Cuba - Lonely Planet [278]
Club Amigo Mayanabo (Cubanacán; 36-51-68; CUC$65/100; ) You are the weakest link here – goodbye! Actually, there’s nothing wrong with the Mayanabo, where regular renovations have kept pace with heavy usage.
Club Amigo Caracol (Cubanacán; 36-51-58; s/d CUC$65/100; ) A newer version of the Mayanabo, the Caracol has the edge on its more worn partner, and with its large kids’ program it is usually promoted as the beach’s family favorite.
Brisas Santa Lucía (Cubanacán; 33-63-02; s/d CUC$75/120; ) This all-inclusive resort has 412 rooms in several three-story buildings. In all, it covers a monstrous 11 hectares and gets the strip’s top rating: four stars. Rooms in the 200 to 800 range are closest to the beach, while those in the 100 block kiss up against the Laberinto Disco. There is special kids’ programming. Shark’s Friend Dive Center (left) is next door.
Gran Club Santa Lucía (Cubanacán; 33-61-09; fax 36-51-47; s/d CUC$75/120; ) Colorfully painted and still in good nick, the 249 rooms in this amiable resort-village all have minifridges and balconies or patios and they are accommodated in a series of tile-roofed two-story blocks. Prices quoted are for the cheap rooms furthest from the beach with parking-lot views. Discoteca La Jungla is the not overly inspiring nightclub, plus there’s an evening music/comedy show with mucho audience participation.
Eating
Aside from the hotel buffets your choices are limited to El Rápido, opposite Hotel Escuela Santa Lucía, which serves cheap (for a reason) fast food, and Doña Yulla, right before the roundabout entrance to Santa Lucía serving simple, filling meals in pesos.
El Bucanero ( 36-52-26; Playa los Cocos; 10am-10pm) Located on Playa los Cocos at the Santa Lucía end of the beach, this place is in a different class, serving seafood, meat and salads, all of which are enhanced by the setting.
Drinking & Entertainment
Outside of the resort entertainment, nothing much happens here. If you want a taste of something different, stroll east into the micro-village and take a look at Cabaret Los Cocos, a spit-and-sawdust Cuban place where hotel workers go on their night off.
The Mar Verde Centro Cultural ( 33-62-05; admission CUC$1) has a pleasant patio bar and a cabaret with live music nightly.
Shopping
Just before the Club Amigo Mayanabo, the Mar Verde Centro Cultural has an ARTex store with compact discs and Librería Tengo with high-quality art books and photographs for sale.
Getting There & Around
Anything is possible in Cuba, even getting to Playa Santa Lucía without your own transport, but it’s a hard day’s night full of dull waits, overcrowded camiones (trucks) and much local grumbling (mostly in Spanish). Some trucks go in this direction, but they are sporadic and a taxi will cost you CUC$70 one way. The cheapest option is to chat up the driver of one of the daily transfer buses laid on for the all-inclusive crowd and work out a deal. Start at CUC$10 and head north.
The Servi-Cupet gas station (Playa Santa Lucía) is at the southeastern end of the strip, near the access road from Camagüey. Another large Servi-Cupet station, with a Servi-Soda snack bar, is just south of Brisas Santa Lucía.
You can rent cars or mopeds (CUC$24 per day, including a tank of gas) at Havanautos ( 33-64-01; Tararaco) or at any of the hotels.
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Las Tunas Province
* * *
LAS TUNAS
PUERTO PADRE
PUNTA COVARRUBIAS
PLAYAS LA HERRADURA, LA LLANITA & LAS BOCAS
* * *
It’s an onerous label, but some place has to live with it. Wedged between uppity Camagüey to the west and the cultural powerhouse of the Oriente to the east, Las Tunas is Cuba’s least touristy province and, for most travelers, its least interesting. Overlooked for centuries, its historical legacy rests on two longstanding myths: the mastery