Take the family now, before regime change, and you’ll find an extraordinary
place, poor but seemingly untouched by developments across the rest of the world.
The entire country feels like a film set, populated by a colourful cast of characters.
It is hard to beat the spirit and beauty of this small island. The sudden boom
of tourism here in the last decade has brought new hotels and the almighty dollar.
It is now one of the most popular destinations in the Caribbean and this has
of course changed it, new resorts springing up in previously remote areas, but
you will still come across moustachioed cowboys, beautiful classic American
cars and old ladies smoking large cigars on the Malecon. This improbable combination
of transformation and stasis is symbolic of a country riddled with contradictions
and ironies. In a place where taxi drivers earn more than doctors, and where
capitalist reforms are seen as the answer to preserving socialist ideals, understanding
Cuba is not easy. But do take the family and try!
Above left: Cuba beach
Above middle: Havana, Cuba
Above right: Dad in Cuba!
How
All flights to Cuba land at Jose Marti airport near Havana. Virgin
Atlantic flies direct from Gatwick to Havana from around £790pp return
inc tax, children 2-11 from around £600. Other airlines that fly from
the UK include BA. and national carrier
Cubana. Iberia airways sometimes offers discount flights via Madrid. Some inter-island
ferries also exist in the Caribbean. The time difference is GMT -5 Daylight
saving time (GMT -4) from April to October.
Do
Go to Havana, the old city is an amazing place, crammed with crumbling Spanish
mansions, where large families live amongst the falling masonry. Its narrow
streets, countless churches, cobblestone plazas and sixteenth-century fortresses
make it one of the most complete colonial urban centres in the Americas. The
people who live there are the descendents of slaves, pirates, colonists, planters
and sea-farers, it’s an amazing mix – the music, dance and song
which has been created here, is unique and pulses out from every street corner.
Or just walk the family along the Malecon before dinner to feel the wind on
your face and watch the waves crashing up against the seawall. Hire one of the
great 50’s cars and travel to one of the nearby white sandy beaches, or
down to Trinidad, which has a French/Haitian history, it’s a beautiful
spot with music and dance to rival Havana. Or to Baracoa, isolated for so long,
as its only access was by sea. You can now drive through the Cuchillas de Baracoa
Mountains to this spectacular place, set at the foot of the hills, by the sea,
surrounded by plantations of cocoa trees. This is the only place where the original
indigenous Cuban population still live.
Eat
Finding somewhere good to eat here is a real challenge, your kids may not mind
feasting on cheese sandwiches with crisps for every meal, but you might. People
in Cuba are incredibly poor and because of the American embargo, nearly everything
that is eaten has been grown or caught on the island. This means of course that
when you do find a good restaurant, the fruit and veg will be fresh and usually
organic, the chicken, pork, rabbit and beef will have come from a local ‘free-range’
farm and the fish will probably have been caught that morning.
You will be whispered at from corners about illegal lobster feasts, do try
them – you can join a local family for a lunch of freshly caught lobster,
but without a licence they can be risking a lot for the money you give them.
