Cuba School Group Holiday

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. During the afternoon you will travel across the channel leading into Havana's port, to visit the 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. This will give you an understanding of the British influence in Cuban history.  Havana's famous esplanade, the Malecón, extends seven kilometres along the seafront, lined with once elegant mansions. This is where young Havanans come 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. Overnight: Copacabana Hotel (BLD)

The Viñales Valley boasts the oldest geological formations in Cuba, unique to the area. Spectacular mogotes - sheer-sided, conical towers of limestone, some over 300 metres high are all that is left of a great plateau after millions of years of erosion by wind and water. The resultant karst terrain is similar to southern China or Vietnam - especially when a layer of mist carpets the valley floor in the early morning. It's a fascinating scene - all the more so when oxen are working the fields and the heady scent of tobacco fills the air as the plants reach maturity between January and April. You'll take a guided walk through this rich countryside to see something of rural life and hopefully stop at a farmer's house. In the afternoon you'll visit the Cueva del Indio, an impressive limestone cave, once inhabited by local Indians and filled with stalactites and stalagmites. A river runs through the second half of the cave and so you'll board a boat to take you through and out into the daylight. At dusk thousands of bats stream out of the cave to go and feed. Overnight: Hotel Aguas Clara (BLD)

We leave the hotel in the morning to visit Caleta Buena, where we spend the morning taking a boat trip on the pristine waters of this inlet in the natural swimming pool surrounded by plenty of tropical fishes. After lunch we continue to Cienfuegos for an orientation tour. This pleasant city has a European feel, largely due to the influence of French settlers who arrived in the early 19th century. It is know as the “Pearl of the South” because of the beauty of its bay. Pirates who roamed the Caribbean were kept at a distance by a fort being built in the canyon of the entrance of the bay in 1745. It is called the castle of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de Jagua. After the visit we continue to our Hotel located at the relatively narrow bay entrance overlooking the Castle Overnight: Pasa Caballo Hotel (BLD)