The idea of spending a week in an “all inclusive” resort is not really my idea of travelling; however, in this case, we thought starting the first few days of our Cuba trip in one would be a good way to relax and rest after a very busy year for both of us. A chance to recharge a bit before setting out on our own.

Getting There
After a rough crosswind landing (we were there a day after a hurricane had passed by to the East), we arrived at the small airport servicing the resorts.

The airport is within the resort zone, about a 15 minute drive from the hotels along the beach. Although we weren’t part of a package tour (we booked our flight direct with Westjet and our hotel separately), I figured we’d be able to throw our bags on one of the tour buses and get a ride to the hotel area.  They were too organized for that though and wouldn’t let us on as our name wasn’t on their list. So instead we had to find a taxi van to take us there. The driver was reluctant to take us for some reason – but eventually agreed.

We joined the line to check in at our hotel along with many of the people from our flight that had just gotten off the buses. When we got to the desk and provided our information, there was a lot of confusion!

“What group are you with?”
“We’re not with a group.”
“Ummm, how did you get here?”
“We just came in on the Westjet flight.”
“Oh, your with Westjet Vacations.”
“No. We were on the Westjet flight, but we’re not part of that group.”
After calling a couple of colleagues over and rummaging through a bunch of papers, she finally finds our reservation and says, “Ah, here it is! We thought this was a mistake!”.

Anyways, they had a great room for us overlooking the ocean 🙂  And of course we got our wristbands that we had to wear all the time while at the resort. Felt like a high school field trip or something…

Are we in Cuba?
The resort was very nice and a great place to relax and enjoy the Caribbean weather and fabulous beach. Our room was comfortable with a balcony and ocean view.

The resort was one of several on a long sandy beach and the ocean was surprisingly warm.

The food was ok and there was certainly plenty of it!

It was quite obvious though that this resort could have been anywhere in the Caribbean. There was nothing particularly Cuban about it. All of the staff spoke English, and the majority of the guests were Canadians (with a handful of Europeans). It was almost as if we were still in Canada, but on a Caribbean beach! The TV even had TSN on it!

The Experienced Ones
We could quickly tell who the experienced “all inclusive” tourists were. They were the ones carrying around their coffee travel mugs to use for carrying around their drinks, instead of the small plastic disposable cups the bars would give you otherwise.
They were also the ones lining up early every morning to make their dinner reservations. We missed out on that and ended up at the “Oriental” restaurant.

Where is the Real Cuba?
We went to the desk for making dinner reservations and after looking up our name and details, the guy had a confused look on his face.

“You are only here for four nights?”
“Yes” [so?]
“How much does four nights cost?”
“Uh… about 400” [why is he asking me this??]
“Per person?”
“No – total”
“Including airfare??”
[Now I’m realizing he’s just confused as we’re not part of some package deal]
“No. After we leave we are travelling up the island. Going to Havana.”
“This is a new Sunwing package?”
“No – we are on our own.”

He has a confused look for a few seconds – then he finally gets it!
“Oh! You want to see the Real Cuba!! Yeah, this is not the Real Cuba here. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone doing this”

Well this definitely made us laugh and excited to be getting out of the resort soon to see what the country was really all about.