A new ‘inclusive’ agenda!

Monday 2nd April 2007
Left Cienfuegos mid morning on the Viazul for Trinidad. Trinidad was one of the places (next to Havana) that I always wanted to visit in Cuba. It is supposed to be a beautiful city and another World Heritage Site (since 1998). Even when I was working, a good few years ago, I looked at doing Cuba, but to do Havana, Trinidad and a beach was quite an expensive option then and I think we ended up in Kerala instead (and that was wonderful too but, from memory, about half the price). So here we are in Trinidad. Well, sort of. We’d done what we said we’d never do and booked an ‘all inclusive’ hotel on the beach, 8km from Trinidad itself, at Playa Ancon – there are two hotels and we’re staying at the Brisas,Trinidad del Mar. We did this when we thought this was going to be the end of the trip and thought a week (or six nights as it actually is) at a beach resort, but with easy access to an interesting town/city would be a good way to end the trip, before the last few days in Havana. That was before we booked Mexico. So it was strange as the Viazul pulled into Trinidad bus station not to be going with the other ‘travellers’ to a casa or a city centre hotel, but out to the beach to the ‘all inclusive’. We’d always shunned them as we imagined them to be (as we’d seen when we peeped through the gates of Sandals in Antigua) full of the worst of English and other European p**s artists who drunk themselves silly because booze is all included in the price, and made pigs of themselves in the restaurants and snack bars, as all the food is included too. My first impression on walking in was, ‘oh no, what have we done.’ Yes, it is big (about 400 bed in all, but only in two storey buildings and spread out very well) and does have an ‘extensive’ entertainment’ programme. But actually, you can’t fault it. It’s right on a beautiful white sand beach, has a lovely pool, is set out with rooms around areas like little ‘pretend’ village squares and does not feel cramped or crowded and dinner in the buffet restaurant tonight was probably the best meal we’ve had here. There are a mixture of nationalities, a mixture of ages (certainly not all 18-30s) and not at all ‘yobby’ as we’d feared. Our room is in a really out of the way part of the resort, so very quiet, very large, and very nice. Of course, what you can fault, is that apart from the lovely Cuban staff, you could be anywhere in the world, and certainly for us, if you didn’t venture out, you would go stir crazy very quickly. We will venture out, into Trinidad tomorrow to see some of the sights and the old town and will mix a relaxing stay here with some sightseeing and interesting bits too. This is all good news, because, as I’d left it so late to decide about Mexico, I had to book something similar there – but again, near to some interesting sites/towns and that really will be our last chill out time anyway. So, as I sit on our balcony writing this with a mojita in my hand and a cuba libre in Sid’s, it doesn’t seem such a bad choice after all.