Things to do in Varadero
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Centro Internacional de Paracaidismo
For those with a head for heights, Varadero’s greatest thrill has to be skydiving with the Centro Internacional de Paracaidismo, based at the old airport just west of Varadero. The terminal is 1km up a dirt road, opposite Marina Acua. Skydivers take off in an Antonov AN-2 biplane of WWII design (don’t worry, it’s a replica) and jump from 3000m using a two-harness parachute with an instructor strapped in tandem on your back. After 35 seconds of free fall the parachute opens and you float tranquilly for 10 minutes down onto Varadero’s white sandy beach. The center also offers less spectacular (but equally thrilling) ultralight flights at various points on the beach. Price…
reviewed
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Artisan Market
If art and history are your thing you've come to the wrong place. Varadero's reputation as a font of cultural interaction is not exactly legendary. Nevertheless there are a few sights worth pondering over if the beach banality starts to wear a bit thin.
The Parque Central and adjacent Parque de las 8000 Taquillas host the biggest Artisan Market in town and nestled among the uva caleta (sea grape) trees it's a pretty part of the public beach.
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Club Mambo
Cuba’s ’50s mambo craze lives on at this quality live music venue – arguably one of Varadero’s hippest and best. Situated next to Club Amigo Varadero in the eastern part of town, the CUC$10 entry includes all your drinks. A DJ spins when the band takes a break, but this place is all about live music. There’s a pool table if you don’t feel like dancing.
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Casa de la Música
Aping its two popular Havana namesakes, this place has quality live acts and a definitive Cuban feel. It’s in town and attracts a local crowd who pay in pesos.
reviewed
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Aquaworld Marina Chapelín
Varadero’s nautical highlight in the popularity stakes is the Seafari Cayo Blanco, a seven-hour sojourn (CUC$75) from Marina Chapelín to nearby Cayo Blanco and its idyllic beach. The trip includes an open bar, lobster lunch, two snorkeling stops, live music and hotel transfers. There’s also a shorter CUC$45 catamaran tour with snorkeling, open bar and a chicken lunch. The Fiesta en el Cayo is a sunset cruise (CUC$39) to Cayo Blanco with dinner, music and more free-flowing rum at the key. The two-hour guided Boat Adventure is another perennial favorite. Leaving from the Marina Chapelín, it’s a speedy sortie through the adjacent mangroves on two-person jet skis or moto…
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Seafari Cayo Blanco
One of Varadero's most popular cruises is the Seafari Cayo Blanco to - you've guessed it - Cayo Blanco. This trip includes the dolphin show at the Delfinario, open bar, lunch on Cayo Blanco, two snorkeling stops, live music and hotel transfers. This trip comes with a free sunset cruise that can be carried over to the following day if desired. Several readers have reported that these trips were the highlight of their stay.
There are cheaper catamaran tours that are less heavily promoted, but still great fun, with the same excellent snorkeling. Try the stripped-down tour that has no music and dancing, and a chicken, rather than seafood lunch. There's also a two-hour guided …
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Barracuda Diving Center
Varadero’s top scuba facility is the mega-friendly, multilingual Barracuda Diving Center. Diving costs CUC$40 per dive with equipment, cave diving is CUC$60 and night diving costs CUC$50. Packages of multiple dives work out cheaper. Snorkelers can join the divers for CUC$25. Barracuda conducts introductory resort courses for CUC$70 and ACUC (American Canadian Underwater Certifications) courses for CUC$365, plus many advanced courses. A brand new recompression facility is installed on site and there’s also a training pool, resident doctor and popular seafood restaurant on the premises. Barracuda has a daily capacity for 70 divers in three 12m boats.
reviewed
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Varadero Golf Club
While it’s no Pebble Beach, golfers can have a swinging session at the uncrowded and well-landscaped Varadero Golf Club. The original nine holes created by the Duponts are between Hotel Bella Costa and the Dupont Mansion, and in 1998 the course was extended to 18 holes (par 72) by adding another nine holes along the southern side of the three Meliá resorts. Bookings are made through the Pro shop next to the Dupont Mansion (now a cozy B&B with free, unlimited tee time). Green fees go for CUC$48/77 nine/18 holes. A 50-minute lesson costs CUC$30.
reviewed
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Reserva Ecológica Varahicacos
The Reserva Ecológica Varahicacos is Varadero’s nominal green space and a wildlife reserve that’s about as ‘wild’ as New York’s Central Park. Bulldozers have been chomping away at its edges for years. There are three short trails (CUC$3, 45 minutes each), none of which are ever out of earshot of the noisy Autopista. The highlight is the Cueva de Musalmanes with 2500-year-old human remains and a giant cactus tree nicknamed El Patriarca (patriarch).
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Gaviota
Gaviota has a variety of helicopter tours in Russian M1-8 choppers; the Trinidad trip (CUC$229) is popular. The Tour de Azúcar (sugarcane tour) visits a disused sugar mill and takes a steam train ride to Cárdenas station. Prices are CUC$39/30 per adult/child. It also organizes jeep safaris to the scenic Valle del Yumurí. The excursion (adult/child CUC$45/34) includes a visit to a campesino family and a huge, delicious meal at Ranchón Gaviota.
reviewed
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Restaurante Esquina Cuba
Notable for the 1950s-era soft-top that sits regally in the middle of the dining room, this place was one-time favorite of Buena Vista Social Club luminary, Compay Segundo. The man obviously had taste. With lashings of beans, rice, plantain chips and chicken, the food here has the aura of Havana’s famous El Aljibe. Great Cuban ephemera line the walls, including black-and-white photos of Varadero back in its Mafia hangout heyday.
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Cabaret Continental
There’s a coolness to the kitsch at the retro Hotel Internacional, which stages a shamelessly over-the-top Tropicana-style floor show (Tuesday to Sunday) that is, arguably, second only to ‘the one’ (in Havana). Book dinner at 8pm, catch the singers and dancers strutting their stuff, and stay after midnight for the tie-loosening disco. Enquire at your hotel tour desk about advance bookings. This place is popular.
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Acua Diving Center
The Acua Diving Center is in western Varadero near the Hotel Kawama. It charges much the same prices as Barracuda, Varadero's top scuba facility, but doesn’t have quite the facilities, or volume. When a north wind is blowing and diving isn’t possible in the Atlantic, you can be transferred to the Caribbean coast in a minibus (90-minute drive); this costs a total of CUC$55/75 for one/two dives.
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Varasub
The 48-passenger Varasub offers 90-minute underwater viewing possibilities six times a day, including unlimited soda or rum drinks and transfers. You sit on benches at the bottom of the air-con vessel and peer out through glass windows, though the boat itself doesn't actually submerge. Trips on Varasub can be arranged at any Havanatur office. The boat leaves from the Super Clubs Puntarenas in west Varadero.
reviewed
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Cayo Piedras del Norte
Cayo Piedras del Norte, one hour by boat, has been made into a 'marine park' by the deliberate sinking of an assortment of military equipment in 15m to 30m of water. The yacht Coral Negro was sunk here in 1997, followed by frigate 383 in 1998. Also scuttled for the benefit of divers and glass-bottom boat passengers are a towboat, a missile launching gunboat (with missiles intact) and an AN-24 aircraft.
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Cueva de Ambrosio
East on Autopista Sur and 500m beyond the Club Amigo Varadero you’ll find the Cueva de Ambrosio. Some 47 pre-Columbian drawings were discovered in this 300m cave in 1961. The black and red drawings feature the same concentric circles seen in similar paintings on the Isla de la Juventud, perhaps a form of solar calendar. The cave was also used as a refuge by escaped slaves.
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Cabaret Cueva del Pirata
A kilometer east of the Hotel Sol Elite Palmeras, Cabaret Cueva del Pirata presents scantily clad dancers in a Cuban-style floor show with a buccaneer twist (eye patches, swashbuckling moves etc). This cabaret is inside a natural cave and once the show is over, the disco begins. Most hotel tour desks can arrange return hotel transfers. It’s a popular place, attracting a young crowd.
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Marlin Marina Chapelín
Varadero has three marinas, all of which offer a variety of nautical activities and facilities. Situated close to the Delfinario and the entrance to Hotel Riu Turquesa is the Marlin Marina Chapelín where five hours of deep-sea fishing costs CUC$290 for four people (price includes hotel transfers, open bar and licenses; non-fishing companions pay CUC$30).
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Restaurante La Vega
They’ve diminished the seating at this place to a few tables on a wraparound porch, but the paella’s still good, along with the tempting flan al ron (crème caramel with rum; CUC$3) and strong coffee. Connected to the Casa del Habano, there’s an upstairs cigar lounge for after-dinner smokes (replete with beach views).
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Judo
For a workout to remember, pay a visit to the tiny sports club inauspiciously named Judo on the east side of Parque Central. Despite the rough facilities and decidedly poky interior, the trainers here are real pros and will give you the best boxing/judo/karate/jujitsu session you’ve ever had.
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Delfinario
The much hyped Delfinario gets mixed reviews. Dolphin shows happen here daily in a natural pool and swimming with the friendly aquatic mammals costs a steep CUC$65. You’re allowed to grab the dolphin’s fin and let it drag you around. Ride of a lifetime or cruel aqua-zoo? You decide.
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Centro Comercial Hicacos
Parque de las 8000 Taquillas has been the recipient of an extensive remodeling with a new mall tucked under a reborn (and plusher) Coppelia. Called the Centro Comercial Hicacos, there are a variety of shops here including souvenirs, cigars and photo developing, and an Infotur office.
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Ranchón Bellamar
Wedged between the main avenue and the beach, this open-sided thatched ranchón is part of the Hotel Sunbeach. With its cheap lunches and maracas-shaking musicians, it’s a good bet when it’s quiet, though the staff struggles to cope if the clientele hits double figures.
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Mi Casita
Perched over a lovely strip of beach, this cozy restaurant looks and feels more like a paladar than a government-run enterprise. Encased in a charming glass-fronted dining room you can enjoy lobster, spicy chicken and succulent fish – all excellent, if a little overzealous with the garlic.
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Casa de la Cultura Los Corales
A place where the locals still hold sway. You can catch ‘filin’ (feeling) matinees here, where singers pour their heart into Neil Sedaka–style crooning. There are also instructors available for Cuban music; or take dance lessons for around CUC$2 an hour.
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