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PLAYA LARGA HOTEL, Playa Larga 05/14/2003
Reviewers Rating:  Good
PLAYA LARGA HOTEL, Playa Larga (north end of Bay of Pigs)
Address: Playa Larga. Montemar Great Natural Park. Pen�ula de Zapata. Matanzas province. Cuba. Tel. (53) (59) 7294. Fax. (53) (59) 4141. It is located 175 km away from the Jos頍art�nternational Airport in Havana (around 2 hours and 30 minutes by car) and 130 km away from the Juan Gualberto G International Airport in Varadero Beach (around 2 hours and 30 minutes by car).
The Bay of Pigs is more than the site of the US attack on Cuba in 1961. It is also one of the finest bodies of water for swimming and snorkeling and scuba-diving in Cuba.
The Playa Larga hotel is the only real hotel at the north end of the Bay of Pigs. It is a series of cottages spread out near the town of Buenaventura.Playa/ Playa Larga. Cottages are basic, but include a living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom, as well as a small safe deposit box, a television, and a small fridge in some units. All are air conditioned. Check in was quick and efficient, and we were allowed to see our cottage before deciding and paying. Parking was available within a 20 m of the cottage. Some cottages are stand alone, while others are side-by- side with another. Most have a medium-sized patio of their own. This is probably the best place to stay in the Bay of Pigs area.
The beach is wonderful and the water does not get deep until more than 100m out. It is beautiful azure water at the end of the bay. The sunset over the water is spectacular. We had dinner at the hotel and discovered a new taste: cheese with marmalade or syrup. The dessert is considered the national favorite. The syrup is guava or papaya, both were very tasty. There was very little light in the area so we got a very clear view of the stars that night.
The hotel is equidistance between the sugar mill at Australia and the Playa Giron museum. It is only a short drive north to the Boca crocodile farms, and a short drive south to some of the best scuba diving in Cuba.
According to the hotel: "The Hotel is located on the Bay of Pigs, one km away from the village of Buenaventura.Playa Larga is an ideal place for underwater activities, such as snorkeling, day and night scuba diving and, for experts, diving in 70-meter deep natural underground reservoirs. Underwater areas are of extraordinary beauty, where corals, gorgonians, sponges and other species of wild life flourish near the ocean wall.Playa Larga International Bird Watching Center, the most important of its kind in Cuba, has specialized guides. La Salina Nature Reserve is home to 165 migrant and autochthonous species, including flocks of flamingos, ajaia ajaja and cranes.Other places of interest for ecotourism are the Hatiguanico River, the Santo Tom᳠Nature Reserve, the Indigenous Fish Species Station, the Parrot Breeding Station and the Crocodile Breeding Farm."
http://www.horizontes.cu/
(About $45.00/cottage)
02/2002
John Clearwater
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