NetNude - Cayo Largo (Cuba) Report

Cayo Largo Report

This report is brought to you by Bill and Jan. Please email the preceding address if you have any questions or comments.

The opinions expressed are those of the person(s) who submitted the report and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NetNude.

Cayo Largo, Cuba

February 2001

We desperately needed to get away this winter, and the weather in Florida was not worth making the 2-day drive, so Jan found us a couple of last-minute flights to Cayo Largo, Cuba. Neither of us are great world travellers so this was going to be a new adventure. The hope was to be able to get a week of warmth and sunshine, with perhaps a little bit of clothes-optional vacationing, without breaking the bank. I had read about Cayo Largo in the various issues of Going Natural and thought it might be - just - okay. Then Jan found a website: http://www.cayolargo.net - which proved to be most valuable and informative, and which heightened our excitement about going there.

Cayo Largo, I’m pleased to report, more than exceeded my expectations. Being an all inclusive resort, it allowed us to wander around the 7-hotel complex freely, enjoying the numerous bars, restaurants and pools without ever feeling we were trespassing. The fact that the island is uninhabited except for the hotel guests and the hotel workers who are flown in in regular monthly shifts, made for a wonderful feeling of safety and security. But the biggest surprise was the clothing-optional beach in front of Villa Capriccio, the last hotel (actually a collection of 30-40 wooden cottages) in the chain. We discovered early on that there was an accepted ritual of claiming and maintaining your lawn chairs - tie your towels around them when you leave at night and get there reasonably early in the morning and your spot is not “stolen” (and you even get to know the beach regulars who come to accept you as one of them). The beach there is fine, the sand fairly well-maintained, and the water warm and inviting. (There was a constant off shore breeze/wind which kept the surf up, but the water was a perfect temperature for long periods of cooling off.) And the real treat was the realization that one could walk, literally, 10-12 MILES along the deserted beach, completely nude, and never run into anyone other than other nude (for the most part) beach walkers, or the odd shy iguana. I can’t sit still for very long and any time I’m at a club, I usually spend the better part of an afternoon walking around and around the grounds, very boring. Here I was able to walk for two hours one-way along the beach before realizing that I had better turn back or else it would be dark before I got back to the hotel.

Our days were spent like this: rise at about 7 a.m. (the bars close at 11 so you can get to bed early) and head down to the beach (we stayed in the Villa Iguana, right next door to Capriccio) to set up the chairs, stretch a bit, have a dip and a short walk along the beach, then meet Jan at the Capriccio’s Olga Bar for breakfast - omelettes, fruit, breads, juices, coffee - then head back to the beach for the day (I should mention that the bar there is NOT clothes-optional, but getting to it can be). About noon I would pop back to the bar for a quick cerveza (on the house - all inclusive) and take a couple back to the chairs. Lunch was served at 1 - various things including ice cream - then back to the beach and a long walk to work off the lunch. Come 5, I would start to pack up the chairs while Jan went across the complex to make a reservation for the next evening at one of the many a la carte restaurants in the chain. We enjoyed fine Italian pasta, filet mignon, and even chateaubriand for two while we were there, and of course all the red wine we could drink (the white was a little thin and kind of sweet.) After dinner (we tried to book an 8 o’clock sitting) we would take in one of the many variety shows in and around the complex. Then head to bed and do it again - for seven wonderful, relaxing days. There are free, and pay-for excursions available to other touristy sites, but after the first couple of days on the beach we realized that that the beach experience was what we came for.

We found the hotel staff very warm and helpful, polite and, if you were civil and friendly to them - not too demanding - cheerful and willing to do little extras for you. A $1US tip thrown in here and there was all you needed to insure excellent service. I don’t think Cuba is the place to go if you’re overly demanding in terms of luxury and service, but Jan and I were very impressed.

As we were waiting in the hotel lobby to leave for the airport, a Quebec couple whom we had waved to regularly on the beach stopped to chat. They noted that we seemed to enjoy nude beach walking as much as they did, and then said that this was their 7th visit to Cayo Largo. They had been to other clothes-optional and nude resorts in the Caribbean, but said that there were none to compare to the space, freedom, and price of Cayo Largo.

If that’s the case then I think we’ve found our vacation destination for the future.