Hava ball on ship
CRUISE round the Caribbean on an 11-night holiday next month – starting off in historic Havana. The Iglu Cruise on MSC Opera starts at £1,299pp, including full board on the ship with three nights at the four -star all-inclusive Varadero beach hotel. Fly to Cuba on May 27 and stop in Havana, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Mexico. For details call 0203 733 5557 ot visit:www.iglucruise.com THE number one destination of Brits abroad, Spain has that essential holiday trinity – sun, sand and sangria. It’s a place of great beaches, islands and mountains – and keen prices. Spain has shedloads of sea and sand, but each of its coasts has a slightly different profile. The biggest and brashest is the southern coast’s COSTA DEL SOL, with flight access via Malaga (itself an up and coming city break). Key amongst the inexpensive resorts here are Torremolinos and Fuengirola, whilst glitzy Marbella grabs the headlines and upmarket Nerja is more discreet. The urbanisation is pretty much seamless all the way along, and nightlife and shopping are good, as is the beach; however if the latter is very important to your holiday plans, then the sand here is not as broad and generous as it is along the COSTA BLANCA, on Spain’s Mediterranean coast (flight access via Alicante). Here in the homeland of fragrant paella, Benidorm is the heavily built-up veteran resort, and there’s a large year-round resident British population. Finally the COSTA BRAVA, further up the coast towards the border with France (flight access via Barcelona, the most popular city break in Europe) is more low-key, offering peaceful beaches in smaller bays, and more intimate resorts like Lloret del Mar and former fishing villages like Cadaques. This is Catalonia – home of the excellent Cava, a sparkling wine every bit as good as Champagne at a fraction of the price. HOW TO DO IT: Tourism to the Costas is typically based around large hotels (popular brands are Sol, Melia and Riu) on full-board, flight-inclusive packages from big tour operators such as Thomson (thomson.co.uk) and Thomas Cook (thomascook.com). Spain’s Atlantic and northern coastlines are quite different in character to the Costas. The prevailing westerly wind makes this region cooler (albeit still warm) and greener. Its river inlets (‘rias’) and bays make it look a bit like Cornwall. Fishing is a big industry in coastal towns Vigo and La Coruna – so seafood is excellent and very inexpensive. Along the north coast, the Basque Country (main city Bilbao) has its own unique culture and language, and the Spanish Pyrenees at the Picos de Europa make for spectacular hiking. This northern coast is threaded by the longdistance Camino de Santiago, the world’s most popular hiking and pilgrimage trail, ending at the elaborately-decorative 13th century cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. HOW TO DO IT: For car-based travellers,
riwRh hiking,rise to slender-archedparticularly in the Mudejar Alpujarras architecture region. Andand Northern Spain can be reached on Brittany white-washed hilltop towns such as beautiful Ferries (brittany-ferries.co.uk) who sail to Ronda. The Sierra Nevada is good for skiing and Santander from Portsmouth and Plymouth, and who also package local holidays. For hiking and theth cities have some stunning buildings, in exploring the Pyrenees, try Ramblers Holidays particular Granada’s Alhambra and Seville’s (ramblersholidays.co.uk). im immense Cathedral and its Giralda minaret. HOWH TO DO IT: On a Classic Spain itinerary with Newmarket Holidays (newmarketholidays. co co.uk), or by flying into Seville or Jerez with Ryanair (ryanair.com) or easyjet (easyjet.com) andn renting a car. That cliché image of the twirling, fiery, flamenco-dancing gypsy girl is found all over Spain, but is fundamentally from Andalusia – the land of Seville, Granada and the Sierra Nevada. This is the homeland of fiestas and siestas, where restaurants and tapas bars don’t come alive until 10 o’clock at night. It is a place of history, particularly from when it was occupied by Moors from North Africa, giving Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza. If Majorca is the busy matriarch of the family, Ibiza is the crazy te teenager, partying like mad, whilst Minorca is