Cayo Santa Maria is a small island located to the north of Cuba in the west sector of Jardines del Rey. UNESCO has declared this region a reserve of the biosphere. To get there, you take a causeway that is over 48 kilometers long. It took 10 years to build this causeway to finally link Cuba to the neighborhood islands, Cayo Las Brujas, Cayo Ensenachos and finally Cayo Santa Maria. The last one to have the longest beach kilometer wise.

This small island is 13 km long and at the most 2 km wide. A beach of fine white sand on almost all of its distance (ideal for long walk amateurs). The beach is located to the north of the island while the south side is made of marshes and mangroves..

By using the excellent program of Google Earth, click here to see Cayo Santa Maria’s position in regards to the archipelago of Jardines del Rey, (Click here to download a free copy of this program, you will not be disappointed!)

Cayo Santa Maria does not count any permanent residents. Cubans come from neighborhood town such as Caibarien, Remedios, Camajuani and Santa Clara to work at the hotels. To get to Cayo Santa Maria you need to take a international flight to Santa Clara Airport (SNU) and a comfortable bus transfer to your final destination (Cayo Santa Maria or Cayo Ensenachos). It takes about 90 minutes to go through all of the previously mentioned little villages as well as the 48 kilometer causeway.

During the bus transfer to your hotel, an English guide will accompany you and will talk about Cuba in general as well as the little villages in the region. You can see the Cuban life on a daily basis and the beautiful scenery. It is preferable (if possible) to do this transfer in the daylight. The Santa Clara Airport is under renovation for expansion, the reason been that since the construction of all the new hotels (a total of over 1,700 rooms to this day) the existing facilities are no longer sufficient (old military base). All ready (December 2006)the airport arrival section is almost finished and is much bigger and counting more custom’s counter.

Not too far from Cayo Santa Maria (10 minutes by car) exist a small local airport, Las Brujas Airport, and unfortunately this airport is too small to accommodate large planes. Since this is a protected secure place, there is no actual plan for expansion; the runway is too short and not well lit.

After crossing the first Cayo, Las Brujas, you see on the left the entrance of The Royal Hideaway Ensenachos, the new hotel from the luxury hotel chain Occidental. This resort has 270 superior rooms (Royal Hideaway section), 190 (Royal Spa section) as well as 46 very luxurious suites (Royal Suite section) located at the Cayo Ensenachos. « Un concept d’un hôtel, une île comme dans les Maldives ». This hotel is located on a small island that possesses two of the most beautiful beaches of the region, playa Megano and playa Ensenachos. We were lucky enough to visit these beaches before the construction of the hotel and they are very nice, calm sea and fine sand.

At Cayo Santa Maria there is three hotels run by the chain Sol Melia. The Sol, a 4 star hotel, which was the first one to open its doors in December 2001. Than the Melia ( 5 star) opened in 2004 and followed the Las Dunas (5 star) in 2006. The last one is a very large resort that counts 925 rooms distributed in two sections, family (sector west) and adults only (sector east). This resort competes with a resort in Holguin the Playa Pesquero which has 927 rooms. On the other hand the Las Dunas is built alongside the sea while the Pesquero is perpendicular to it.

More to the east, the Barcelo Estrella, a mega complex is under construction awaiting more than 2,000 rooms. It is very evident that the ten years spent building the causeway was not meant for one resort alone. The Cubans are very concerned about the environment and that is why when they built the causeway they thought of making a bridge at every kilometer to minimize the negative impact that these constructions would have on the nautical wildlife. Some Cubans told us that the nautical fauna is well. The causeway is not lit, you must be very vigilant at night. .