Traveller’s Guide to Fly Drive Cuba - Part 2

The Topes de Collantes to Trinidad

The second stage is quite short, but also spectacular. Follow the coast east, then climb into the Escambray Mountains, with some of Cuba’s loveliest scenery. This is coffee country - claimed to rank with the Blue Mountains of Jamaica as producing the best arabica beans in the world. It’s said the iron content and acidity of the soil, together with the weather patterns, make for ideal conditions for coffee growing.

Topes de Collantes is a high-altitude escape in the lush mountains of the Sierra del Escambray, which rise majestically to the north of Trinidad. You could stay at the Kurhotel (a Swiss-German term for a sanatorium). It opened for the treatment of tuberculosis in 1952. Since then it has served as a garrison against counter-revolutionaries and is now a four-star hotel.

Then take a fabulous drive down to Trinidad – the jewel of Cuban tradition, and on the Unesco world heritage list since 1988.

The city was established by the Spanish in 1514. It is full of beautiful mansions, and the highest density of bars and restaurants in the country. Try the 17th-century tavern known as La Canchanchara, and visit the Casa de la Trova - “house of the troubadours” - where everyone comes to listen to music.