Havana Travel Forum

Hello,

We are in Cuba just for one week. We have already booked the first 3 nights in Havana old town centre. We would like to spend perhaps 3 nights elsewhere before returning to Havana for our flight home.

Trinidad seems a good place to go but it seems to be quite a distance and not easy to get to. Any advice please?

We don't want to spend lot's of time on the beach but would like to snorkel while there.

Would we be better off doing day trips from Havana or going to Varadaro or perhaps to the West?

Any advice most welcome, thanks.

Matthew and Julia (on our 20th anniversary trip!)

Hi. We have recently returned from Cuba and spent four nights in The Hotel Inglaterra, Old Havana. Then three nights in Vinales, and six nights in Trinidad. All three locations different and enjoyable. We hired a car and it took about a couple of hours to drive to Vinales and over four to drive to Trinidad it's about 380kms. The drive is not as bad as you may think, once you have negotiated your way out of Havana, which I found to be the most difficult part of the whole journey. We thought that the roads would be terrible but they are not too bad so long as you drive carefully, there are some sections where the surface is pot-holed. But if you do drive, definitely avoid being on the road outside of towns at night.
As for the places themselves, Vinales is quiet, rural and a lovely place for walking, horse riding or leisurely driving. Trinidad is lively, vibrant, welcoming and full of character with some reasonable beaches nearby. If it's beaches that you want though, head for the northern coast resorts.

Thanks. That helps a lot. I think we take your advice and hire a car. We have just to arrange where to stay. Perhaps two days in Trinidad and 2 in Vinales would work out well.

Any tips about what to see and where to eat/drink?

Thanks

Matthew

There is Viazul bus daily between Havana and Trinidad.

Hi Simon, that sounds very do-able.
If it's any help we booked our car before going through a company called Cubaism. They have offices in London and Havana. I can highly recommend them. They helped us no-end when we had travel delays even though we’d only booked hotel and car hire with them, not the flight.
As we were staying in Havana for the first few days we booked the car from the time we intended to leave there. Most tourist hotels have a car hire desk, but you'll save quite a lot by booking in advance. Also we found it easier when we first arrive to take a taxi into the city (20-25 CUC) as road signing is very poor. It wasn't much easier finding our way out of the city either but at least after a couple of days we had a feel for how it works.

We had intended to stay in a casa particular in Vinales but found it difficult make a booking from Havana. Everyone was saying we shouldn’t go without a booking so we booked a hotel, La Ermita which was fine and handy for the village. We also ate there as there didn’t seem to be much in the way of restaurants in the village. However when we got to Vinales it turned out that there were plenty of casas available, almost every other house has a room to let.
We did book a casa in Trinidad in advance, it sounded very good, a colonial house with airy rooms in the centre of town, but when we arrived the owner took us to a different place which turned out to be very different, a converted shed in a concrete yard. The price jumped from the quoted 25 CUCs to 50 + 10 each for dinner and 8 each for breakfast and they were compulsory. We left and stayed at a hotel on the outskirts. Having said that we did see many interesting homes in the town that were offering rooms.
I’ve heard that it’s not unusually for owners to take a booking for everyone who contacts them and just farm you out when you arrive with little choice but go along with it. If I go again I’d arrived early in the day so that I could check out that the room offered is the one I’d get. But don’t be put off Trinidad is well worth visiting. There are plenty of restaurants there.

for something different and snorkel poss in one of the best and least known Cuban beaches try Santa Maria del Mar, this is a link in english that tells you all
http://www.cubahotelbookings.com/hotel-view.asp?lID=1&hID=117

Guanabo is another dandy too, same site below page.

on the west of Havana, you can stay at Santa Fe Beach, link and hotel here
http://www.cubatravelhotels.com/viewproperty.asp?code=252&Lang=0

plenty to have beach, great marina, and access to the cigar area as well as Viñales and Soroa region. Santa Fe is near where I was born. All are great day trips from Havana.

Another area in direction Trinidad, is Cienfuegos, big beautiful colonial city by the bay, inner center founded by French huguenots. web for more here
http://www.cuba-cienfuegos.net/en/index.asp

the webs are for explanations only, but they are very accurate on the info.

Happy anniversary ::)