Over Easter 2008 we visited Cuba. This was my first visit to a Spanish-speaking country which wasn’t Spain, so I was really interested to see what differences I would encounter in the language and was very pleased to find that I could understand the locals and they had no problem understanding me – although they could tell I had learnt ‘Spanish’ Spanish, if you see what I mean!

I wanted to stay in a ‘crumbling grandeur’ sort of hotel in Havana, so we booked into the Hotel Inglaterra. On arrival, I had a speech worked out along the lines of ‘We requested a room with a view of the park, if that’s possible’ but we were told that one floor of the hotel was out of commission due to a water leak, so they had booked us into the Hotel Plaza across the square! This may well have been true, but we met another couple who had been told exactly the same thing at another hotel, so we weren’t sure.

Anyway, the Hotel Plaza was absolutely fine and better in some ways than the Inglaterra, with a spacious, airy lobby. Our room was on the second floor and was pretty spacious too, and although the street noise was quite bad, but if you want double-glazing, you go to a modern hotel! There was a restaurant and bar on the top floor with a terrace and although we didn’t have dinner there, you got a great view with your breakfast or late night drink!

Havana was fabulous! If you are at all into Cuban music, you will be in heaven as there is music everywhere – in every café, restaurant or bar, with popular places crowded and people dancing outside on the pavement. We got a birds-eye view of the city from the camera obscura above Plaza Nueva, saw the bookstalls in the Plaza de Armas, visited the fort across the river and generally absorbed the atmosphere. You don’t go to Cuba for the food – it could get a little monotonous, but it was very tasty!

After four nights in Havana we were happy to escape the traffic fumes and spend two nights at the beach at Cayo Las Brujas a development half and hour’s drive offshore and a five hour journey from Havana. Our taxi driver chatted the whole way and it was fascinating – he had been a teacher for seventeen years and a member of the diplomatic corps so had travelled all around Cuba and Latin America generally, then was cabbying to make some money to retire on as the tourist trade is the most lucrative business to be in. It was fabulously relaxing here and again – great music!

Next we went to the World Heritage city of Trinidad, with it French colonial influences and cobbled streets. Here we stayed in an international hotel, the Gran Iberostar (the holiday company we went with chose the accommodation apart from my specifying the Inglaterra and organized the transfers) which was highly luxurious, although even here they had musicians in the restaurant in the evening. There was plenty of music in Trinidad with the open air Casa de la Música and the Casa de la Trova which we thought even better and everyone joined in – even the toilet attendant had a go at singing and there were ‘lounge-lizards’ to dance with anyone who wanted to.

Our journey back to Havana took us along the coast road where hundreds of crabs were suicidally running across into the woods. We now got to stay one night at the Inglaterra and concluded that actually, the Plaza did a better breakfast and while it was very atmospheric to sit on the terrace on the square (no one much sat in the tiled bar), you could literally taste the traffic fumes, so it wasn’t the most salubrious spot. Both the Inglaterra and the Plaza are on the pleasant Parque Central – more of a square than a park – and on the edge of old Havana, so a good location for exploring the city.

I can’t recommend Cuba enough and would love to go back – the atmosphere and people were great and the music amazing. It really helped to speak Spanish when getting information or simply chatting with people – it was great to have the opportunity to do so and everyone was keen to hear what you thought of their island. Go before it changes too much!