Caribbean – Spanish speaking & Mexico

Spice up the experience
The links may be intrinsically historical and the food, manners and language basically the same. But most other similarities between Spain and Mexico, or the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, are purely coincidental. All of which is ideal for incentive parties seeking to combine a taste of Spain with a spicy touch of the foreign.

Mexico is tantalising mix. Bombarded by US influences and economic forces, it exudes an atmosphere redolent of Miami meets Speedy Gonzales. Slick and sleek on one hand, laid-back and laissez-faire on the other, Mexico is happy-go-lucky and hot to trot, raring to rock and ready to roll on whatever takes your fancy. But it also loves a siesta, making the difference between work and play something of a lottery for the ill-prepared incentive organiser. In short, Mexico is a curious but never less than alluring combination of features and flavours, perhaps better suited to the adventurous, rather than the fainthearted, for its anything-goes, can-fix but sometimes erratic demeanour. The real beauty of Mexico is its raw beauty of Mexico is its raw authenticity. Authentic Mayan and Spanish colonial history combines with authentically superior luxury resorts, authentic pauses in progress and authentic patches of real poverty.

Largely free, but by no means divorced from the latter, are the primary incentive venues of Cancun and Cozumel islands; Mexico City/Cuernavaca; Acapulco/Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa; Puerto Vallarta and Baja California.

Together they offer a rich and rewarding mix of history, churches and charm, watersports and wildlife; splendid scenery; heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking sights – all wrapped up in a willing smile, constant mariachi music, fiery food and mind-blowing cocktails. Across the Caribbean from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Cuba’s tourism industry has made rapid strides in international standards to warrant growing incentive interest, largely based in the delightfully rustic capital Havana or the main modern beach resort of Veradero. Cuba combines history, music, beaches and watersports with the added attractions of appearing to be in a Fifties’ time-warp.

On the island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic is a mainstream holiday area focusing on beaches and watersports with splashes of old colonial history, large-scale resorts and competitively-priced incentive packages.

Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico, a protectorate of the USA and a popular cruise port, blends luxury resort hotels with an historic old town, good duty-free shopping and rainforest explorations. Farther south in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean there is a difference again in Venezuela. Here you incentive winners can rub shoulders with designer-suited oil barons and live like kings amid the refined hotels and restaurants of the capital Caracas, an intriguing blend of the historical and the ultra-modern.

Equally fine resort hotels with white sand beaches, watersports and duty-free shopping can be found on Margarita Island, ideally combined with the lively Puerto de la Cruz on the mainland. You can explore the dramatic Caribbean coastline; enjoy the cool mountain scenery, activities and city of Merida, or head inland for the Orinoco River and the fully-equipped jungle camp of Canaima, base for flight-seeing trips to the magnificent Angel Falls. Spicy, foreign and – magical.

The perfect stay in the Caribbean is the Coyaba Beach Resort in Jamaica. For more information please visit: http://www.ghotw.com/coyaba-beach-resort