Understand
Until the late 1980s, the Jardines del Rey could really only be reached by boat.
Ernest Hemingway spent time during the Second World War hunting German U-boats in the area which experience he used in his novel Islands in the Stream.
In the 1980s, the Cuban government decided to construct a causeway across the bay between Cayo Coco and the mainland. This now carries a road, and allowed the development of Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo as tourist destinations.
The first hotel the Colonial was opened in 1993.
Apart from the beaches, much of the islands remain undeveloped, and are promoted as an ecotourism destination.
