Cayo Coco

Is Cayo Coco safe?

For crime, yes: Cayo Coco and its neighbour Cayo Guillermo are among the calmest places a visitor can stay in Cuba. The two cays, together marketed as Jardines del Rey, hold little besides all-inclusive hotels, beaches and an airport, and they sit off the north coast of Ciego de Ávila province at the end of a 17 km causeway from Turiguanó. This page covers both cays and the road out to the mainland.

The catch is everything else. Since February 2026 the UK has advised against all but essential travel to Cuba because of grid collapses and shortages of fuel, water, food and medicines, and Canada advises against non-essential travel. On remote cays, those shortages hit harder: staff need fuel to reach work, and serious medical cases need transport off the island. We score Cayo Coco 57, with low confidence. Cuba publishes no crime figures for Ciego de Ávila, so the crime scores rest on national estimates and on UK and Canadian advice.

What the fuel crisis did to the cays

Cayo Coco was one of the first places where the crisis closed hotels. In early February 2026, a worker at Mojito Cayo Coco told Bloomberg the resort was closing because there was not enough fuel for staff to get to work, and about 200 guests were moved to Sol Cayo Coco, about 50 km away. On 6 February, Transat's list of closed hotels on the cays named Iberostar Origin Playa Pilar, Gran Muthu Imperial Cayo Guillermo, Iberostar Origin Daiquirí, Tryp Cayo Coco and Mojito.

Getting there changed too. A NOTAM for Jardines del Rey airport declared jet fuel unavailable from 10 February to 11 March 2026, CiberCuba reported, and the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary said in September that only Terminal 3 at Havana's José Martí airport was operating. All Canadian airlines, which used to carry most visitors to the cays, have suspended Cuba flights. Canada now tells its citizens in Cuba to consider leaving while options remain.

What to do:

• Confirm the exact hotel shortly before you travel. A closure can move you to another resort on the cays.
• Ask whether the hotel has fuel for its generator and a water tank. Canada says generators can stop when fuel runs out and resorts can run short of food and running water.
• Keep your airline's and tour operator's contacts on paper. The FCDO says options for leaving could shrink quickly.

Theft on the beach and in the room

Crime here is mostly small. Canada lists beaches and tourist areas among the places where theft happens, and says theft from hotel rooms and cars is common. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary adds theft from hold luggage at Cuban airports. With no town around the hotels, there are fewer of the hustlers and fake guides seen in Havana, but a phone on a sun lounger or cash in an unlocked room is still the usual loss.

Cuba runs on cash for foreigners. Visa and Mastercard do not work, including at ATMs, so most guests carry hundreds of dollars or euros. Keep most of it in the room safe, carry a day's worth, and change money only at Cadeca offices. Canada also reports sexual assaults against Canadian women at beach resorts and advises against secluded areas, even on hotel grounds.

Night, roads and the causeway

At night there is little reason to leave your resort, and little lighting if you do. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary advice for all of Cuba is to pre-arrange transport and avoid walking at night, and Canada says not to walk alone after dark. Do not walk the beach or the road between hotels after dinner.

WHO estimatesWHO road-death estimateThe World Health Organization's estimate of road traffic deaths per 100,000 people in a country, adjusted for deaths that police statistics miss.More in the glossary 4.1 road deaths per 100,000 people in Cuba for 2023, low for the region. Traffic on the cays is light. The risk is the transfer. If you fly into Havana, the road to the cays is long, and the FCDO warns of unlit vehicles, stray animals and almost no street lighting at night. Canada says hitchhikers have assaulted drivers. Travel in daylight with a tour operator or official taxi, and do not drive a hire car after dark.

Medical care far from a hospital

This is the weakest factor on the cays. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary lists a state-run international clinic on Avenida de los Hoteles in Cayo Coco. Canada says such resort clinics give foreigners first emergency care but lack basic drugs, supplies and equipment, and that bills must be paid in US cash. The nearest hospital on the FCDO's list is in Morón, on the mainland beyond the causeway, and the FCDO calls the ambulance service unreliable, especially outside towns.

Bring every medicine you need for the whole stay, plus antibiotics and painkillers as Canada suggests, and a doctor's letter. Buy insurance that covers Cuba and evacuation. Use repellent day and night: dengue, Oropouche and chikungunya still circulate, according to the FCDO.

Hurricanes on low islands

The cays have already taken a direct hit. Hurricane Irma made landfall near neighbouring Cayo Romano as a Category 5 storm on 9 September 2017, the first Category 5 landfall in Cuba since 1924. The National Hurricane Center says its eye passed over Cayo Coco, waves there reached 5 to 6 m, and the tourist areas of Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo were among the hardest hit in Cuba. The season runs from June to November.

With one causeway to the mainland, the cays are hard to leave once a storm is close. If you book in that season, choose flexible tickets and follow your tour operator's evacuation instructions at once.

How we scored it

Road safety (72) and violent crime (68) are the strongest factors, scored on the same national estimates as Varadero because no local data exist. Health and environment (34) is the weakest, two points below Varadero because the nearest hospital is on the mainland. Natural hazards (40) reflects Irma's direct hit. The weighted average is 57, below the cap of 80 set by Cuba's conflict score of 45.