Trinidad: an elegant old town in southern Cuba

Set in the foothills of the Escambray Mountains, close to Cuba's southern shore, Trinidad is one of the island's most perfectly preserved towns, says Claire Boobbyer in The Times. 

It is a full four hours' drive from the capital, Havana, on the north coast, but still attracts plenty of tourists. They're drawn partly by the town itself, with its cobbled streets, old churches, and "sherbet" mansions with red-tiled roofs and wrought-iron balconies. But they also come for its densely forested, mountainous surroundings. There are some wonderful b&bs in town, and last year a new resort, the Meliá Trinidad Península, opened beside a beach just 15 minutes away. It is the first five-star hotel on Cuba's south coast. Founded by the Spanish in 1514, Trinidad grew rich from sugar production between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries. Some of the sugar barons' mansions are now open to visitors, including the Palacio Brunet, which houses the Museo Romántico, a magnificent collection of furniture from the colonial era.

Roughly 15,000 slaves were brought here from Africa to work on the plantations, the remains of which you can visit in the nearby Valle de los Ingenios, where there is still one functioning refinery. The melding of African and Spanish cultures has left a "rich" heritage of music, craft and folk art in Trinidad, which has been named a Unesco Creative City owing to its "distinctive" workshops, music venues and galleries.

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The Península hotel is a self-contained world of luxury restaurants and swimming pools, but also offers some cultural engagement in the form of history talks, dance classes, cigar-rolling workshops, and so on. And there are plenty of other interesting places to visit along the coast to the west, including the elegant city of Cienfuegos (founded by French immigrants in 1819), and the Bahía de los Cochinos – or Bay of Pigs. Famed as the site of a thwarted invasion by CIA-backed, anti-Castro Cuban rebels in 1961, this beautiful spot is also the best place for bird-watching on the island.