Punta Francés, a national maritime park, with a beautiful stretch of white-sand beach fronting a calm and protected sea on the southwestern tip of the island. From here, many of the island's best dive sites are easily accessible. There are a couple of long piers out into the calm waters here. One has Puertosol's buffet restaurant and bar at the end of it. On shore, there's a small park station, with bathroom facilities and some picnic tables. The park station also has several hundred chaise longues, which are broken out and spread along the beach whenever a cruise ship pulls in for a day tour. When this happens--once or twice a week--this quiet, isolated beach becomes a swarming mass of up to 1,500 sun worshipers. When the cruise ships aren't around, you'll have the joint almost to yourself. Dive trips cost $70 for two tank dives, including a full equipment package. Day-trippers can take the boat ride out to Punta Francés for $8. If you go, the buffet lunch will run you $12, with drinks sold separately. For travelers, Isla de la Juventud's primary attraction is its stellar scuba diving in Punta Frances. The one working hotel serving foreigners here caters almost entirely to divers. Other attractions include some of the most elaborate and best-preserved indigenous cave paintings in the entire Caribbean basin.