An individual and extraordinary Caribbean island experience
With its history and great choice of natural attractions Cuba has much to offer. But most visitors agree that Cuba is a country so individual and extraordinary that to be truly understood and appreciated it has to be experienced in person.
Cuba is the archetypal Caribbean island, with sandy, palm-fringed shores washed by crystal-clear waters and cooled by breezes carrying the scent of frangipani, mango and guava. But venturing away from the beaches brings altogether different rewards. Visit Cuba’s towns and cities, which boast Spanish colonial architecture and grand plazas, watch classic automobiles labour along streets and country roads, and let the hip-swaying sounds of salsa music carry you away on the night air along with the smell of the finest Havana cigars. The island’s famous rum cocktails, baseball, and many references to the 1959 revolution all paint picture-postcard portraits of Cuba that go so much further than a relaxing beach holiday.
Sitting at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba’s main island is 746 miles (1,200km) long with an irregular coastline that offers holiday-makers hundreds of bays and beaches. It’s the largest island in the Caribbean, and Christopher Columbus is said to have thought he had discovered a continent when he arrived on Cuba in 1492, on his way back to Spain after his second voyage to the New World.
Years of political isolation have protected Cuba from mass tourism: the main towns and villages retain a crumbling colonial charm and are generally devoid of resorts that blight some of its neighbouring islands. However, despite US sanctions, the island state is starting to exploit its glorious attractions and offers visitors an alternative Caribbean holiday.
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