Melia Cayo Coco Hotel Review

This was my first time to Cuba so didn't really know what to expect. I've travelled around the world (over 30 countries) so was hoping for something different. And in summary - the Melia Cayo Coco Hotel is one of the best I've stayed in and probably the best I've stayed in the Caribbean.

Who We Booked With

First off we booked our stay at the Melia Cayo Coco via Thomas Cook, a week at the 5ish star hotel cost us £1426 for the two of us flying from Manchester and staying for a week.

The Flight - Grumble

I did have a few grievences about the flight. First off if you wanted to take more than 15kg then you had to pay more. Also we were absolutely freezing on the flight. There was a big bold guy sat in the row in front of us and he was freezing too! Eventually I got myself and the fiance a blanket and found some others later and handed them around - the stewardess didn't seem to keen to help. So if you do book with Thomas Cook make sure you take some warm clothes for the flight!

Also, if you forget your iPod or headphones (like I did!) then you have to fork out £2.75 for some diabolical ones - I refused and suffered the consequences - absolute boredom.

The Airport

The local airport (Jardines del Rey Airport) is very close, in fact it was only 15 minutes away from the resort which is the closest I've ever been.

As it is very small you'll walk the two minutes from the plane to the terminal in two minutes. There you'll be met with about 8 quees to go through immigration. Make sure you've filled your visa in correctly (I didn't) and proceed to the mystery figure in the booth. If when you get through ok you'll be met with a long quee to go through security where they'll make sure you don't have anything with you that you shouldn't.

When you exit the airport you'll be met by a friendly guide who'll show you to the bus for your short journey - expect to see some cows on the way!!

During the ride you'll be talked through everything by your guide (ours was Rachel - great lass). The one bit I liked was that when we checked in you'll be given a glass of champagne and the porter will take your bags to the room for you.

Checking In To The Melia Cayo Coco

When you pull up at the hotel you'll see an absolutely massive open reception - its huge and very welcoming!! The people are as as friendly as you could possibly want. They give you your keys (plastic credit card ones) and show you the direction.

This is the funny bit - we didn't have a clue where we were going. Luckily there were some maps around and we followed them up to our room (7322). Stupidly I didn't get a photo of the outside of it!! Doh, but I did get some photos of the others!

We booked the holiday in a hurry and just managed to get the standard rooms. But there were rooms on the lagoon. We went in a friend's and there wasn't much difference to ours - except the price.

The rooms you can see at the front of the picture are the honeymoon suites. Whilst the ones in the background are the upgraded lagoon rooms - there's four in a block.

The room itself was nice - big beds, and well decorated. But the bathroom was a bit basic, the bath had some knicks out of it, but appart from that I couldn't argue - how long do you spend in the shower???

Read on to find out about the Melia Cayo Coco grounds and swimming pool.