• Submitted by: manso
• Travel and Tourism
• 06 / 27 / 2011

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By Sarah Whitfield King, Sunday Mirror 26/06/2011. WHAT better way to start a trip to Cuba than a visit to Havana’s Tropicana Club?

You’ll see a spectacular show, performed under the stars by a 32-piece orchestra and a cast of 200 dancers, which is sure to leave your head ­spinning.

Mind you, it could have something to do with the bottle of rum which arrives at your table as soon as you sit down, as much as the moves of the dancers on stage and high up in the trees.

We had two full days and two nights to explore the city on our Caribbean cruise aboard Saga Pearl II. And it could not have been easier with our ship moored within walking distance of Old Havana.

On a tour of the Romeo & Juliet Cigar Factory you can watch and chat as men and women busily roll cigars as fast as they smoke them!

Each worker makes around 120 each day by hand. And every cigar is inspected before it is packed... and sent back to be rolled again if it fails to meet the factory’s ­exacting standards.

The best way to see the city is to hire a horse and cart, and while I was ­discussing how much I should pay, a young man called Jose offered to be my guide. I was to learn a lot about life in Cuba during those 60 minutes.

Musicians seemed to be playing on every corner as we trotted through tiny streets, past large Spanish-style colonial houses, although many buildings were in desperate need of repair.

The American writer Ernest Hemingway spent much of his later life in Cuba and many of the bars and restaurants he ­frequented now bear his name.

His former home, La Vigia Farm, is now a museum and you can see his yacht, El Pilar, which he used for marlin fishing tournaments.

The house is very much stuck in a 1950s time warp, and is full of the hundreds of books he ­collected over the years.

Before sailing out of Havana, we stopped off at the National de Cuba Hotel, which has wonderful views across the bay, for a mojito cocktail – a Hemingway ­favourite.

After such a busy two days it was good to have a day at sea to recover and discover what our ship had to offer. The Saga Pearl II has a ­friendly atmosphere and the crew could not have been more helpful. There are two dining options – the ­Dining Room or the ­Verandah. I ­usually opted for the Verandah as food always seems to taste better al fresco.

And there were no nasty shocks when it came to the price of drinks with beer at £2.80 a pint, cocktails at £2 and bottles of wine from £10.

Stopping off at Cienfuegos, on the southern coast of Cuba, we boarded a bus and headed for Trinidad. The town used to make its money from smuggling and the sugar trade and is quite magical with stunning Spanish architecture, cobbled streets and an elegant cathedral. And the sugar barons knew how to live judging from one mansion we ­visited.

At Port ­Antonio in Jamaica, it was time to kick back and relax with an all day barbecue and plenty of swimming in the clear blue sea. The Dutch island of Aruba was a gentler experience after Cuba. After a boom in the 1920s following the discovery of oil offshore, the island now relies almost entirely on tourism.

You are never far from a smart hotel or a glorious beach and the capital Oranjestad is good for duty-free shopping, as well as being lined with elegant Dutch Colonial houses.

Our last destination was tiny Catalina Island, off the Dominican Republic, where there was time for a final swim after yet another ­delicious barbecue before sadly heading home.

We were certainly in no hurry to fly home...

Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/travel/2011/06/26/