Travel and Vacations

Holidays to Cuba – Things to consider

Story Published on September 1, 2008 ⋅  Email this Story ⋅  Print this Story ⋅ Post a comment ⋅

Are you thinking about a holiday to Cuba? Well, out of all the Caribbean Islands, Cuba is definitely one with more to offer than just a beach holiday. The people are extremely friendly and welcoming. The heritage of Cuba is as rich as are the monuments and palaces throughout the country. A holiday to Cuba is something you should really consider in your agenda.

These are just some of the facts to consider and places and things you should not miss in your holidays to Cuba.

In Varadero hotels and beaches stretch along 20km (12 miles) of white sands on the Hicacos peninsula jutting out from the Atlantic coast of Matanzas province. Cuban holiday-makers have been com ing here since 1872, but it was launched as an international re sort with the 1929 purchase of land here by US munitions and chemical magnate Eleuthre Irne Du Pont. He built himself a huge sprawling mansion, yacht ing harbour, iguana farm, golf course and airstrip. At the height of the American Depression, other American millionaires fol lowed, including Mafia boss Al Capone from Chicago-his home is now a restaurant named La Casa de Al.

Today, Canadian and European tourists come to Cuba’s 35 most popular playground for its super water sports facilities by day and the countless discotecas and the hotels’ lavish cabaret floorshows by night.

Cuba’s offshore isles, islets, cayos (keys), and rocky sandbars with a tree or two, number in all 4,195, grouped in five archipelagos around the main island. The biggest, Isla de la Juventud, has been inhabited since prehistoric times, the others worth a visit have been partly transformed into modern beach resorts-Cayo Guillermo, Cayo Largo, Cayo Romano and Cayo Coco-each with superb white sands and good facilities for swimming, sailing and deep-sea fishing.

The Pinar del Rio region is of course most famous for producing the tobacco that goes into the best Havana cigars. The main plantations are concentrated in the triangle formed by the towns of Pinar del RIo itself, San Luis and San Juan y Martinez and, fur ther west, in the fabled Vuelta Abajo area along the Cuyaguateje river. But tobacco accounts only for a small fraction of the region’s farmland. Fields of sugar cane blanket the eastern plains until rice paddies take over to fill the marshlands south of Los Palacios. Cattle herds graze the Guaniguanico foothills and citrus or chards, grapefruit and oranges, occupy the western area around Sandino.

The list of places to visit and things to do goes on and on. There are hundreds of beaches, interesting cities and amazing landscapes. Keep reading as much as you can about Cuba so that you can get the most out of your Cuba holidays.

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