Fodor's Cuba, 1st Edition: Expert Advice and Smart Choices: Where to Stay, Eat, and Explore On and Off the Beaten Path (Fodor's Gold Guides) [Paperback]

Fodor's (Author)

Book Description

Series: Fodor's Gold Guides | Publication Date: May 16, 2000

Fodor's Cuba"Fodor's guides are always a pleasure." - The Chicago Tribune

"Teeming with maps and loaded with addresses, phone numbers, and directions." - Newsday

Experienced and first-time travelers alike rely on Fodor's Gold Guides for rich, reliable coverage the world over.  Completely up-to-date, Fodor's Gold Guides are essential for any kind of traveler.

Insider info that's reliable and smart
Local experts show you all the things to see and do -- from top sights to off-the-beaten-path adventures, from sports to shopping, from nightlife to recommended walks.

Hotels and restaurants in all price categories
From B&Bs to luxury hotels, from casual eateries to elegant restaurants, we list hundreds of detailed reviews that show what is distinctive about each place.

Practical info that's completely up-to-date
Useful maps and background information; key contacts; how to get there and get around; when to go; what to pack; local do's and taboos; costs, hours, and tips by the thousands.

Here's a guidebook that complements Fodor's Cuba. To learn more about it, just enter the title in the keyword search box.Fodor's Exploring Cuba: An information-rich cultural guide in full color.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Fodor's Cuba"Fodor's guides are always a pleasure." - The Chicago Tribune

"Teeming with maps and loaded with addresses, phone numbers, and directions." - Newsday

Experienced and first-time travelers alike rely on Fodor's Gold Guides for rich, reliable coverage the world over.  Completely up-to-date, Fodor's Gold Guides are essential for any kind of traveler.

Insider info that's reliable and smart
Local experts show you all the things to see and do -- from top sights to off-the-beaten-path adventures, from sports to shopping, from nightlife to recommended walks.

Hotels and restaurants in all price categories
From B&Bs to luxury hotels, from casual eateries to elegant restaurants, we list hundreds of detailed reviews that show what is distinctive about each place.

Practical info that's completely up-to-date
Useful maps and background information; key contacts; how to get there and get around; when to go; what to pack; local do's and taboos; costs, hours, and tips by the thousands.

Here's a guidebook that complements Fodor's Cuba. To learn more about it, just enter the title in the keyword search box.Fodor's Exploring Cuba: An information-rich cultural guide in full color.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Destintion: Cuba

Ever since Christopher Colombus called the largest of the Antilles "the most beautiful thing human eyes ever beheld," everyone who has known Cuba has fallen hopelessly in love with the place. Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, Ava Gardner, Winston Churchill, King Edward VIII...Cuba has had many passionate admirers. Novelists, in particular, have found Cuba fertile hunting grounds for comedy, tragedy, and, above all perhaps, for poiesis -- the production of art and emotion. Cuba is consistently moving in a poetic way.

At once the most Spanish country in the Americas and the most Americanized of the Hispanic countries in the New World, Cuba is on the cusp of all things: New World and Old, Atlantic and Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Straits of Florida, Uncle Sam and Latin America, animism and Catholicism, Africa and Spain, east and west, and -- for the last 40 years -- individualism and collectivism, capitalism and socialism. Cuba is romantic and irresistible, it would seem, precisely because it's so conflicted, so paradoxal, so relentlessly ripe with irony, so impossible.

Dining

On the island's eastern end, dishes are more Caribbean and less Spanish; they're prepared with more spices and are typically cooked in coconut oil and lechita (coconut milk). Eastern dishes include congrí oriental (rice and red kidney beans), bacón (a plantain tortilla filled with spicy pork), and tetí (a small, orange fish caught in the river estuaries between August and December.) Rice is yellow not from saffron but from annatto seeds, also used to color butter. "Indian bananas" are boiled in their salmon-colored skins and dressed with garlic and lime juice.

Desserts include specialties such as guayaba (guava paste) or mermelada de mango (mango jelly), both often served con queso (with cheese). The eastern treat, cucurucho, is made of coconut, sweet orange, papaya, and honey. Of course the island's love affair with sugarcane led to its ron (rum) industry. While you're here, be sure to have a mojito (light rum, sugar, mint, and soda; from the verb "mojar," meaning "to moisten, to wet" as in "to wet your whistle") or the classic daiquiri (blended light rum, lime, and ice). If you'd like the sugar experience without the kick, have a guarapo (cane juice; thought to be an aphrodisiac).

Music

Your Cuban journey will no doubt be accompanied by a veritable soundtrack of island music. There are countless genres, from classical to Latin jazz to such hybrids of European and African sounds as salsa, timba, conga, rumba, bolero, son, danzón, guájira, mambo, nueva, and vieja trova. And every community seems to have some sort of weekly musical event. On a typical Sunday night in Trinidad (where two music havens -- La Casa de la Musica and La Casa de la Trova -- are steps from each other), for example, you might encounter a septet led by a man of 70-odd years playing for a crowd of 50. Men and women of all ages will no doubt dance with confidence and aplomb.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Fodor's; 3rd edition edition (May 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679004556
• ISBN-13: 978-0679004554
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,297,837 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There are significantly better travel guides for Cuba., March 19, 2001

By 

Allan M. Gathercoal "fdoamerica" (Norcross, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fodor's Cuba, 1st Edition: Expert Advice and Smart Choices: Where to Stay, Eat, and Explore On and Off the Beaten Path (Fodor's Gold Guides) (Paperback)

Fodor's Cuba is billed on the back cover as providing "simply perfect trips." In truth this is a VERY basic simple guide that needs much improvement to compete in the Cuban travel guide race.

I found this guide far too barren and difficult to use. The entire history of Cuba for the last fifty years gets only eight scant paragraphs in a section call "The Way to Revolution" and "Today and Tomorrow!" The index DID NOT list hotels or restaurants and this required that I to flip through the sections until I found the listing I wanted information on (especially a hassle in Havana). There were only 11 maps and they need improvement.

Also, instead of giving the general price of lodging or restaurant meals along with the listing, they give a code (listed in the front of the book) next to the site description ($$$ which = $100 to $150) but, then, that is for a double occupancy in high season. The guide listed my hotel, Ambos Mundos, as $$$ when I paid only $65 for a single in high season, thus the guide was not much help to me on this regard either. There were no email or Internet addresses (especially for the hotels) to speak of, even though the date of publication is 2000. Yet when I checked, almost every hotel had email whereby you could make reservations and get additional information and some had there own web page. Finally, another irritant, which has become common in Fodor's guides, is the intrusive color pages of paid advertisements for various products or service, which I immediately tore out and tossed. I am under the conviction that I have already paid once for the book and this is double indemnity.

On the positive side I found the Havana Dining and Lodging Map very useful; as I did the short list of "must experience" while in Cuba, called 'Fodor's Choice'. If you want just a quick digest that gives you a capsule run down on Cuba, a few basic maps, then this guide will be adequate. However, there are significantly better guides that I recommend you consider first. Conditionally recommended

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book for taking with you, May 20, 2001

By 

Iggy Todd (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fodor's Cuba, 1st Edition: Expert Advice and Smart Choices: Where to Stay, Eat, and Explore On and Off the Beaten Path (Fodor's Gold Guides) (Paperback)

Strongly recommend this book as a basic travel guide to Cuba. This is the book to take with you because it is compact, offers well-referenced maps numbered to the attractions in the text and has all of the essential information. Yes, "Cuba Handbook," is more comprehensive, and I read all 600+ pages of that lengthy tome. But I found that Fodor's had all of the essential information, skipping only the trivial. Included are great tips about U.S. and Cuban Customs regulations, roads in Cuba and accurate and believable lodging information. I did everything in Cuba and can attest that all of the best things to do are included in this guide. Fodor's even gives you a rave about Remedios and its nearby beaches, which are far away from the tourist trail. I also visited all of their hotel choices in Old Havana, as well as staying in two of them (Ambos Mundos and Hostal Florida), and all are truly wonderful hotels. If you want more about politics, flaura and fauna, buy a more comprehensive book and do your reading before you travel. But for a book that is portable and lists all of the essential information, this Fodor's guide cannot be beat.