Trinidad

Trinidad grew rich on sugar in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and then stopped: the mills in the valley behind it failed, the railway went elsewhere, and the town was left with the houses the boom had built and no money to replace them. That is why it looks the way it does. The centre is cobbled, low and painted in flat colours, with grilled windows onto the street and a plaza of mansions, and it was inscribed in 1988 together with the Valle de los Ingenios where the mills stood.

What you actually see

• Plaza Mayor - the central square ringed by planters' mansions, several of them now museums.
• The cobbles - streets of rough river stone laid in the sugar era and never resurfaced.
• Palacio Cantero - a mansion with a tower climbed for the view over the roofs and the valley.
• The Casa de la Musica steps - open-air stairs beside the church where bands play in the evening.

When to go

November to April is the dry season. The town has live music every evening year-round. Hurricane season runs from June to November, and summer here is hot and airless between the hills and the sea.

Honest expectations

The cobbles are genuinely punishing: ankle-turning, hard on wheeled luggage and worse in the dark. The town is thoroughly given over to tourism and touts work the plaza and the approach roads. Practical conditions are as difficult as elsewhere in Cuba, so cash and patience are needed.

Nearby

Playa Ancon is twelve kilometres south, the Valle de los Ingenios is east, and Topes de Collantes is up in the Escambray.