It really has been forever, please forgive me. I will be getting back into the swing of things now ...
It really has been forever, please forgive me. I will be getting back into the swing of things now I have got used to having my baby Daniel around! Hope you are all well and I'll be catching up very soon x x Fanks!
Member since:28.12.2001
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Hello all! At last back from my two-week adventure in the Caribbean! This is going to be a long one so you can turn back now if you wish!!
We were getting the feeling that our last holiday was about 20 years ago so on goes the telly, flip to ITV, pop on the text and straight to page 224! We always use teletext to book our holidays; we get last minute deals and save a fortune so we can have another holiday later in the year.
We wanted to get a named destination as it’s nice to know where you are going before you get there, especially if you’re going a bit further than normal. There were some cheaper options than the one we took but we did want to know where we would be staying. Apart from the four hotels on the Island there is not much more. All the hotels are all-inclusive and range from 3-5*. We stayed in the Iberostar Daiquiri, other hotels on the Island included the 5* Melia and the 3* Sol Club
We visited the north side of Cuba, a couple of Islands that make up the Cayo’s. There is Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo.
Cayo Guillermo is
where we decided to go as it’s less developed and joined to Cuba by a 68km causeway. The Cayo’s are in no way the real Cuba, if you go here you must take trips out of the Cayo’s. The Cayo’s are shut off from all locals and the only Cubans allowed in have to stop at a checkpoint and they make sure they are employees of the four hotels that are situated on Cayo Guillermo. Apart from the four hotels on the Island there is not much more.
We decided on Cuba, as it’s one of the less developed, less commercial Islands in the Caribbean. We looked on the internet for information and found that the Cayo’s are fairly new, they are purpose built tourist resorts but the trips you can go on will show you what the country is really like.
We arrived at the airport, which was very, very small and only manages two planes at most. The drive to the resort took about an hour and 30 minutes, on the drive there we go over the causeway and were greeted by pink flamingoes! How lovely!
The resort consisted of blocks of rooms in a sort of Spanish/Mexican style; the rooms have two small double beds, TV, balcony, en suite. There are three shops, two restaurants (Mexican and Cuban) Main buffet and the beach bar that serves snacks and burgers. The food is all very nice with a wide range of fish, veggies and meats. The only thing they seemed to fail on was the sweets, for some reason they thought pink or green icing was attractive on cakes!! Never mind, there is always fruit and ice cream!
There was entertainment every night, each night was different for the full two weeks. The entertainment was brilliant, all members of staff work really hard on the productions and they are very well put together and the costumes are fantastic.
Now, the beach and the sea was lovely, Cuba have the second largest barrier reef after the Great Barrier Reef. We did take a trip on a catamaran that was great, we had lobster for lunch and snorkeled. The reef was wonderful, I had been snorkeling in the Maldives but all the reefs had died due to a large storm a few years ago. This on the other had was so colourful and bright, the fish selection wasn’t as nice though… there were massive fish, with big teeth and big eyes…barracuda I think they’re called! Yuk, nasty things, how scared was I? VERY!! This trip cost about $60, which was well worth it as all food, drink and equipment, was included.
The best trip and almost a must if you visit the more touristy areas is the trip to Havana itself, you need this to know what Cuba is really about. This did cost around $290 so quite expensive but includes everything. You can go for the day only for less but I can imagine this would be half as good. It starts with a coach journey to the airport then a 50-minute flight to Havana, Cuba is about the size of the UK, so quite large really! Only go on the trips that are backed by your tour operator, as a lot of their planes are not maintained very well.
We got to Havana and visited many places including Revolution Square, where the very famous freedom fighter Che Guevara has his picture up. We visited rum factories and museums, the old cars and the buildings were amazing, it almost seems like they have stopped the clock in the 1950’s and nothing has changed since! The city is very tatty but they are now restoring a lot of it. Some of it is World heritage. We stayed in the Cuba Libra hotel, this is one of the nicest hotels in the city. Built by the Hilton Group and taken off them when the country moved to communism (or socialism as they like to call it!) The hotel doesn’t look much from the outside as it was built in the early 50’s but the inside is fantastic, the rooms are absolutely beautiful.
The highlight of that trip for me was the famous Club Tropicana, previously the Copacabana (remember the song? Barry Manilow…. why do I know that?!) The dancers and the costumes were just amazing, well worth the trip.
My other half is a bit of a diver and said that here was the best place he had dived yet, due to the coral reef’s and the range of fish and sharks…!
If you want to buy presents for family and friends you will be limited, they do produce very good rum and also the world’s finest cigars! These cigars are well worth bringing back as they are an absolute bargain compared to the prices you pay here. Cohiba are the best cigars followed by Monte Cristo and Romeo Y Julieta. We could buy a single on over there for about $2-$3 (£1.80) Over here in the local tobacco shop a single one will cost around £14! Wow! What a saving, to be quite honest I’m really getting into them!
The country’s leader is still Fidel Castro, the country still have a full trade embargo on them from the USA. Cuba played a massive part in the cold war hand in hand with Russia. Once Russia collapsed Cuba has had to turn to tourism to keep going, they often have petrol problems as they pay an absolute fortune to Mexico for it.
The Cubans cannot leave Cuba unless they are invited. The process is very lengthy and not one that would be easily done. The only way to leave Cuba would be to escape.
All Cubans earn the same amount of money, around $20 per month. This would not matter if you were a teacher, doctor or bell boy – the latter being the best job in the country, you could earn treble your wage a week in tips! They all have free health care, they have excellent education, and there is one doctor per 150 people! They also get their housing, their cars allocated and food vouchers, all transport and bills are paid for them.
Cuba is a wonderful place to go, the people are friendly and the scenery is fantastic. Do be careful when you go as we had a weeks worth of rain! The rainy season is from May to November.
The only bad thing about the holiday was the flight with JMC, they used a large plane but the seats were so squished together! It should only be used for short haul flights to Spain etc not 12 hour flights to Cuba (due to a stop over in the Bahamas – we were not allowed to get off either!) No wonder they have economy class syndrome! The JMC rep was wonderful and the only other complaint I had was a bit of a dodgy belly! We won’t go into that though….!
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a lot of great details, especially about the resort where you stayed. I found the structure/organisation of the opinion a little hard to follow.
Paiceyjohn 10.06.2002 12:40
Hi Redhead, it is a helpful opinion and you have some good information and you get your opinion across. I just had a few minor quibbles; while reading I found myself scratching my head a couple of times, there were a few areas that I thought needed a little more detailed explanation to avoid (my) confusion and I wonder whether you could've thought a little more about organisation. However as I seem to be out on a limb all by myself you can ignore me as a loony if you like! I hope I've answered your question. Cheers, John.
Dalesman 09.06.2002 15:20
Sounds excellent, we usually end up in Florida most years, and never fly charter for the same reasons you hated with JMC, most transatlantic charter flights are like sardine packers outings, and to fly scheduled can actually work out cheaper if you book it all on the internet like me....I will look forward to reading some more of your OPs..thanks again and good to meet you on Ciao..Andrew
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China.girl 03.07.2000 ·
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Review of General: Cuba
Jun 6th, 2002
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