Jardines del Rey The Paradise that Dazzled Hemingway
Surrounded by a 400-kilometer-long coral reef, this is the largest archipelago out of the four surrounding Cuba, with the second longest coral reef of the world, second-best to Great Australian Barrier.
A reading of celebrated American author Ernest Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream is not enough to get to know nature. Although the prestigious writer certainly portrays with matchless accuracy the smells and colors of the place, Jardines del Rey has to be felt in the flesh. This tourist circuit, a group of keys and inlets located off the northern coast of the Island, has become one of Cuba’s top travel destinations, rubbing elbows with Havana, Varadero and Holguin.
After two decades, it is the target of new investment aimed at improving services, expanding its infrastructure, stepping up the marketing efforts, taking care of the environment and enhancing its competitiveness and positioning in the region.
Nowadays, three new hotels are being built, two of which are slated to open in the 2014–2015 winter season, and the third one in 2015, for a grand total of 7,400 guestrooms available. The process includes the recovery of beaches and attention to the environment, promotion of nurseries to grow autochthonous flora species, informative environmental fencing, improving traffic signals and certifying those facilities that meet ecological and environmental requirements.
The all-inclusive, five-star Meliá Jardines del Rey Hotel was recently inaugurated. Its design recalls a sugarcane plantation combined with a contemporary-style main building and a boulevard that stretches out from the lobby to the beach. This is going to be the biggest hotel managed by the Spanish company in Cuba.
With nearly 5,500 rooms in 17 hotels, Jardines del Rey has been visited by over three million tourists since its foundation.