Although Cayo Coco island covers around 230 sq mls in total, the resort area is concentrated midway along the NE coast and, unless possessing a special interest, there is little to tempt the tourist away from the superb beach and hotel amenities. Apart from pockets of development, the terrain is flat and sandy with lagoons and mangrove swamps. The island does have the largest flamingo colony in Cuba as well as lots of other migrating and resident birds and, if you look really hard, you may see an iguana; but cattle, goats and horses are more common, often wandering in the road.

Real escapists seeking tropical-island solitude, bird-watchers, those with committed eco-interests and scuba-divers. Honeymooners.

Self-contained all-inclusive hotel complexes, all of a similar category. Check the tour-operator's brochure carefully with regard to "all-inclusive" promises as "luxury" items like imported drinks and motorised water sports are often excluded.

17 mls of archetypal Caribbean beaches of near-white, fine coral sand sloping very gently into warm, clear water.

None outside what is on offer in the hotels themselves. For important information on Cuban currency regulations, see under the Currency section in the Cuba country report.

Daytime: almost exclusively beach-based activities with virtually every water sport imaginable; scuba diving at a dozen or more offshore reefs; bird-watching; El Bago Nature Park. Nightlife: nothing outside the hotels which offer full entertainment programmes.

A few options including a local restaurant in a cave which caters for tourist parties; a handful of barbecue bars but otherwise it's the hotels again. Locally caught shellfish are well worth trying. Food everywhere in Cuba is restricted in choice and often of comparatively poor quality - definitely not a destination for gourmets.

None.

Half day: jeep safari; horse riding; glass-bottomed boat trips; visit to Moron, the nearest town; cave restaurant with show (evening); La Guira (recreation of life of local charcoal workers in early 1900s). Full day: boat/catamaran trips for coral-reef snorkelling; Ernest Hemingway yacht excursion; deep-sea fishing; jungle tour (speedboats); hiking around Loma del Puerto and Las Dolinas; Ciego de Avila city visit; Trinidad (colonial city); Jamaica (flight). One/two days: Havana.

At the midpoint of Cuba's N coast, 270 mls E of Havana. 65 mls N of the provincial capital of Ciego de Avila and its international airport.

Westernmost of the large "cays", some 400 islands stretching for 186 mls from Santa Lucia in the SE and forming the Sabana Camaguey Archipelago (also known as Jardines del Rey). Reached via a narrow causeway toll road, about 16 mls long, across the shallow Bahia de Perros (Bay of Dogs). Linked by bridge to the large but uninhabited Cayo Romano to the E.

Telephone Area Code: 33
Website: www.dtcuba.com

Airport : Cayo Coco
Airport Code: CCC
Flight time from ther U.K.: 10 hrs