Some destinations have always seemed exotic to me! Cuba is one of them – isolated for so many years, but somewhere that you seem to know through literature. I’ve read Hemingway and Graham Greene, so it was somewhere that I had on my list of ‘places to go’. Last year, we did just that. Celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary in 2011 was a good excuse to splash out.
It was certainly an experience we’ll all remember, for the best of reasons. We flew with Thomson into Holguin and spent the first night at the Playa Pesquero. Lovely hotel complex, shame we didn’t have the time or energy to explore it for longer! After a couple of mojitos and dinner, we were ready for bed. As we were on a twin centre holiday, the next day a group of us were then bussed back to Holguin– quite a drive from the hotel. Our first experience of Cuba then started – the guide wasn’t sure how long the flight was? “Maybe 30 minutes?” The flight was a local airline and very casual, but after an hour in the air, we were wondering where we were headed. Anyway eventually we landed in Havana– but not the international airport, but the local airport, with guards along the perimeter fence. We were the only plane there and the luggage carousel was great.
Havana was a lovely city – great to walk around. The sightseeing bus introduced us to areas of the city that we couldn’t get to. There’s music everywhere, especially at night.
Back to Holguin, we stayed in an all inclusive hotel – plenty of rum and beer! The food was surprisingly good and I’d recommend the breakfast omelettes, there was always a queue. The kids loved swimming with dolphins – we were happy with the care the dolphins received there, but it’s a good idea to check it out before you book this.