• Submitted by: manso
• Travel and Tourism
• 02 / 05 / 2011

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Beach, music and luxury at Barceló Marina Palace. This is it! It's Week 5 of the Winnipeg Free Press Great Winter Escape Contest, featuring the last of five resort choices that one lucky winner will have.

Remember, the contest ends at noon next Tuesday, Feb. 8 and all entries must be received by that time. The winner will be chosen from online and print entries on Wednesday, Feb. 9 and announced in next Saturday's Free Press Travel section.

Ixtapa Travel, in conjunction with Air Transat Holidays and Barceló Resorts, is offering one lucky winner the choice of one of five all-inclusive packages with direct flights from Winnipeg and seven nights' accommodation. Transfers and departure taxes are included and, if the winner is a six-day Free Press home subscriber, there's also $200 in spending money courtesy of Ixtapa Travel.

So far, we've featured four Barceló Resorts, all four-and-a-half star properties, in varying locations in Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Today's prize package is in one of the most popular winter vacation areas for Manitoba travellers: Varadero, Cuba.

Option 5 is seven nights at the lovely beachfront Barceló Marina Palace in a junior suite, complete with all the extra Prestige Class inclusions offered through Air Transat Holidays at select Barceló Resorts.

The resort has 548 junior suites set in low-rise buildings along a spectacular white sand beach. Situated near Marina Gaviota, the most important sea point in Cuba, the resort boasts a lighthouse tower, two free-form pools with jacuzzis plus a kids' pool and playground. The hotel is adjacent the Parque Natural de Varadero on the Hicacos peninsula, an unspoiled natural park that is free for visitors and contains 14 archaeological sites.

The Barceló Marina Palace Prestige Class guest rooms feature one king or two three-quarter beds, hair-dryer, coffee-maker, mini-bar, iron, balcony or terrace. All Prestige Class rooms are located closest to the beach (which is only a matter of steps in many cases) and include: concierge service, three guaranteed a la carte dinner reservations per week, continental breakfast and lunch service at the beach grill, separate check-in, beach towels, bathrobes and slippers in the room upon arrival, mini-bar stocked with beer, water and soft drinks, VIP room amenities (soaps and lotions), turn-down service, welcome gift and distinct ID bracelet, 24-hour snacks and drink service, admission to the disco and scuba-diving clinic.

Food and drink will definitely be at the top of the list in this superior resort, which features Spanish, Italian and Cuban a la carte restaurants in addition to the regular buffet. There is bar and food service open 24 hours a day for Prestige Class guests and a disco that promises to keep everyone hopping until the wee hours.

For the sports enthusiast, there is snorkeling, aqua cycle, windsurfing, kayaking, tennis and shuffleboard. The ocean and beach are definitely the main attractions here and, even if you aren't a water person, you can spend hours watching the kite-boarders sail across the waves. This area is popular with experienced kite-boarders and windsurfers and you will be fascinated by their huge jumps and aerial acrobatics.

For something a bit calmer, people-watching is also a favourite sport along this stretch of beach. With wide expanses of white sand spanning more than 18 kilometres and four different shades of blue reflected in the ocean, Varadero attracts tourists from around the world, including England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Eastern Europe, South and North America.

If you decide you want to venture away from this windswept paradise to experience more of Varadero and the beautiful country of Cuba, Air Transat Holidays has a good selection of excursions that can be purchased at the resort.

Favourites include the snorkelling adventure at Coral Beach with an underwater coral reef located only 15 metres offshore. Or spend the day on a luxurious catamaran with a typical Cuban seafood dinner, open bar and entertainment. Everyone wants a chance to swim with the dolphins and the Delfinarium tour lets you do this in a natural mangrove lagoon.

A visit to Cuba would not be complete without a visit to historical Havana. With its Che Guevara billboards, 1950s automobiles and Ernest Hemingway hot spots, Havana is a step back in time. The market and cafés are alive and bustling. The music is captivating and the experience overwhelming and not to be missed.

Then there is Varadero, which is easy to experience on your own. You can take the double-decker bus, which departs right outside the hotel or hop a cab for the short ride into town. If you're lucky, the cab ride back to the hotel may be in a '57 Chevy Bel Air, a '56 Chevy or '59 Ford Fairlane, all of which are lovingly cared for and kept up by the drivers.

The restaurants and nightclubs in town often feature their own bands and in no time you will learn to salsa and rumba with the best. (And don't forget to buy the band's CD to support their efforts).

So basically, if you choose the Barceló Marina Palace package, you're getting a lot of things packaged all in one: luxury accommodation, a never-ending white sand beach, the best music anyone could hope for on a holiday and the warm smiling faces of the Cuban people, anxious to share their history and culture.

The winner of the contest will have a tough choice to make. One thing for sure, no matter which Air Transat Holidays prize package they choose in Cuba, the Dominican Republic or Mexico, they won't have to shovel any snow.Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 5, 2011 E5.

Source: www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/cuban-delight-115354439.html