overnight. Castro's revolution nationalized every hotel, and the U.S. economic embargo barred Americans from visiting Cuba. Suddenly, thanks to the Cold War, an affordable weekend escape was off limits. Tens of thousands of Cubans who fled to the United States carried with them an irrepressible nostalgia for the homeland they had left behind. When I lived in Miami for most of the 2000s, Cuban exiles would describe the fine, snow-white sand of Varadero as though they had just come back from the beach, not as if they were picturing a place they hadn't seen in over half a century. Then I moved to Cuba in 2012 and discovered that, in typical Cuban fashion, almost no one agrees on which beaches are the best on the island. Plenty of seasoned beachgoers swore that Cayo Largo del Sur, an island off the southern coast, has the most incredible beaches in Cuba. And although over the past seven years I had crisscrossed the whole island countless times, I had never once visited Cayo Largo. ## On the Way to Paradise ![](/storage/image/prev/kuba-1-bea4-1024x684.jpg) So one day at 5 a.m. I found myself in the tiny airport of Baracoa, a little town near Havana, hoping to catch the only daily flight to Cayo Largo. The airport sits next to a military base that I accidentally drove into in the pre-dawn darkness. A few soldiers surrounded my car and politely explained that I needed to keep going a bit farther down the road. A group of passengers waited in the terminal beneath faded posters of Cuban tourism, ready to board the aging Aerogaviota plane, when the gate agent informed us that we would first make a stop in Cayo Santa María, flying in the opposite direction. When some of the Italian passengers began to protest the detour, the smiling gate agent cut them off. "Don't worry! It's a beautiful flight!" I had learned long ago that in Cuba things rarely go as planned, but if you stay patient and relax, it all works out. About an hour after the unscheduled stop in Cayo Santa María, we were over our destination: Cayo Largo. The island lies south of the Bay of Pigs, site of the disastrous CIA-backed invasion of Cuba in 1961. Today, thanks to its pristine coral reefs, Cayo Largo is one of the best diving spots on the island. The local dive shop runs daily excursions to explore the barrier reefs and caves. The clear waters teem with marine life, from tropical fish to sea turtles and even small sharks. Christopher Columbus is believed to have visited Cayo Largo during his second voyage to the New World, and the uninhabited island later became a favorite hideout for pirates. In the 1990s, after the collapse of its main ally, the Soviet Union, a cash-strapped Cuba reopened to tourism once again. Countless all-inclusive hotels were built on Cayo Largo to take advantage of the island's pristine, uninterrupted beaches. ## A Tourism Thaw, and a Freeze While we waited about 40 minutes for our suitcases, which sat beside the terminal, a salsa band played in the little airport. There were direct flights from Montreal, Toronto, Milan and Rome, but none from the U.S. because of the still tense relations. During his second term, President Barack Obama eased restrictions on travel to Cuba and, for the first time in 50 years, allowed American carriers to resume direct flights to Cuban destinations. The catch was that American tourists were not supposed to engage in tourist activities, such as going to the beach. Even though there's nothing to do on Cayo Largo besides tourism, some American airlines were considering resuming service to the island when Donald Trump was elected president. Trump had vowed to "tear up" Obama's deal with Cuba and impose tough new sanctions on Cuba's communist government. So far, Trump's changes have tightened the permitted categories of travel for Americans and banned certain hotel chains and tourist sites tied to the Cuban military, but they have not led to a sharp rollback of Obama's Cuba policy. Even so, a chilling effect is felt all across Cuba. "Trump ruined everything," Manuel, one of the few taxi drivers on Cayo Largo, tells me. "There used to be more Americans, but almost all of them have left." Aside from taxis, the only way to get around the island is by ATV, moped, or one of the few rental cars available. I had booked a car a few weeks before the trip, but I got a message from the rental agency that it had broken down and there was no replacement. ## Quiet and Undeveloped ![](/storage/image/prev/kuba-2-bea4-1024x768.jpg) As we drive across the island, Cayo Largo feels like it doesn't belong to the rest of Cuba. It's the first place in Cuba without a single billboard glorifying the Cuban revolution or the exploits of Che Guevara. Everywhere you look there are beaches and shimmering water. The grounds in front of the hotels are full of people basking in the sun, but walk just a few minutes and the beach is all yours. Cayo Largo, or "Long Cay," is 16 miles long and nearly two miles across. Most of Cayo Largo's coastline is pure beach. Besides the hotels, there's a marina where tourists can sail catamarans across the surrounding waters, a dive shop where you can explore stunning underwater landscapes, a sea turtle hatchery, a nudist beach, and miles upon miles of picture-perfect coastline. The food on Cayo Largo, like at most Cuban resorts, is pretty dreadful. The only places I usually eat in Cuba are the private restaurants known as paladares, one of the few permitted forms of capitalism. But there aren't any here, so you're limited to the hotel restaurants and buffets. Manuel the taxi driver takes me to the far end of the island, to Playa Paraíso, or "Paradise Beach," which many consider the best stretch of sand and ocean on Cayo Largo. "Honestly, I never get tired of it," Manuel says as we pull up to the beach. Apart from a small snack bar, there are no other structures or buildings here. The sand is pure white and as fine as anything I've seen in Cuba. Even though there were waves near the shore, Playa Paraíso formed a small cove that let me swim in the perfectly blue water close to the beach. It was high season, but most of the beach loungers were empty. When I came back to Playa Paraíso the following evening, I was the only person watching the sunset. It took me a long time to reach this beautiful patch of Cuban sand, but the wait made this peaceful island well worth the visit.