Hidden Cuba

An unusual flight routing to Havana via the eastern city of Holguin has enabled us to create this arrangement, combining the Caribbean’s most enthralling capital city with a beach stay in an unspoilt region of natural beauty. A stay in Guardalavaca facilitates exploration of the island’s lesser-known eastern provinces, home to deserted beaches, acres of national park and historic cities and towns including Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa, before flying to Havana and the heart of Cuba. Hotel Brisas Guardalavaca is a Cuban 4-star all-inclusive resort hotel with restaurants, snack bar, bar, disco, pool, tennis and 437 rooms with private facilities.

Santiago de Cuba is heralded as the birthplace of the Cuban Revolution thanks to its most famous citizen, political hero Frank Pais, who formed an urban alliance which became instrumental in the success of Castro’s Revolution. Baracoa, on the island’s eastern tip overlooking the Bahia de Miel (Bay of Honey), was the first Spanish settlement in Cuba.

Accessible only by sea until the 1960s, visitors are only just beginning to discover this pretty colonial town surrounded by virgin rainforest and secluded beaches. Equally unspoilt, Cayo Saetia is a unique nature reserve and safari park. This small key with acres of rainforest and species including ostriches, wild boar and flamingos, was traditionally a holiday hideaway for the Cuban Government and, in the words of Christopher Columbus, “such a beautiful thing has never been seen”.