I hope Cayo Largo stays as it is, I'm not sure how well a 5* would work anyway with the issues of getting supplies to the island!

You can't even get there from Canada so build away i guess it don't much matter to us.

Just one line about a 5 Star. Nothing so far from Gran Caribe. Nothing about the Italian leased hotels.

Anybody want to start a pool on where it will be built? Punta Mal Tiempo, maybe?

Paraiso would make some sense but the article mentions that the services there as well as Sirena and in the village are set to be upgraded, implying all will continue their present vocation. A bathroom at Paraiso would be nice!

If the five-star project ever happens, I hope it's not some cruise-ship-in-the-sand monstrosity but a boutique resort with a very small number of rooms. Not optimistic about that, since "bigger is better" seems to be the general policy in such matters. .

I hope they don't ruin the place until after I'm dead. One of these times it's really going to happen. There are so few places like Cayo Largo, at least ones that I can afford to get to. It will be a terrible loss.

We visited CSM in 2008 or 9. There were only the three hotels but the cranes and construction were there. That was inevitable however, it was all planned and the causeway was built to make it happen.

On the plus side I think there is enough uncertainty right now to keep the project on the back burner for a while. To be unreasonably optimistic, maybe the present crisis will encourage a reconsideration of just what kind of 5* tourism Cuba wants to sell. Maybe they'll finally clue into their massive untapped ecotourism potential, which can be developed to cater to the well-heeled without ruining places like Cayo Largo.

As for Punta Mal Tiempo, it's the kind of beach where the red flag will fly very regularly (just look at the name: Bad Weather Point). That doesn't sound to me like a good place for a 5* resort. It's the most obvious site, but maybe there's room at the western end of Sirena, past the main public beach...

Once upon a time Fidel proclaimed “No more development on Cayo Coco/Cayo Guillermo “It was a protected ecological environment. He said that 20 years ago.

The rest is history!

Cuba is very quick to make announcements but very slow and unreliable in following through. In this case that may be a very good thing! Fingers crossed that we get another 10 years.

ETA: I wish TA would get this paragraph formatting bug fixed.

@8, the determination to pave more and more cayos has really gathered momentum in the last 20 years or so. I see where it comes from -- the need for hard currency, the desire to keep tourists and Cubans largely separate -- but I have serious doubts about the long-term viability of this tourism model.