{"id":5168,"date":"2017-11-23T13:04:21","date_gmt":"2017-11-23T13:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/?p=5168"},"modified":"2018-01-11T11:23:34","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T11:23:34","slug":"7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Places You Need to See in Cuba. Right Now!"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Castro\u2019s death to devastating floods there\u2019s no denying that times they are a-changin in Cuba. Judging from the state of the buildings in 2015 I\u2019m not so sure how well they\u2019ll fare\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"Cuba<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Cuba<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I loved everything about Cuba. The juxtaposition of the crumbling ruins of antiquated wealth against the paint-peeling poverty of unkempt homes is like something from a film-set. Despite hardships, the island nation exudes infectious vibrancy and gregarious charm. I can even forgive the incessant hissing (Cuban catcalling) as you walk down the street.<\/p>\n

Cuba has a lot more going on than cigars and rum; jump in a retro America car, turn up the bass and get the reggaeton blasting for the road trip of a lifetime:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Havana<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Havana-street-Cuba\"<\/p>\n

Stay in a casas particulares \u2013 a Cuban homestay \u2013 for a taste of local life and home cooking. Spend your day exploring the UNESCO listed streets of La Habana Vieja. Then stroll along the Malec\u00f3n at sunset and take a salsa class – or two, three, four for those as uncoordinated as me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vi\u00f1ales<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Vinales-Cuba\"<\/p>\n

Despite the dramatic beauty of limestone monoliths, luscious valleys and sprawling plantations, Vi\u00f1ales is famous for what comes out of it rather than what\u2019s there: hand-rolled Cuban Cigars. Take a tour of the tobacco plantations on horseback then sit back, puff away and acclimatize to the sedate country life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cienfuegos<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Cienfuegos-Cuba\"<\/p>\n

Cienfuegos didn\u2019t earn itself the nickname \u2018The Pearl of the South\u2019 and World Heritage status by doing nothing. The pristine bay harbours French inspired architecture and a distinctly Caribbean vibe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Trinidad<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Trinidad-Cuba\"<\/p>\n

A photographer\u2019s dream. It\u2019s impossible not to fall in love with the cobblestone streets and brightly painted houses of this perfectly preserved Spanish Colonial Town. Spend your nights salsa-ing in the main square where local families gather and put gringos through the paces. Just don\u2019t underestimate the dancing skills of toddlers and grandmas!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Santa Clara<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Santa-Clara-Cuba\"<\/p>\n

The city is known for its revolutionary past and as Che Guevara\u2019s resting place. The Che memorial, while undeniably impressive, will likely detain you an afternoon. However the gritty Cuban culture will captivate you forever. Parque Vidal is the perfect place to people watch – and get a knockoff Big Mac at McDunalds!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Baracoa <\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Baracow-Cuba\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not many people make it to the most easterly point of the island but, if you have the time, it\u2019s worth the journey! Baracoa\u2019s remoteness from Havana \u2013 a hefty 12.5-hour drive \u2013 means it rarely appears on tourist itineraries and remains an untouched treasure. \u00a0Hike through tropical rainforest where cacao and coconut grow in abundance and swim in Unesco-class waters at Cuchillas de Toa.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Varadero<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
\n

\"Varadero<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

\"Sasha<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Crystal clear blue waters, 12 miles of sand whiter than Simon Cowell\u2019s teeth and pi\u00f1a coladas cheaper than bottled water, served straight to you in the sea. End your trip in luxury at this beach resort peninsular where you can taste \u201cthe world\u2019s best pi\u00f1a colada\u201d – self-awarded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catch these colonial towns before they crumble beyond recognition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,58,12,474],"tags":[61,77,475],"yoast_head":"\n7 Places You Need to See in Cuba. Right Now!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cuba is one of those countries that is on many peoples wish list. It's not hard to see why, either. So much to see, so much to do!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"7 Places You Need to See in Cuba. Right Now!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cuba is one of those countries that is on many peoples wish list. It's not hard to see why, either. So much to see, so much to do!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Guidebook - isango!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/isangotravels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-23T13:04:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-11T11:23:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets-guidebook.isango.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cuba-featured-new.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"669\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sasha Selkirk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@isango\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@isango\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sasha Selkirk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"7 Places You Need to See in Cuba. Right Now!","description":"Cuba is one of those countries that is on many peoples wish list. It's not hard to see why, either. So much to see, so much to do!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"7 Places You Need to See in Cuba. Right Now!","og_description":"Cuba is one of those countries that is on many peoples wish list. It's not hard to see why, either. So much to see, so much to do!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/","og_site_name":"The Guidebook - isango!","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/isangotravels\/","article_published_time":"2017-11-23T13:04:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-01-11T11:23:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"1000","height":"669","url":"https:\/\/assets-guidebook.isango.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cuba-featured-new.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sasha Selkirk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@isango","twitter_site":"@isango","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sasha Selkirk","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/","url":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/","name":"7 Places You Need to See in Cuba. Right Now!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/assets-guidebook.isango.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cuba-featured-new.jpg","datePublished":"2017-11-23T13:04:21+00:00","dateModified":"2018-01-11T11:23:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/#\/schema\/person\/db6217e16e93c0fda79165aab9fc47d3"},"description":"Cuba is one of those countries that is on many peoples wish list. It's not hard to see why, either. So much to see, so much to do!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/assets-guidebook.isango.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cuba-featured-new.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/assets-guidebook.isango.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cuba-featured-new.jpg","width":"1000","height":"669"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/7-places-need-to-see-in-cuba-right-now\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"7 Places You Need to See in Cuba. Right Now!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/","name":"The Guidebook - isango!","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/#\/schema\/person\/db6217e16e93c0fda79165aab9fc47d3","name":"Sasha Selkirk","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c236bcb820a2a4cd1e8817abf5334fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c236bcb820a2a4cd1e8817abf5334fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sasha Selkirk"},"description":"A modern day Pandora, piquing your curiosity throughout Latin America, Australia and Europe. Her father grew up in Calcutta, mother in Borneo, siblings in California and Sasha in Swindon! A sense of injustice, a good measure of sibling rivalry and a fiery passion for adventure have fueled her travels ever since. Sasha has been lucky enough to tick a few escapades off her bucket list: bungee jumping in Brazil, road tripping in Australia to name two. Not one to be landlocked, she also loves hopping around Europe. Read Her Adventures","url":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/author\/sasha\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5168"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5192,"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168\/revisions\/5192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isango.com\/theguidebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}