Salsa Cubana

Please meet with your tour leader at 08.00 in the hotel reception. Today’s orientation tour gives you a feel for how Havana developed over the ages. The old city inside the original fortified walls - La Habana Vieja - houses the finest collection of antique colonial buildings in the Americas. The Plaza de Armas is dominated by the former residence of the Spanish governors, now the City Museum, a treasure trove which provides an excellent insight into their grand lifestyle. A few blocks away, an 18th century baroque cathedral and a clutch of imposing mansions grace the cobbled Plaza de la Catedral. Nearby, Calle del Obispo - the main shopping street - and the Paseo del Prado also contain impressive buildings from the colonial era. Across the channel, which leads into Havana’s port, is Cabaña Hill. Of the two great forts designed to defend the city (after British forces captured it in 1762), Castillo San Carlos de la Cabaña, is the largest in the Americas, with splendid views over the city. Havana’s famous esplanade, the Malecón, extends seven kilometres along the seafront, lined with once elegant mansions. This is where young Havanans comes to hang out in the evening - with a bottle of rum and some music; by day it’s a place to stroll and enjoy the sea air.

Tonight you can take in a show (optional) at the famed Tropicana night-club which, when it opened for New Year’s Eve in 1938, was described as the most flamboyant in the world. Despite revolution and economic crisis, little has changed on that front. The ostentatious glitz of the show is accompanied by an excellent orchestra, and offers a glimpse of those extravagant pre-revolutionary days. (B)

Cienfuegos is a pleasant city with a European feel – largely due to the influence of French settlers who arrived in the early 19th century. A sheltered deep-water harbour ensured its prosperity, and as the fortunes of nearby Trinidad waned, wealthy merchants and plantation owners indulged in a building bonanza. After breakfast it’s worth a quick look at the ostentatious Parque José Martí, with its elegant Tomas Terry theatre and the Casino, formerly the sugar-planters’ club.

Driving north you come to the university town of Santa Clara, the site of the last battle of the revolution. It was Che Guevara’s victorious attack on an armoured train here that convinced Batista to flee the country. You will visit Che’s mausoleum and museum whose collection includes his famous iconic beret and leather jacket.

It’s only a short drive into the Sierra de Escambray, Cuba’s second-highest mountain range, dominated by Pico San Juan (1140m). Above the citrus groves on the lower slopes, the mountains are clad with thick vegetation. High rainfall and relative coolness gives rise to forests of Caribbean pine, bamboo and eucalyptus. The Topes de Collantes area is ideal for walking with plenty of birdlife – parrots and hummingbirds – as well as several beautiful waterfalls. Descending rapidly from the mountains you arrive in Trinidad. Hotel – 2 nights (B)

This morning you set off along the Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the Sugar Mills). At its busiest period some 43 mills ground sugar cane here to make molasses, but new production methods in the 19th century and the consequent drop in the price of sugar, ended the area’s importance. At Sancti Spíritus you may stop for a look at the old part of town around Puente Yayabo. From here you push on along the central highway, through the rolling savannah and cattle country of Ciego de Ávila province, to Camagüey. In pre-revolution days Camagüey was a prosperous town; it still looks pretty well-heeled and has its fair share of colonial buildings - particularly churches - and is generally simple and down to earth. It’s an easy place to explore on foot and you may arrive in time to get to the farmers’ market under the flame trees down by the river. Hotel – 1 night (B)

This mountain region is famed as Fidel Castro’s operational headquarters during the Revolution and this morning you head up the vertiginous road to Alto del Naranjo. A short trail brings you to the Comandancia de la Plata, Fidel’s original command post. The lush forests and giant ferns here mean good birding. This afternoon you return to Bayamo and pick up the highway that runs along the northern side of the Sierra Maestra to Santiago de Cuba, where the revolution was born. Cuba’s second city, another of Diego Velazquez’ seven creations of 1514, was the capital until 1553. The Spanish lost interest in the area once its meagre source of gold was exhausted, and when the capital moved to Havana, the entire eastern end of the island, known as Oriente, was almost abandoned. During this period, Santiago was at the mercy of French, English and Dutch pirates who roamed the Caribbean, then it received a massive influx of African slaves to work the nearby copper mine. At the end of the 18th century large numbers of French arrived from Haïti and founded modern sugar and coffee estates. This fusion of French, African, Spanish and Cuban elements produced a rich and unique culture which, coupled with its distance from Havana (some 900km), create Santiago’s highly distinctive feel. If time permits, you’ll do a quick orientation tour of this vibrant city to see its wonderful architectural heritage, which dates back to the 1520’s.  Hotel – 2 nights (B)

Today you leave Santiago to drive on the precipitous El Farola, a cantilevered road through the mountains to Baracoa. Built on a promontory between two bays, Baracoa is the absolute epitome of a sleepy tropical town. Christopher Columbus arrived here in 1492 and planted a cross which is still kept in the Iglesia de la Asunción. The discoverer of the New World later returned to be married here. The mountainous jungle hinterland offers lots of possibilities for day trips, or you can simply relax on the exquisite tiny beach at Maguana a little way up the coast. Hotel – 2 nights (B)