Our hotel Iberostar Mojito

Our room wasn't ready yet so we deposited our luggage and went to the beach and it was nice. The weather was hot. We then had our lunch by the pool grill and came back to the lobby.
They also made pizza at the pool bar. Our room was ready and a worker drove us with all our bags to our room.

The restaurants:
One counter with meat/hamburger and fish grill, they also grilled calamaris there in white wine and made pork chops, my husband's preferred in garlic sauce.
Hamburgers are made from pork meat, and they had ketchup and mustard. Different from ours but still not bad and spicy sauces, hot peppers, olives, marinated onions, pickles.
One counter with cooked dishes like beef bourguignon was good, rice potatoes, chicken.

Our son actually appreciated the ketchup of the hotel. We are traveling to Europe regularly and h is used to various tastes. I also like cooking, and make a lot of dishes
from different cultures. He likes and appreciates spices, herbs, and a range of tastes. It is part of a cultural visiting trying different dishes.We are rarely going to a fast food home, because he likes better eating at home.

2 soups every evening and 1 for lunch. I especially appreciated bisque de langosta soup. But others were good too.
A roast counter: every day something different like pork, beef, chicken roasts most were really good. Salmon was also good at this counter. There was even turkey. One night
the beef leg was so spectacular, one of the kids asked me if it was a dinosaur? Cute.
A paella was usually good especially the one with shrimps.
A flambe shrimp counter. Shrimps were cooked in front of you with spices and white wine.
pancakes stand
A lot of breads and a choice of desert. They had flan of course my favorite, but I didn't try other numerous deserts. My husband and son did, they were good

In the middle a round place with salads, cold cuts (chorizo was really good), we enjoyed the cheese a lot, fruits and deserts, this part had also sauces.
on the other side an Indian/vegetarian counter and a pasta counter. Vegetable lasagna I tried one day was pretty good.

In the morning there was a cold buffet in the middle with cereals, fruit, breads, butter of all sorts. You could make toasts. Omelet and eggs counter made on request,
I couldn't understand why they didn't have a choice of chorizo omelet whereas there was chorizo separately. Some people brought their choice of food to the grill and made it grilled such as potatoes.
A counter with prepared food such as scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, mashed potatoes, and sauteed potatoes, fish even, fried sausage, bacon.
The regular coffee wasn't good, but they made good cappuccino. I had sparkling wine even in the morning with my breakfast in Spanish fashion, and it was brought from Spain.
I don't like too much sweet, and one cocktail a day was more than enough for me, but I am a wine drinker.

Flying to Cayo Coco

Our flight with Sunwing was at 6AM and it was difficult to wake up at 2AM to drive to the airport. I could check in online 4 hours before, so we had our seats reserved.
The flight was good with some breakfast and even sparkling wine. We departed about an hour late as they ha to remove ice from the plane. The day before the flights were delayed
or even cancelled due to a big snowstorm, so at least we were lucky for that. We arrived in Cuba at 11h30 and 15 minutes after clearing controls were at our hotel.

I have been to Cuba before, to Santiago and although the beaches were nice the hotel was new but average and food almost inedible excluding juices, drinks, and fruit. All was spoiled with palm oil including deserts. So I had very low expectations for this trip and was a bit worried as this time I brought my family. I also have been to many excursions in the past in Cuba, but wasn't too impressed in general. At least the prices were low at one time. The meals included with excursions tasted like soap. Well, that was an improvement from bitter inedible hotel meals at that time. Ice cream had a texture and even the taste of sand. The highlight was the carnival of Santiago.

Especially I disliked any excursions with included meals, when often the meal becomes the center of the excursion rather than sightseeing. Not even sure why they advertise the meal as all our meals are included and are good quality. This is usually also true for other places, not just Cuba.

Now, the Cuban excursions also do have hefty prices for next to nothing to see or visit. Cuba is about beautiful nature, pristine beaches, good drinks and shows which are exceptional. The rest to me wasn't worth the big money requested. So, we didn't plan any excursions since we had it all at the hotel. And it was possible to use water bikes and kayaks which were included. Things like a catamaran or fishing can be interesting, but again the prices requested where not justified in my mind. We paid less for many excursions in Mexico where the pyramids definitely worth it, and even in Europe where there is so much to see, and the Euro is strong as compared to CAD, excursions are not that expensive. If a Cuban salary is of 15 CUC per month I can hardly see how they get to 115 CUC (115USD) per person for a 1 day excursion. A 50 CUC taxi ride to get to another beach? really? When we have an amazing beach right in front of us or can take a bus for 5CUC. See if you can rent a scooter, but this is not an option with small kids.

An excursion including cigar making? really? We had a guy at the hotel lobby making them. So, if you decide on an excursion just be careful and don't overpay for nothing.

Cuba has rationing for electricity and water. They lack essential items. In Santiago every night 12AM to 6 AM they turned of electricity and sometimes water. Water was the worst.

Also from experience the a la carte restaurants at the resorts are rather very average and often worse than the buffet meals. Not sure why they have some of theme restaurants such as an imitation of TexMex or Italian and it is considered as high end? I will take authentic Spanish food or even Cuban any day over these imitations. And although included we decided not to try from reviews of other travelers and we were pleased with the food in general at Iberostar Mojito.

Anyway, these were the reasons of my worries and low expectations. However on the bus we were told Cayo Coco is a resort place only. No Cuban live there, so it is only for tourists. It is also protected by UNESCO, so all the lagoons, faune and flore are protected. This was a relaxation escape for us for 1 week only, so this was a good place for that.