1,000 Places to See Before You Die

by Patricia Schultz

  Boat people love the Bitter End Yacht Club, on Virgin Gorda’s North Sound. Guests at the family-oriented resort have access to 100 vessels (including dinghies, catamarans, kayaks, and motorboats), as well as windsurfing gear, but you needn’t be experienced upon arrival. Just sign up for lessons in their highly regarded and accredited Sailing School—all levels and ages are welcome.

  THE MOORINGS: Tel 888-952-8420 or 284-494-2332; www.moorings.com. Cost: bareboat rentals from $350 per day (off-peak), from $745 per day (peak). Crewed yachts available. THE MARINER INN: Tel 284-494-2333; www.bvimarinerinnhotel.com. Cost: from $180. BOMBA’S SHACK: Tel 284-495-4148; www.bombassurfsideshack.com. BITTER END YACHT CLUB: Tel 800-872-2392 or 284-494-2746; www.beyc.com. Cost: from $570 (off-peak), from $770 (peak). When: closed mid-Aug–mid-Oct. BEST TIMES: Nov–Apr for nice weather; late Mar–early Apr for BVI’s Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival; Jul for BVI Billfish Tournament.

  Treasure, Romance, and Splendid Isolation

  A TOUR OF BVI’S “OTHER ISLANDS”

  British Virgin Islands, Lesser Antilles

  This necklace of islands brings out the adventurer, lover, or pirate in folks. These are the BVI’s “other islands,” perfect for hideaways, getaways, honeymoons, or simply delicious alone time on pristine beaches.

  Uninhabited Norman Island is said to be the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island because of an 18th-century mutiny by pirates who buried 55 chests of booty here—most of them still undiscovered. The island’s watery caves still hold a fascination for treasure-hunting snorkelers. But the real magnet is the bar/restaurant on the 100-foot schooner Willy T, permanently moored in a sheltered bay and popular anchorage called the Bight. There is no ferry to the Willy T, and Norman Island has no hotels, so it helps to have a boat.

  Next up is a 1,800-acre private island occupied primarily by the luxurious Peter Island Resort, whose overnight guests have the place to themselves: five empty beaches, miles of hiking and biking trails, prime diving sites, an alluring beachfront spa, and an excellent restaurant (day-trippers from Tortola are welcome though with limited access).

  The most northeasterly of the BVI, Anegada (“drowned island”) is one of the least visited and least known despite having Horseshoe Reef, the third-largest barrier reef in the world, and the best snorkeling in all of the Virgin Islands. The only BVI that is not volcanic, Anegada is a flat coral and limestone atoll. The bonefishing here can be phenomenal, as can the beachcombing—there’s nothing but 3,000 miles of open water off the northern shore. The Cow Wreck Bar is the place to go for an ice-cold Carib beer, conch fritters, and grilled just-caught rock lobster, a combination so heavenly the owners built three modest villas called the Cow Wreck Beach Resort for guests who refused to leave.

  North of Virgin Gorda is Necker Island, 74 private, previously uninhabited acres where Virgin Airways founder Richard Branson established a fantasy escape. The Balinese Great House, complete with its 360-degree seascape and staff of 60, could be rented out in its entirety—accommodating up to 28 people—when Branson himself wasn’t staying there. It burned down in 2011 after a lightning strike, but don’t abandon hope of ever enjoying this heaven on earth: Branson vowed to quickly rebuild an equally special getaway.

  Those who want untrammeled nature all to themselves head to Guana, a privately owned 850-acre wildlife sanctuary with one of the richest varieties of flora and fauna on any island its size in the region, including 100 species of birds—among them roseate flamingos, black-necked stilts, herons, and the endangered masked booby. In the 18th century, the island was a sugarcane and cotton plantation owned by two American Quaker families, and today that classic simplicity is still evident in the 15 rooms at Guana Island Club, the island’s only hotel. The panoramic sweep from the whitewashed ridge-top cottages is spectacular. Reached only by boat, the hilly island, with its 20 nature trails, bountiful orchard, and seven white powder beaches, is for guests’ use alone. For once yachties don’t have the run of the place: “Drop-ins” are discouraged.

  Peter Island is the largest of the BVI’s private islands.

  VISITOR INFO: www.bvitourism.com. WILLY T: Tel 284-494-0183; www.williamthornton.com. Cost: dinner $35. PETER ISLAND RESORT: Tel 800-346-4451 or 284-495-2000; www.peterisland.com. Cost: from $590 (off-peak), from $950 (peak), all-inclusive. COW WRECK BEACH RESORT: Tel 284-495-8047; www.cowwreckbeach.com. Cost: villas from $275; dinner $68. NECKER ISLAND: Tel 877-577-8777 or 212-994-3070; www.neckerisland.virgin.com. Cost: Celebration Weeks in Sep and Oct from $26,850 per couple per week, all-inclusive; whole island rental prices upon request. GUANA ISLAND CLUB: Tel 284-494-2354; www.guana.com. Cost: from $695 (off-peak), from $1,250 (peak), all-inclusive. When: closed Sep. BEST TIME: Nov–Apr for pleasant weather.

  Iguanas, Stingrays, and Bloody Bay Wall

  CAYMAN ISLANDS

  Greater Antilles

  Cayman, a mostly flat British Crown Colony that consists of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac, sits atop an ancient undersea mountain chain. On the surface, the translucent turquoise waters are serene, but just below you’ll find dramatic walls and drop-offs only feet from shore, like an underwater Grand Canyon. It’s one of the world’s best dive sites, with an astonishing diversity of underwater life residing among coral-encrusted reefs and walls. The finest site in the area, though, is the 6,000-foot plunging coral garden known since pirate days as Bloody Bay Wall, off Little Cayman’s north shore. Snorkelers can experience the top of the wall, and divers who go deep can explore the gorge, which teems with sea fans, anemones, and tropical fish.

  Twelve-square-mile Little Cayman is relatively undeveloped and reigns popular among naturalists. Iguanas far outnumber the 100 full-time human residents, and a colony of 20,000 red-footed boobies populates the Caribbean’s largest bird sanctuary. Little Cayman is also famous for Texas-born Gladys Howard—a student of Julia Child’s—who caters to guests’ every diving and dining need at her beachside inn, Pirate’s Point Resort. She also offers a custom-built dive boat with a staff of experienced instructors.

  Grand Cayman is larger (though still just 22 by 8 miles) and more cosmopolitan. And while tourism is more developed here, it’s still welcomingly mellow. Offshore attractions include diving (over 100 sites) and Stingray City, a spot where throngs of sociable large-winged marine creatures eat from your hand (the famous “stingray kiss”). Even though it’s a 25-minute boat ride from shore, the transparent waters are shallow—3 to 12 feet—and perfect for both divers and snorkelers.

  Grand Cayman’s famous Seven Mile Beach on the west side of the island is a gorgeous stretch of white sand lined with condos and plush resorts. With swimming-pool calm waters, it’s the perfect beach for nonswimmers. The most luxurious accommodations can be found at the family-friendly Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman—kids can learn about reef protection through Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment program while parents indulge in the pleasures of a Greg Norman–designed golf course and a La Prairie spa. Blue by Eric Ripert (chef of Manhattan’s Le Bernardin; see p. 848) serves caught-that-day yellowfin tuna and seafood specialties. Go in January to meet Ripert (and some fellow celebrity chefs), who hosts the Cayman Cookout, a celebration of Cayman and global cuisine on the beach.

  When the sun goes down, Seven Mile Beach is where you want to be. The Reef Grill is fun and casual, serving fresh local seafood prepared with an innovative twist. Drift over to the cozy lounge when the soca and calypso music start to heat up the night.

  VISITOR INFO: www.caymanislands.ky. PIRATE’S POINT: Tel 345-948-1010; www.piratespointresort.com. Cost:$500, inclusive; diving extra. RITZ-CARLTON: Tel 800-542-8680 or 345-943-9000; www.ritzcarlton.com. Cost: from $299 (off-peak), from $569 (peak); prix-fixe dinner at Blue $110. REEF GRILL: Tel 345-945-6360; www.reefgrill.com. Cost: dinner $50. BEST TIMES: early May for Carnival Batabano; Dec for Jazz Fest.

  A Capital’s Intoxicating Historic Quarter

  LA HABANA VIEJA

  Havana, Cuba, Gre
ater Antilles

  Anchored by the gracious Plaza de la Catedral, Havana’s Old Quarter (La Habana Vieja) is a magnificent architectural ensemble of monuments, fortresses, cobblestone streets, and grandiose townhouses that once belonged to an affluent bourgeoisie. With some 800 buildings dating from the 16th to 19th centuries, it is the most extensive and best-preserved colonial city in the hemisphere.

  Paradoxically, the 1959 revolution responsible for the island’s decades-long isolation has helped keep the city’s finest architecture intact by banning private investments and real estate development—there’s barely an incongruous modern structure to be found among the arcades and palm-shaded courtyards of the old Spanish core. Foreseeing a great future in tourism, Cuba has tidied up parts of the Old Quarter to mirror the Colonial Havana that was once the richest (and most heavily fortified) city in the Americas. Even its dilapidated corners have a charmed melancholy about them and a sense of decaying glory. Lovingly maintained classic American cars from the 1950s still cruise the streets, making you feel like you’ve stepped onto a movie set.

  The Old Quarter’s swankiest place to stay is Hotel Saratoga, whose 19th-century façade conceals a stylish 96-room hotel built in 2005. Set right on Parque de la Fraternidad near the must-visit Capitol, the famous Partagas Cigar Factory, and Havana’s Gran Teatro (the most important opera and ballet house in this lively city’s unrivaled arts scene), the hotel has a glamorous rooftop pool and bar from which to take it all in. Another impressive metamorphosis is the Hotel Raquel, a 1908 former bank that today provides surprisingly affordable splendor.

  The grand Hotel Nacional is the city’s best-known accommodation, built in 1930 to look like The Breakers in Palm Beach (see p. 754) and still more palace than hotel. Overlooking the Malecón, Havana’s great 4-mile waterfront drive, this landmark was spruced up to recapture its glory days by restoring the opulent beauty of its Moorish arches and hand-painted tiles. Its Cabaret Parisien evokes 1950s Old Havana, when mobster Meyer Lansky operated Cuba’s most glamorous casinos here. But there’s no topping a show at the open-air Tropicana Cabaret. Since 1939 it has offered the city’s most over-the-top spectacle of color, sound, and movement, with scantily and spectacularly clad showgirls strutting their stuff to son and salsa. For the everyday Habaneros who love to dance, Casa de la Musica is one of countless places to hear good music and try out your own moves. The apex of Havana’s music scene comes with its International Jazz Festival, when musicians from around the world perform alongside many of Cuba’s revered old-time stars.

  Ernest Hemingway spent most of the 1940s and 1950s in Havana, creating some of his greatest works between time at La Bodeguita del Medio (The Little Bar in the Middle) and the slightly more formal El Floridita. A visit to these unabashed tourist-trap watering holes is de rigueur, to sample two of Cuba’s classic rum-based cocktails: La Bodeguita’s refreshing mojito and El Floridita’s frozen daiquiri, which Papa is said to have helped perfect. Hemingway’s home, La Vigía, is 10 miles outside Havana, in the village of San Francisco; it has been left untouched and is open to the public.

  Havana’s historic bars are atmospheric and great fun, but Cuba cannot be considered a food destination—yet. Things have improved considerably with the arrival of paladares, private homes that serve traditional rustic fare at a handful of tables. One of the best is La Cocina de Lilliam, known for its romantic garden setting and ropa vieja (which means old clothes), a traditional, long-simmered dish made with beef or lamb.

  Classic American cars from the 1950s populate one of the oldest cities in the Caribbean.

  HOTEL SARATOGA: Tel 53-7-868-1000; www.hotel-saratoga.com. Cost: from $230 (off-peak), from $350 (peak). HOTEL RAQUEL: Tel 53-7-860-8280; www.hotelraquel-cuba.com. Cost: from $120. HOTEL NACIONAL: Tel 53-7-833-3564; www.hotelnacionaldecuba.com. Cost: from $170; Cabaret Parisien, $35. TROPICANA: Tel 53-7-267-1010. Cost: show $65. LA BODEGUITA DEL MEDIO: Tel 53-7-866-8857. EL FLORIDITA: Tel 53-7-867-1300; www.floridita-cuba.com. LA COCINA DE LILLIAM: Tel 53-7-209-6514. Cost: dinner $15. HOW: U.S.-based Marazul Charters has been organizing trips to Cuba for American travelers for over 30 years. Tel 800-223-5334 or 201-319-1054; www.marazulcharters.com. BEST TIMES: Nov–Apr for nicest weather; Mar for Celebration of Classic Cars; Nov for Festival Internacional de Ballet; mid-Dec for International Jazz Festival.

  Prehistoric, Surreal, and Quintessentially Cubano

  VIÑALES VALLEY

  Pinar del Rio, Cuba, Greater Antilles

  The fertile Viñales Valley is Cuba’s Shangri-la, a rare landscape of enormous steep-sided, round-topped limestone formations called mogotes, dramatically rising out of a rich rural landscape that grows some of the best tobacco in the world. Yet this magical 50-square-mile area was once completely flat; these massive tree-covered hummocks are the result of tectonic upraising and erosion by water over the ages.

  The entire valley is a gorgeous, almost surreal setting for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and rock climbing that (although discouraged) draws climbers from around the globe. Inside the mogotes, an expansive network of caves and underground rivers provides tremendous spelunking and cave exploration. The most accessible is Gran Caverna de San Tomás, Cuba’s largest cave system, with more than 28 miles of galleries studded with spiky stalactites and stalagmites. Explore underground streams by boat at Cueva del Indio, 9 miles west of Viñales; just don’t expect to be the only tourist in the know.

  Much of the region’s appeal lies in its traditional rural culture and friendly campesinos (peasant farmers), whose way of life and farming methods have changed little for hundreds of years. Life revolves around tobacco here—more than 30 brands of highly coveted hand-rolled cigars are made from its prized crop, with world-famous marquillas (labels) such as Cohiba, Montecristo, and Partagas.

  Unpack your bags in the unspoiled town of Viñales. Hotel Los Jazmines is one of only a few proper hotels in the area, with extraordinary views from most rooms. To sample Cuban hospitality at its best, stay with a local family in government-approved casas particulares; Villa Cristal is one of the nicest. The English-speaking owners can help organize trekking, biking, or horseback riding, and it’s a 2-minute walk into the center of town where you can spend an evening listening to live music over a cold cerveza.

  On the return to Havana, stop at Las Terrazas, a vibrant eco-village of artisan shops and small organic farms built in the lush, reforested landscape that was once the domain of the old French coffee plantations in the foothills of the Sierra del Rosario. Las Terrazas’s remarkably diverse forests draw visitors for the best hiking and bird-watching in Cuba—the bee hummingbird, the world’s smallest bird, is a resident here. Everyone stays at the comfortable 31-room Hotel La Moka, a hillside sanctuary so sensitive to the environment it was built around trees. You can walk to the nearby Buena Vista Restaurant, housed in a renovated hilltop French coffee estate for a lunch of barbecued pork.

  HOTEL LOS JAZMINES: Tel 53-48-79-6205. Cost: from $60. VILLA CRISTAL: Tel 53-52-70-1284; www.villacristalcuba.com. Cost: $25. HOTEL LA MOKA: Tel 53-48-57-8600 (reservations, 53-7-204-3739; www.hotelmokalaterrazzas.com). Cost: from $60 (off-peak), from $110 (peak). BUENA VISTA RESTAURANT: Cost: lunch $15. HOW: For a casa particular, go to www.bbinnvinales.com. BEST TIMES: Oct–Apr for pleasant weather; Mar for Carnival in Viñales.

  A Colonial Gem That Sugar Built

  TRINIDAD

  Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, Greater Antilles

  Founded in 1514, the town of Trinidad was one of the original seven cities established by Spanish conquistador Diego Velázques. It is the best-preserved of the seven, packed with architectural treasures from the 18th and early 19th centuries when the city flourished from a thriving sugar trade. The prosperity of this golden era ended dramatically in the 1860s, giving the city a suspended-in-time feel that was secured in 1965 when the entire city was named a national monument.

  Set on a breeze-swept hill overlooking the sea, Trinidad is a maze of narrow cobblestone streets lined with Colonial house
s in soft pastel colors with massive wooden doors. Sugar barons built their mansions around Plaza Mayor, the heart of the old town. The star among them is the Museo Romantico, which showcases the once opulent lifestyle of this still-handsome city. The plaza is also the location of the city’s most refined hotel, the 40-room restored Iberostar Grand.

  By day Trinidad is sleepy, but at night the town pulses with live music around the Plaza Mayor. Trinidadians gather on the broad, deep steps of Casa de la Musica, an outdoor gathering spot beside the 19th-century Iglesia Parroquial de la Santissima (the largest church in the country), and dance to live music, mostly salsa, or watch the show. Rumba fans flock to Palenque de los Congos Reales, another alfresco venue, at Echerri and Ave. de Jesús Menéndez (be there at 10 P.M. for the fire-eating dancers), while Casa de la Trova at Plazuela de Segarte is the place for those who want to sit and listen to the town’s finest musicians.

  To truly immerse yourself in local life, stay in casas particulares, rooms in private houses, and eat in paladares, family homes that may or may not be official restaurants. Sol y Son is one of the best, serving traditional dishes like rum-soaked cerdo borracho (drunk pork) in a romantically lit courtyard.

  To see the gorgeous countryside that gave rise to the country’s wealth, go to the Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the Sugar Mills). Buses and a wheezing 1907 Baldwin steam train make the journey daily through the green plains backed by the mountains of the Sierra del Escambray. You’ll travel past abandoned plantations—the homes, slave quarters, and sugar mills in ruins—to an estate whose most dramatic attraction is the soaring 146-foot Iznaga Tower. Built around 1816, its bells once tolled the beginning and end of the workday in the fields.