Posts Tagged ‘Cuba’

Cuba, Travel Guide

- To get into the tropical atmosphere of Cuba at its fiftieth. Among the American automobiles, the smoky bars of Havana, the effect is assured.

- For its fantastic sea. Cuba offers about six thousand kilometers of splendid Caribbean coast, with beaches and cliffs for all likes.

- For the people’s hospitality, not always interested as it is wanted to make you believe. The Cubans are people full of happiness and eager to leave, people who love to find the foreigner, just to exchange ideas.

- To smoke the best tobaccos in the world, made by hand with the leaves of Vuelta Abajo. You can also attend to the making of the tobacco in a factory or maybe inside of a big hotel, where there are exhibited in parties, authenticate preparations for the tobacco’s artists.

- To travel through out the town of Hemingway, a North American writer that lived in the island from the 1939 to the 1961 and where he wrote some of his romances.

GEOGRAPHICAL DATA

Located in the Caribbean Sea, Cuba, with a longitude of about 1.200 kms and a surface of 110.860 Km., is the biggest island in the biggest Antilla. It is at about 200 Km. from the island of Keys and it is close to The Mexican peninsula of Yucatan in and the island of Hispaniola. More than the main island, The Cuban Republic gathers all the isles and islands that surround it. Great part of the Cuban coast is low and sandy, with numerous bays and areas of lagoons and paludose. Its interior is of plains, interrupted by the Sierra de los Organos to the west, the Sierra del Escambray to the center and the Sierra Maestra to the east. Its population is of about 11 million inhabitants.

Time Zone: -6.0 (summer); -6.0 (winter)

Duration of the days 13.5 hours (June); minimum 11.0 hours (December)

WHEN TO GO

Period better: February, March

Good period: January, April, December

Worse Period: September, October

WEATHER

The dry station which is naturally the best period to go, begins at the end of October and finishes in April. The rains station is from April to October, but in these months precipitations, although are abundant always occurs in the half-day and for a short period.

What to take

Without doubts the bathing suit. And then summer clothes, shirts and cotton pullouvers, short and long pants. And do not forget besides, the shoes for walking in the afternoons, to take also a pair of sandals.

CULTURE/MUSEUMS

City Museum

Address: Plaza de Armas, Havana

Schedule: 9.30-18.30

Entrance is paid

One of the main museums of histoty and culture of the isle. It offers a rich exposition ofartistic testimonies bengining from the colonial period up to firts years of the republic.

Revolution Museum

Address: Palacio Presidencial, Calle Refugio, Havana

Schedule: 10-17; Saturday up to 18

Entrance is paid

All that is wanted to know about the myth of the Cuban revolution is exposed in this place, in the ex-presidential building that housed as last tenant, the dictator Batista up to 1959,documents, registrations and movies on the revolutionary epic poem.

National Museum

Address: Calle Trocadero, Havana

Schedule: 10-17; closed Tuesday and Wednesday

Entrance is paid

The exhibition is divided in several sections. The pinacoteca, with linens from Spanish, Englishmen, Danish teachers, among them stand out Velásquez, Murillo, Goya and Turner; the Egyptian old art collection, grecian and Roman, considered the most important in Latin America, the gallery dedicated to the Cuban painting from the XVII century to our days, the ceramic collection, and a space for the contemporary exhibitions.

Hemingway Museum

Address: San Francisco de Paula, San Miguel del Padrón, 12 km from Havana

Schedule: 9-16; Sundays 9-12.30

Entrance is paid

Dedicated to the enthusiasts of North American writer who lived in this building from 1939 to 1961. It was here where Hemingway wrote “Whom sound the bells for” and the “Old man and the sea”.

Music National Museum

Address: Calle Cárcel, Havana

Schedule: 9-17; Sundays 8-12; Closed on Mondays

Entrance is paid

There are exposed numerous Afro-Cuban musical instruments, besides the Fernando Ortiz anthropologist’s private collection. Disks, scores and instruments are sold, also some concerts are presented in the museum saloon.

CUBAN CUISINE

The traditional cuisine in Cuba is excellente and it would be a sin to get lost looking for other inetrnational plates, proposed in other local. The Cuban culinary art is born from the encounter of the precolumbian cuisine with the African, French, Spanish, English, and the Hindu and indonesa. The result of this is a miracle of the balance. There are fruits very often so as (mango, papaya, avocado,) mainly to accompany salted plates and to form part of the base of cocktails and drinks.It is used a lot the pig meat, lots of chicken, mainly in the inside of the country, while in the coastal restaurants are intend exquisite sea plates: fish, crustaceans cooked in several ways. The national plate is the “ajiaco” a soup with the help of potato, banana, corn, calf meat, Chicken, and dry meat. Another typical food is the “congri”, made with black beans and rice cooked all together , accompanied by “pig pork cracklings”. The “fufú” is on the other hand a banana puree seasoned with “mojo”, a fried lightly of oil garlic and cumin. Do not loose teh oportunity to taste the “Creole lobster” that is nothing else but a fried lobster with tomato, onions, peppers, spicy pepper and sour orange juice. Among the candies the “boniatillo”, made of sweet potato and sugar and the “coquito acaramelado” also “la mala rabia” also made of sweet potato sugra cane sirope, cinnamon and sweet orange shell. The diffused drink is the coffee, served to the American way, that is to say not few, and the rum is pure that serve as base to any prepared swig or the numerous cocktails so as Cuba Libre, the Rum punk or Piña Colada. Cuba also produces an excellent beer. The diffused national marks are the Mayabe and The Lagarto.

FUN/SHOPPING

Who doesn’t know the Cuban rum and tobacco, known for everyone as best in the world? In the island there are lots of opportunities to return home with some good music, revolutionary souvenir and why not an automobile of the fifty years.

Tobaccos

The tobaccos or cigarettes are of different sizes, they are sold loose or in elegant wooden boxes. Just to see them makes yoy buy them although you are not a smoker, maybe for a beautiful gift. The prices are almost half of the prices in Italy. For example a box with three Montecristo Sigars N.4 costs at about 10 American dollars. They can be bought in the stores. At Havana in the House of 5a and 16 (5a Ave y 16). In Santiago in Casa del Tabaco (Ave. Jesus Menéndez 730). Pay attention to the conservation of the tobacco. An adequate humidity is needed for them.

Craft

Cuban craft reflex the influence of diverse cultures, mainly the African. Many objects are related with the santería, the Afro-Cuban religion diffused per excellency in the island. There can be dolls of pieces and ceramic, masks made of paper maché and wooden sculptures. Puppets of tamarind seeds are also made. Pretty hats palm feathers fibers or of knitted coconut. Baskets and bags are also made. In old Havana there is the Craft Palace (Calle Cuba 64). In Santiago in the Craft House (Cathedral Plaza).

Foods

The rum is bought obligatorily and the most famous mark is The Havana Club in several versions: Liquor, the most economic; Carta Blanca 3 years and particularly used for the cocktails. Carta Oro, 5 years, and the most refined matured during 7 years. The precise goes from 4 to 7 American dollars each bottle. For adventurers the most valuable rum in Cuba is the retained Matusalem, product from Santiago de Cuba matured during 25 years, it can be around the 15 dollars the bottle in Casa del Ron de Obispo y Bernaza in Old Havana.

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Cuba, Its Symbols and Wonders

Cuba is a wonderful island. Anyone can get there easily from any part of the world trough scheduled flights that link its capital, Havana, and other recreational places with the most significant world areas.

Anyone can daily arrive to the country and get in touch with its well preserved sites and enjoy the landscape, living it.

We are talking about a tropical country, with a nice temperature during all the year round, and with recreational resorts along the country. The Cuban people are very communicative and cheerful, and the country is safe, beautiful and interesting, three perfect reasons to pick a place to go on vacations.

The Cuban archipelago is made up of a great island and a  little one, The Isle of Youth, and more than 4 thousand keys and small islands bordering the whole Island, which geographers compare with an caiman’s silhouette.

Among its better recreational options are in first place its own capital and Old Havana inside it, and also Varadero Beach, located 140 km far from the central metropolis.

By the way, Havana City at night is also a touristic attraction due to its great deal of night centers, like the famous Cabaret “Tropicana” or the Cabaret “Parisien” at Hotel Nacional de Cuba, among other nightclubs, where you can listen to Cuban music, jazz or boleros, and mainly dance and have a lot of fun.

Cuba is divided in 14 provinces and the special municipality of the Isle of Youth. Within its area of 110 922 km2 are included 4 195 keys and small islands. It has 1 200 km long.

According to the most recently census, Cuba has a population over 11 120 inhabitants, and there are altogether 169 municipalities.

When in 1961 illiteracy was eradicated on the island, the education became free and legally obligatory.

Cuba’s health-care is one of the most remarkable achievements of the local authorities. It has a primary health-care system widespread along the island, free for all Cubans and unique in Latin America. Interesting facts are that the infant mortality rate is 5,3 for every 1000 live births, and life expectancy at birth is 75,2  years.

The national sport is baseball. The Cuban flag has an equilateral triangle which standing for the longing for freedom, equality and fraternity. Its red color means the blood shed in order to achieve that independence, represented by the lone star, located in the middle of the triangle.  Three blue stripes stand for the three departments in which the island was divided into. It has also two white stripes as a symbol of the power of the independence ideal.

The Cuba’s coat has an upper section with a golden key symbolizing the important geographic position of Cuba at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The national Bird is “Tocororo”, endemic species whose feathers have the colors of the Cuban flag. The national Flower is the “Mariposa” (jasmine butterfly) and the “Palma Real” (royal palm tree) is the national Tree.

Hemingway in Cuba: His arrival and Love for the Island

On April 1928, the steamship Orita coming from France docked in the port of Havana Bay. Among its many travellers, the American writer Ernest Hemingway was on the ship in his transit for Key West. It was his first time in Cuba and spent on the island only a few hours. He returned in 1932 and again in 1933 staying during his two visits in the Ambos Mundos Hotel, located on Obispo St, in the very heart of Old Havana. This hotel was both his house and office for nearly 10 years. He liked it so much due to the view he could get of the old city, the hustle and bustle of the people, the closeness to his boat (docked in the port), and the places he worshipped the most in Havana: the bars and coffee shops where he got together with his friends, both national and foreign. He was also fascinated with the flavor of the tropical fruits, especially those of pineapple and mango. He used to say that Cuba “filled him with juices”.

Hemingway loved the nature of the island as well, especially the nature surrounding the sea and the nearby keys. In the articles and books he would write during that period he described with admirable perfection the coralline bottom of the sea, the virgin beaches, and the hard work that the humble fishermen passed through day to day; fishermen he helped out so much. In 1933 his second wife, Paulina, was involved in a street shooting and Ernest decided to go away for some time. They decided to go to Santander, Spain and when departing he said to his friends that he hoped that the days of that “miserable tyrant Machado” were over soon.  During the trip he found out by the radio that Machado had been defeated by a popular revolution. A part of that experience was expressed in his novel “Have and Have Not”.

In 1939, married to Marta Gellhorn, he began to think of having his permanent residence in Cuba. Marta was not very fond of the bohemian life they were living in the Ambos Mundos Hotel and she found the Vigía Farmhouse (in San Francisco de Paula, 9 miles away from Havana City) while looking for a rental. At the very beginning Hemingway did not want to move out, but after the reconstruction and arrangements his wife made, he decided to move in and a year later he became the owner of the estate. In the quietness of his new home, the author wrote his most fascinating novels: “The Old Man and the Sea” and “For Whom the Bells Toll”.

The Vigía Farmhouse is a three-story building, very spacious and illuminated, surrounded by a exuberant and fresh garden, full of palm trees, 18 varieties of mango trees and a huge ceiba. In the first story of the building there was a room that housed more than 50 cats (some of which are buried in the garden with tombstones). The decoration of the house was bungalow-like, having a great number of the trophies he earned during his safaris in Africa and a very important library that housed more than 8 thousand books. Nowadays, the Vigía Farmhouse (donated by his last wife Mary Welsh) receives a large amount of visitors who can see the rooms with the original furniture and personal belongings of Hemingway much as he left them when he departed for good from the island, in 1960.

Cuba Acccommodation. Accommodation in Cuba for Vacation Travel. Cheap Hotels in Cuba. Accommodations in Cheap Hotels & Hostels. Online Room Bookings

Cuba-hostels.com online provides confirmed reservations for rooms in Hotels and Casas Particulares in the whole Cuba, as well as in Cheap Hotels in Havana, Varadero and other places of the island. All the reservations are processed by the maximum safety, in real-time and they are reserves guaranteed for our tourists.

All the rooms, apartments and private houses offered for Cuba-hostels.com are provided with a license to do this activity, which from 1997, the Cuban government allows that proprietors of private house or apartments should rent rooms, in the style of Bed and Breakfast, usual in other countries. They are called Casas Particulares, because are in private houses. Since then, thousands of Cuban families offer accommodation to the tourists who want to visit Cuba of a different form.

The offers change very much from one house to other one: a few other simple times have a private bath, air conditioning, a patio, a balcony or the use of the family court, sometimes a typical Spanish colonial house with high roofs and ancient furniture, rooms in buildings placed in full historical center of the cities with major tourist attraction. In any case the familiar ambience and the gentleness of the Cuban family, it compensates any possible disadvantage. But in all the cases the entire safety and cleanliness plays a vital part in the ambience of coexistence and of hospitality. The prices change from 15 CUC to 35 CUC depending on the type of house, on the locality or on the period. The most expensive rooms are the placed ones in the city of Havana.

The majority of the proprietors of private house offer breakfast (approximately 3 CUC) and meals or dinners for a price between 7 CUC and 10 CUC as the offer. All the Cuban who offer accommodation is obliging and kind and they will help you in everything what is to his scope: tourist information of interest about the zone, to call to a taxi, to recommend to you a local restaurant (paladares) or another private house in another village that is in your itinerary.

Lodge at private house is the best way of discovering the real nature of Cuba and cuban people, since contacts and conversations can be established more easily in the intimacy of a hearth, which in a big hotel complex, only suitable for not Cuban tourists, where the Cuban reality shines for his absence.

Cuba hotels awards: a way through excellence

Looking for more than good-value hotels in Cuba? Discover a selection of Cuba hotels that have received several prizes and awards, granted by international tour operators and tourism specialists. These leading facilities could be a fine choice for your perfect Cuba holiday or vacation if you trust well-known expertsâ?? criteria.

One of the most prestigious lists of the best hotels worldwide is The Gold List of Condé Nast Traveller. This annual list includes a selection of the hotels around the world that have the best service, rooms, food, ambience and design, location and leisure facilities. The Saratoga hotel, one of Old Havana hotels, received a high rating in the readersâ?? travel awards 2006 survey, since it was at 24 in the hot list 2006 of the 60 best new hotels in the world within the category â??Best for Ambience/Designâ?. You can find this distinguished facility in a prime location opposite the Capitol at Havana City. Art lovers will appreciate the Cuban art in all the public spaces of the property and the â??mélangeâ? of colonial and contemporary styles at bedrooms and lounges.

If you look further examples of hotel excellence then you should consider the World Travel Awards, voted by travel agents worldwide. They were established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate the achievements in all sectors of the global travel industry. These awards are regarded as the â??Oscarsâ? of the tourism industry by The Wall Street Journal. Cuba hotels winners at 2007 and 2008 were Hotel Nacional de Cuba as Cubaâ??s Leading Hotel and Sandals Royal Hicacos Resort & Spa was the Leading Resort. A classy Cuban hotel at the Cuban capitol city and a gorgeous beach resort in one of the best beaches of the island and of the Caribbean, these are the choices of tens of thousands of travel experts, such as travel agents and other travel professionals.

Also Thomas Cook, one of the most important tour operators in the world, recently accorded its Marque of Excellence Award to Paradisus Rio de Oro Resort & Spa, a hotel which received several important prizes in 2008. For those seeking blissful vacations, here you will find a piece of your own paradise. This elegant resort, located right alongside Playa Esmeralda beach in the province of Holguin, has received for the fifth time the Marque of Excellence Award (2002, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008) due to the quality ratings granted by clients among holguin hotels. Since it is a 5-star Ultra All-Inclusive hotel that was conceived for adults over 18 years, it is more suitable for romantic getaways, weddings, honeymoons, events and vacations with group of friends.

Plus, Trip Advisor, the largest travel destinations and tips guide in the Web, granted this Cuba hotel two Travelers Choice 2008 Awards (The Best All-Inclusive in the World and the Most Romantic Hotel in Latin America and the Caribbean). These popular distinctions in the tourist industry represent the views of millions of travelers that have selected this hotel for its outstanding service.

Moreover, Paradisus Río de Oro hotel received the Gold Medal 2008 Award accorded by clients of First Choice, the leading British wholesale company. Also in 2006, the Paradisus Rio de Oro was awarded the Travelersâ?? Choice Prize in the category of Most Outstanding Hidden Jewels of the Caribbean. Want a better reason to go there in your next Cuba vacations?

If you prefer more responsible and ecologic hotels then you should try Brisas Guardalavaca hotel at Holguín province. This Cuba hotel has won the important award â??Green Planet Awardâ? presented by the European Tour Operator Kuoni. This distinction is given to the hotels contracted by this tour operator with relevant results in terms of Environmental Care. This facility has also received the National Basic Environmental Award presented by the Ministry of Technology and Environment in Cuba. So if your catchphrase is â??a better and a greener world is possibleâ? then you should consider Brisas Guardalavaca in the top of your Cuba hotels choices.

Also for environment enthusiasts there is a fine resort at Varadero hotels, the Iberostar Tainos hotel, which has won an Environmental Hotel Award among the available varadero hotels in 2004/05. Singles, couples and families will appreciate the good four-star value of this recently built hotel, set on a beautiful stretch of beach surrounded by tropical gardens.

Other Cuba hotels have won international distinctions like Meliá Las Antillas, which was awarded the Primo Neckermann Reisen 2008 Award thanks to the rankings given by clients of the important German tour operator Neckermann, part of Thomas Cook group. This property ranked among the 100 best and most popular hotels in the world in 2008! So if you want to experience a truly unforgettable holiday you should look after this offer, an All-Inclusive Superior 4-star resort especially recommended for weddings, honeymoons, tourist groups and circuits.

Also the magnificent Paradisus Princesa del Mar hotel was granted the Marque of Excellence Award 2007 by leading tour operator Thomas Cook, in recognition of the hotelâ??s high service standards and quality of its accommodations. Whatâ??s important about this award is that clients are the ones who assess the hotels by responding to Thomas Cookâ??s satisfaction polls, which measure the service, facilities and quality of the accommodations. It is conceived for adults aged 18 and over and it is highly recommended for those who want to spend some time in romantic environments with extraordinary scenic views and total privacy.

Deciding for any holiday is not an easy thing and planning where to stay is sometimes one of the most stressful parts of planning a vacation. So be a wise traveler and follow the expertâ??s opinion on your next retreats in Cuba.