The Rough Guide to Cuba (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

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The popular image of Cuba as a tourist destination has fluctuated wildly over the years, and there is no question that this fascinating corner of the globe has enjoyed visitors of wildly disparate expectations -- from the hedonistic revellers of pre-Revolutionary Cuba (when it was essentially America's playground) to the many travellers who have visited for ideological reasons, seeing Fidel Castro (however controversial a figure) as a symbol of opposition to American global hegemony. As this guide demonstrates, a more balanced view of this remarkable country may be achieved. And of the many tourist guides to Cuba over the years, travellers who know their stuff will realise that the Rough Guide to Cuba is most likely to give a clear, authoritative and enthusiastic vision, recording all of Cuba's glories without drawing a veil over its less savoury aspects. Despite the country’s isolation from the West in general and its hostile relation to the US, Cuba has undoubtedly emerged (in the last 50 years or so) as one of the principal tourist destinations in the Caribbean. And Cuba has never lost its image as the home of sun, salsa and rum, along with an engagingly laid-back attitude that quickly communicates itself to visitors.

This is one of the more ambitious guides (as befits the subject), coming in at over 600 pages, and the range of information here is truly impressive. And what a range of fascinating destinations Cuba offers, from its sultry beaches to its lively, noisy entertainment venues. If you’ve long nourished a taste for all things Latin, it's probably time to pick up this guide and head for Cuba. And whatever your attitude to Fidel Castro -- pro or con -- it hardly matters; you're hardly likely to run into him on the sun-baked streets. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Book Description
INTRODUCTION
Isolated from the Western world for over thirty years, Cuba burst back onto the international tourist scene in the early 1990s and hasn’t looked back since. Shaped by one of the twentieth century’s longest surviving revolutions, until relatively recently Cuba’s image had been inextricably bound up with its politics. Even five decades after Fidel Castro and the rebels seized power, Cuba’s long satiny beaches, offshore cays and jungle-covered peaks – the defining attractions of neighbouring islands – played almost no part in the popular perception of this communist state in the Caribbean. Now, having opened the floodgates to global tourism, the country is changing and Cuba today is characterized as much as anything by a frenetic sense of transition as it shifts from socialist stronghold to one of the Caribbean’s major tourist destinations, running on capitalist dollars.

At the same time, though, it can seem to visitors that nothing has changed for decades, even centuries. Cut off from the capitalist world until the end of the Cold War, and still feeling the effects of the worst economic crisis the current regime has endured, the face of modern-day Cuba is in many respects frozen in the past – the classic American cars, moustachioed cigar-smoking f