Latino music wafting out of shuttered windows. Vintage cars rolling down wide boulevards. Spanish buildings gracefully falling to pieces in the sultry tropical air. Ancient forts standing guard over historic waterways… The sights and sounds of Cuba are romantic, exotic and oh-so-alluring. Perhaps the famous travel writer Graham Greene was right when he called the country’s capital city, Havana, the place where “anything was possible”.
Much of the island’s charm is the feeling of stepping into a time warp. Once you walk out through the doors of Jose Marti International Airport you may as well be back in the 1950s. Vintage Buicks ply the streets, there’s not a McDonalds in sight and good luck tracking down a cold Coca-Cola. The United States trade embargo that has kept Cuba in limbo for half a century has, in a way, gifted this Caribbean island with an extra dollop of charm.
All flights land in the capital of Havana, a highlight of any visit to the island, and the city’s atmospheric neighbourhoods have plenty to offer. The old quarter of Havana Vieja is where you’ll find the most beautiful architecture, most notably the striking Catedral de San Cristoal de la Habana at the central Plaza de la Catedral. If you fancy a legendary mojito, stop in at La Bodeguita del Medio, a little bar made famous by Ernest Hemingway.
The working class neighbourhood of Havana Centro may be less immediately charming, but it’s here you’ll find Real Fabrica de Tabacos Partagas, one of Cuba's oldest cigar factories and the best place to watch the cigar-rollers at work. Come sunset, the seafront Malecón promenade is a fine spot to soak up city life.
But just as London is not all there is to England, so there’s far more to Cuba than Havana. The limestone hills and verdant farmland in and around Viñales make for a refreshing break from the city streets, while the Spanish colonial architecture and cobbled alleys of Trinidad have rightly seen the town declared a World Heritage Site.
Not far off you’ll find the fashionable Playa Ancon, one of Cuba’s many idyllic beaches lapped by the warm Caribbean. For a more private paradise, head for Las Brujas and the island of Cayo Levisa.
There’s plenty of natural beauty to be found across Cuba. The Zapata Peninsula has been declared a nature reserve, while the Sierra Maestra and Sierra del Escambray mountains offer wonderful hiking.
The scenery may be timeless, but the charm of Cuba lies precisely in the passage of time. It’s been temporarily frozen on this Caribbean island, but that could all be about to change with the signing of an agreement set to thaw the frosty relations between the US and Cuba (American cruise ships are already departing Miami for Cuba).
The time to visit Cuba is now and, with affordable flights from South Africa via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines, you could find yourself in Havana quicker than you can say “Viva la revolución!”
