Posted on April 9, 2010.
Cigar Destinations: Festivals that meet the dedicated smokers Smoking cigars is all about shared pleasure. After all, it swept Victorian England and became a national pastime in part because it gave men something to do with their hands while they talked after dinner. And it took off during the so-called "cigar boom" of the 1990s in part because of new publications, online forums, clubs, cigar and other social sites allowed cigar smokers talk about their passion .
It is therefore not surprising to find events related to cigars in the social calendar of smokers in the world. Besides the wonderful, dear Big Smoke conventions established by Cigar Aficionado magazine - at least twice a year, in Las Vegas and New York - there is the festival of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, free and open to the public. And this is only November. Check out some other, more exotic opportunities around the globe.
The Dominican Republic is the largest source of premium cigars, surpassing even Cuba (from which many families of the country's cigar-making and technology have emigrated over the years after Castro). The Aurora, Davidoff, Arturo Fuente and La Gloria Cubana, among many others, all operate there, and from 2007, it has its own annual festival of cigars as well! Taking place in Santiago, two days Procigar Festival (the first was held March 5-7, 2008) included the cigar factory tour, visits to tobacco fields, the chances of drinking with some of the largest manufacturers in the world cigars and cigarettes and liquor matchups. Companies like La Aurora, General Cigar Co., and Tabacalera de Garcia, among others, participated, and the arc opening was successful enough to justify a second - to be held February 16-20, 2009.
While you're there, if you go, you can view a list of other tourist attractions offered by the major cultural capital of Latin America. The Dominican Republic is the first place permanently colonized by Europeans across the American continent is - the oldest cathedrals, universities, and European made roads can be found here. Santo Domingo, capital of the country comes up against its southern coast, offering a breathtaking view (Procigar Festival takes place much farther north, in Santiago, but the country is not very large in total area ). Four ranges of mountains adorn the country, the Cordillera Central ("Central Mountain Range") approaches Santiago so that visitors to the Festival Procigar could also arrange a day trip to see the Pico Duarte, the jewel in the Cordillera Central and the highest peak in the West Indies (over 3000 meters). And, of course, Santiago is itself located in the Cibao valley - between the Cordillera Central and Gorilla Septentrional ("Northern Mountain Range), which are parallel to each other - and this rich and fertile region houses most of the country's farms, including its tobacco plantations.
Or you can follow the footsteps of author James Joyce to visit Zurich, Switzerland, where the expatriate Irish writer modernist polymath completed much of his novel Finnegans Wake surreal, and when the sails Whiskyship each November. (What happened in November and cigar?) This whiskey tasting event, which also offers three hundred premium cigars for the sampling, allows those with pointed nose and taste buds to enjoy single malts from world, and enjoy the company of people with similar tastes. The Whiskyship 2008 is the tenth of these cases. Switzerland, of course, features all sorts of other attractions - among other things, there's the James Joyce Foundation, but also, you know, mountains and lakes and thousands of dollars years of European landscapes - and would worth a visit soon.
Another possibility - but a bit closer to home, at least for smokers in North America - is Nebraska Cigar Festival in Lincoln. Taking place at the end of Nove.
