Pierre,
Go to Cuba !
Go there before it gets spoiled forever.
Land at Varadero, get a hotel on the strip, visit Havana, enjoy.......
I go there once a month with work, usually further up the coast
If not - look at Punta Cana - fab people, great beaches and hotels, reasonable rates - Dom Rep is very good indeed.
This! I spent a week in Cuba in 2015 as part of a study abroad program. We stayed 4 days in Havanna then traveled over to Veradero for 2 nights, and stopped off in Matanzas for a half-day visit.
Just be aware, that "5 star hotels" in Cuba means something very different than what most Americans are used to
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
But, we were not traveling for vacation, but doing people-to-people exchanges to learn about the newly forming economy since Raul took over.
Havana is absolutely amazing. We stayed in Hotel Tejadillo and the architecture was awesome. We were a bunch of Americans right in the middle of Old Habana and felt totally safe, even late at night. It was one of the most amazing and life changing experiences I have had so far.
Matanzas is really cool for an old "industrial" city. We visited the pharmacy / museum there which was really neat to see.
Veradero is very touristy, as thats where most tourists end up because of the perfect beaches. I would have rather spent that time in Habana, but our studies itinerary included us examining the impact of tourism on Cuba's economy.
If you can get a chance to go, go now before it changes. We were down there when Fidel was still alive, but after Raul had taken over, and the government had already started changing, which ultimately changed the culture a little, which is something most Cuban's echoed to us. Now that Fidel has died, that country will likely change, and change VERY fast. In ten or so years, it will so american-ized from the super-mega-corporations pillaging it, it will loose much of what makes it so amazing. Every single person we met, even in casual meetings, valued relationships and people more than material things.
Now that the Obama administration has laxed some of the travel regulations (You still have to go under one of the 12 "allowed" reasons, and tourism is not one of them), but the regulations are much more relaxed to make it easy to fit into one of those categories. This will likely change under the new administration, so go now while you can.