Cuba: the all-inclusive resorts and gorgeous beaches or the communist island where comrades earn £19 a month
There's a revolution happening, albeit a subtle one, in opening up Cuba to hordes of tourists
HOLIDAYS are full of choices – such as which sunbed to lay on and whether to drink a mojito or a piña colada.
But Cuba throws up more options than most Caribbean islands.
Like its neighbours, it has the glitzy, all-inclusive resorts, where holidaymakers lounge on the beach and queue at all-you-can-eat buffets.
Unlike them, it’s also a functioning Communist country, where the typical Comrade earns £19 a month.
So which side of Cuba do you choose to visit?
Previously, the capital of Havana was the obvious entry point into the country.
From there it was a long schlep by bus — over two hours — along bumpy roads to a resort such as Varadero.
But increasingly, airlines are flying direct to the resorts as well, making it easier to see both sides of the country.
Varadero is paradise, but it’s not the real Cuba. Sipping a neon blue cocktail by the pool as a conga line — the dance was invented in Cuba — snakes past, you could be anywhere in the Caribbean.
The all-inclusive Iberostar Resort on the Varadero peninsula is a 5H hotel and one of the country’s best.
It’s on a beach with soft white sand, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and the main pool has a swim-up bar and group activities, including limbo dancing.
The resort’s five restaurants include the Mediterranean-themed La Dorada, where you can have French toast and bacon cooked to order for breakfast.
For children aged four to 12 there’s a kids’ club and family entertainment in the evening. But should you fancy some peace and quiet, the resort is more than big enough to escape the activities.
In contrast to Varadero, Havana — 90 miles to the west — shows the real Cuba.
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The capital is a hectic, muddled, noisy city, full of impressive squares and tumbledown buildings, where tourists dodge vintage cars painted in cartoon colours while crossing the street.
In the bars, the ghost of writer Ernest Hemingway, who lived in Cuba on and off from the 1930s, orders yet another of his trademark daiquiri cocktails.
I go for a ride in a white Chevrolet, which, bar the odd replacement part, is more than 70 years old. My driver Tony takes me out along the Malecon, the main drag along Havana’s seafront.
We pass the glam Hotel Nacional, where Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra and Marlene Dietrich have all stayed. Havana’s Club Tropicana — a camp cabaret night — which has run since 1939 also showcases the capital’s glitzy side.
The dancing is super slick and the costumes are outrageous. Bottles of rum at each table ensure that there’s an excess of volunteers keen to join the dancers on stage once the two-hour show ends after midnight.
But the Cuban capital has an edgier side, off the tourist track, of dilapidated buildings, their water pipes leaking into pot-holed streets.
Foreign holidaymakers are still a novelty in Cuba. As one guide told me: “We are just babies when it comes to tourism.”
When Fidel Castro seized power with his Argentinian pal Che Guevara in January 1959, he was hailed a hero by the poor, who had suffered under brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista.
He wanted to create a society where everyone was equal. But over the decades, he became like the tyrant he had overthrown. In 2006, Fidel handed power to his brother Raul, before dying last November, aged 90.
Che, which means “pal” in South American Spanish, meanwhile, was executed at 39 by CIA-backed troops in Bolivia.
The guerrilla is now remembered as the brooding hero immortalised in that iconic photo, in which he wears his trademark beret.
The typical Cuban earns 400 pesos a month and a five-litre bottle of detergent costs 100 pesos. Yet images of Fidel and slogans honouring his legacy are everywhere. Posters read “Gracias Fidel” (Thanks Fidel) and “Nuestro mejor amigo” (Our best friend).
The regime has softened in recent years, and there is now some room for private enterprise. La Guardia restaurant in Havana is a magnet for celebs such as Beyonce, Rihanna and Robert De Niro.
Perched at the top of a doorless, crumbling building down a back street, it is a fitting symbol of Cuba’s resurgence.
Scratch below the surface and Cuba glitters.
La Guardia was the first ever private restaurant in Cuba, opened in 1996. Now there are 300 in Havana alone.
In April, Virgin Holidays launched its first direct flight from Gatwick to Varadero, making it the only UK airline to fly year-round to both the resort and Havana.
You could have seen both sides of Cuba before. But the new route makes a different part of this vast country more accessible.
It’s a revolution, albeit a subtle one, in opening up Cuba to hordes of tourists.
So go first for a dip in the Caribbean off Varadero, jumping off a catamaran to snorkel in the bath-warm sea.
And then later in your holiday, cruise through Havana in a vintage car, puffing on a cigar to a banging salsa soundtrack.
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