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We can also enjoy beaches of white sands and balmy, crystal-clear waters in Holguin.

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The city of Holguin is distinguished by the emblematic Loma de la Cruz

Inland Cuba waits for us with places too hard to capture in a picture-perfect postcard. Here we share the allures Holguin has to offer, by far one of the island nation’s most enthralling travel destinations.

Inland Cuba has quite a lot of gateways wide open and hospitality is all the rage. Coffee is thicker or lighter, depending on the crop’s ties with the mountains, and it’s rude for someone to turn down a shot of rum –with no ice and no coke– that’s offered sincerely. Traipsing down eastern Cuba is like prying into priceless affections and pricking up that human sixth sense on the quest for a different scenario: living history and legends told by the key players themselves.

The region I’m inviting you to travel to –Holguin– is like the Promised Land, featuring beaches of white sands and balmy, crystal-clear waters, fancy all-inclusive hotels that remain open all year round, and all that just a two-hour drive from Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second-largest city. A lot has changed through the years. Today, Holguin is the Cuban city with the largest growth over the past five decades. Its international airport receives dozens and dozens of weekly flights and a grand total of more than 300,000 tourists every year.

If you’re looking for relaxation, check in at the Playa Guardalavaca hotels, yet don’t settle for just the all-in resorts. The city has 25 museums, 18 national monuments, five art schools, 29 cultural houses, plus art galleries and theaters. Ask your guide to unravel the secrets of the Casa Consistorial La Periquera, a testimony of a misunderstood love and two centuries of pure history displayed at the Provincial Museum of History.

Holguin’s cultural life moves at a white-heat pace. There are 28 cultural weeks and sessions for all of its towns and cities, coupled with monthly festivals with a dozen artistic expressions, including the ­Mayflower Celebrations –currently called the World Festival of Artistic Youths and Cultural Promoters. Other events are the Party of Iberian-American Culture, featuring hundreds of artists from over 20 nations in every edition, and the International Poor Cinema Festival held in Gibara. Holguin is a cultivated, singular, elegant, haughty and, above all, lively place. Over 380 cultural institutions are supposed to be up to par with the province’s artistic and literary movement.

I suggest you not to go back to the beach for a meal. There are great restaurants everywhere, all with their own hallmarks. The traditional after-meal talk consists of a slow dance at the Casa de la Trova, with Los Guayaberos, or a chance to watch a Cuban show at the Rincon del Benny, or dance the night away at the Nocturno Cabaret. So, you better stay at the Pernik Hotel or in the cabins next to the El Bosque Motel, in the new apartment building community.

But if you prefer the avant-garde, then walk down to the Pabellon Mestre at the Casa del Nuevo Creador, where rock and rap performers will be waiting for you. Or perhaps go uptown to the Gabinete Cali­gari, an old terrace fitted out for jam sessions of both traditional crooners and electronic music performers where you could stay till the wee hours of the morning.

In a word, just pick where to see the daybreak. If you asked me, I’d recommend you to stay at the new and comfy cabins of Don Lino, right behind the Christopher Columbus National Park. For adventurers, nothing compares to Columbus, a snug catamaran with open bar, a chance to recreate the first European route along the most beautiful beaches you’ve ever seen. If you get seasick, then rent a jeep and ride with your friends, or maybe hop on a train hauled by steam-powered locomotives from the 19th century that chug along from Rafael Freyre all the way to the spot where the New World as we know it was eventually hooked up: Bariay, the mythical place where the Encounter of the Two Worlds took place, the bay of see-through waters where La Pinta, La Niña and La Santa Maria caravels anchored over 520 years ago.

This is also the Cuban province with the largest number of archeological sites. The Chorro de Maita Museum and the Bani Indo-Cuban Museum are two good cases in point.

Nearly everything was lost five centuries ago, traded for pieces of mirrors and beads. One of the greatest deceptions of all time came to pass in this neck of the woods: they said they were gods that carried armors, harquebuses and hungry dogs. Out of eastern Cuba, the terrible expeditions that conquered the Americas sailed off. As a matter of fact, the region was named after a Spanish captain who received these lands as a reward for the capture of Aztec prince Montezuma.

I’m not even halfway about Holguin. If you don’t visit the Beautiful Pearl of Eastern Cuba –Gibara- then you missed the boat completely. From the terrace of the Ordoño Hotel you can make out the surroundings as if they were a panoramic postcard.

And there’s still a long way to go: a visit to the Dolphin Seaquarium in Naranjo Bay, Boca de Sama, Biran and Mayari. Or ride uphill on the mountain mining train, watching from the distance the Nipe Bay, the biggest of the island nation, as well as La Virgen Key and hundreds of miles of unspoiled beaches.

Let’s cut a deal: why don’t you come to Holguin and climb up the 467 steps to the top of the Loma de la Cruz (Cross Hill), so then you come down and I can tell you a little bit more about it? That’ll be for sure the most cherished treasure: to have so much more to discover and do.