Santa Clara (international airport - SNU)
To get to Cayo Ensenachos (or Cayo Santa Maria), there is an airport in the city of Santa Clara (SNU). It is a former military airfield converted for tourism. In fact, Cayo Santa Maria is the first tourist destination in the province of Villa Clara.
With the growing number of hotels in the region, the airport (in 2001) no longer met the expectations for tourism, this is why the authorities proceeded (2006) to enlarge the facility. Let's say it was quite laborious to go through the customs at that time.
The transfer from the airport to Cayo Santa Maria takes about 90 minutes. On the bus, there is a Cuban guide who talks about this beautiful region of Cuba and its history very famous when the troops of Ernesto « Che » Guevara attacks the train of the army of Batista in the city of Santa Clara. A turning point in the modern Cuban revolution.
Please note that some tour operators proceed with the registration in the bus instead of waiting in line in the hotel lobby. The particular attention is very appreciated. You may as well go directly to our room or the bar or the beach.
It would greatly facilitate the transfer to the hotels if they enlarge the local airport in Cayo Las Brujas (10 minutes to the hotels, like Cayo Largo) to receive large aircraft. As the runway is only 1.8 kilometers long, it is clearly too short. They would need a runway of about 3 kms like in Cayo Coco but still the ground is not solid enough for large aircraft in Cayo Las Brujas. There are no plans in this matter because this area is protected. There is also a possibility of an airport in Caibarien (30 minutes to the hotels). To be continued ...
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Arrival of an Air Transat flight at the airport in Santa Clara. Several Canadian airlines now serve the airport in Santa Clara, like Sunwing, CanJet, WestJet and Air Canada. In 2002, there was only a 300-room hotel to serve. Now it's close to 5,000 rooms. |
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Abel Santamaria (code: SNU) |
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The modern and comfortable bus (air conditioning) waiting in line to get tourists to the hotels. Before the buses were escorted by police officers in byke to reduce the transfer time to a minimum. This is no longer the case. |
Santa Clara airport ...
Informations about Santa Clara ...
PHOTOS
Click to view our photo album of the city of Santa Clara.
(photos of our site: http://photos.cayosantamaria.info)
LOCATION
Click to see the © Google Map area of the city of Santa Clara
(link to our www.whereincuba.com website to help you discover Cuba)
Since June 1st, 2011, the hotel is no longer administered by Occidental hoteles but rather by Iberostar. The name is now IBEROSTAR ENSENACHOS. A family-oriented resort. 
