Cuba

Cuba: Trinidad, the Colonial Town

When

Nov to April

Price

From 1 900€ excl. flights

(based on 2 people sharing)

How long

4 nights

Ideal length

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Trinidad, founded in 1514 and UNESCO-listed in 1988, owes its exceptional preservation to the collapse of the regional sugar industry at the end of the 19th century, which froze urban expansion and preserved the town in its Spanish colonial architecture. Cobblestone streets, pastel-facade houses adorned with wrought-iron grilles, and horse-drawn carriages that still circulate today make up one of the best-preserved colonial towns in the entire Caribbean.

A Town Frozen by the Sugar Collapse

Trinidad flourished from the 17th to the 19th century thanks to the sugar trade produced in the nearby Valley of the Sugar Mills, where over fifty mills powered by enslaved labour turned cane into considerable fortunes for local planter families. The abolition of slavery in 1886 and competition from newer, more mechanised sugar regions caused a brutal economic decline that, paradoxically, preserved the town from any modern reconstruction for over a century.

The Valley of the Sugar Mills

The Valley of the Sugar Mills, UNESCO-listed alongside Trinidad, retains the remains of over seventy sugar plantations active in the 19th century, including the Manaca Iznaga tower, forty-five metres tall and built to watch over enslaved people working in the surrounding fields. This valley, today crossed by a period steam train, offers a rare and complete testimony to the plantation economy that once made Trinidad's fortune.

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Where to rest your head

A Renovated Casa Particular in the Historic Centre

A traditional casa particular renovated at the heart of the listed historic centre, a shaded inner courtyard, within walking distance of the Plaza Mayor and its museums.