Hi everyone!!
I´m travelling to Cuba in July for 14-15 days. We are four friends with very different interests.. so I have to manage to keep everybody happy (difficult.. i know...).
After many negotiations, the plan was as follows:
- 6-7 days in La Habana
- 3 days (no more!!) in Varadero (or similar, for the people who wants all-inclusive and beach)
- 5 days in Santiago
During the days we stay in La Habana, we would like to visit also other towns. I don´t want to miss Trinidad, but I have read it is 5 hours away from La Habana!! so i guess we have to sleep there least one day. is this right??
we would reserve everything through travel agency (i couldn´t fight against this...), and it seems that the trips (transfers from one town to another) are included in the price.
To sum up, I would like to know:
- if the distribution of the days is ok
- if it is worth to travel to Santiago, or it is better to stay in La Habana- Trinidad
- if we have to visit something else (somebody talked about "cayo ... something??")
or whatever you may comment about this 15-day-trip.
Thanks a lot!
Skip Santiago and spend that time in Trinidad (and maybe Cienfuegos) instead.
If you go to one of the Cayo Something-or-Others, it is just the same as being in Varadero, so skip that too.
I think Patty is referring to Cayo Levisa off the north coast of Cuba west of Havana. The Playas del Este are beaches east of Havana to which you can make day trips or where you can stay. Varadero is planned resort development. It has better beaches than Las Playas but you will might as well be at an all-inclusive anywhere in the Caribbean.
You will lose at least two full days of your vacation time travelling to and from Santiago. I think you are better off doing the triangle of Havana/Trinidad/Vinales.
thanks for your replies!
as i can see, both of you would skip Santiago (even travelling by plane??).
of course, Havana and Trinidad.
also Vinales, and maybe Cienfuegos?. And some beach (cayo, playas del este, etc..).
would that be ok?
thanks
I didn't actually say skip Santiago. It is just a long way from Havana and to me was not particularly noteworthy. Some people rave about it though and you might have some special reason for wanting to go. Even flying you are going to be missing most of a day each way. You can see a little more if you do a small circuit to both the east and west of Havana as you outlined. The place you definately want to blow off in my opinion is Varadero, unless you want a break from Cuba during the middle of your trip.
Santiago--only if you fly. At that it will take you a bit of time--say, half a day each way, even though the flight's only an hour long. That's because of having to be at the airports an hour in advance of the flight, airport-city transfers at each end, etc.
If you're flying home from Havana, then only spend the night of your arrival there, then return and spend the last few days of your trip in the city, so you don't have to worry about getting back in time to catch that outbound flight.
So what you might do would be something like: first night in Havana, then fly on to Santiago next day.
Return to Havana in two or three days, spend another night, and bus or taxi to Varadero (if you must). It's only two hours.
Then finish up your time in Havana.
Normally most of us would recommend that you spend a couple of days in Trinidad, and maybe a night or two in Vinales, just for the contrast, and the closer-to-seeing-something of real Cuba and Cubans which these two towns offer. But your post suggests you are city people who, perhaps due to different interests, want lots of options available to you. This you will find in Havana and Santiago. There's lots of stuff to do in Varadero, too, but as indicated by previous posters, it's all resort-type stuff such as you will find in any beach resort in the world; in short, a resort culture experience, not a Cuban culture experience.
Hi everybody!
Believe me when i say i don´t want to go to varadero!!! but 2 of our friends want. I would prefer much more to go to Trinidad, of course. I even don´t want to stay in a hotel, but the others do. So, if we stay in hotels and lose 2 days in the beach (resorts), i have the right to ask for 2 or 3 days in Trinidad (at least!)!!
so... if you say we can go to "playas del este", that are good beaches.. this should be enough for "beach-lovers". then, we only have to stay in Havana and Trinidad. (or, i can stay in havana while the others go to varadero).
I like live music, so i guess we will consider santiago.
regarding the transport... if we want to go to havana, santiago and trinidad, how could we do? starting in havana, fly to santiago, fly back to havana, or instead take a bus to trinidad, and another bus to havana??
thanks
Also note that there is good beach - Playa Ancon- only 20 minutes or so out of Trinidad. Very easy and cheap to get there from Trinidad or vise versa if you stay in one of the resorts. You will find several live music venues in Trinidad plus you have Havana. So maybe Vinales for contrast as ttjpdo suggests and give Santiago the flick given your limited time. That will reduce travel by heaps and allow you use Viazul(see Cubafaq) and/or hire a driver seeing there are 4 of you(actually cheaper than bus). Certainly if you are determined to go to Santiago then you should fly one way b/n there and Havana and bus/hire driver(my preference) for the obverse.
Cheers
john
The plan suggested by Johnabbotsford is a good one. If you bussed from Havana to Trinidad (5 hours), and stayed at a resort like Hotel Ancon on the beach, then your friends could have their all-inclusive hotel beach experience, and anyone in your group who wanted to see/do something more of Cuba, could grab a 3-CUC taxi into Trinidad, just 14 km away. Actually, the hotel runs mini-buses back and forth all the time, perhaps gratis for guests--I don't know. Trinidad is heavily touristed, but the difference is, plenty of Cubans live there who are NOT part of the "hospitality industry," and you'll find a good mix of visitors and locals at the discos, music venues, crafts market, parks, etc. And if you want to see the town of Trinidad WITHOUT a noticable number of foreigners around, you only have to go in around six AM, and wander the streets for a couple of hours, when you'd be unlikely to see anybody who isn't a local resident.
Meanwhile, back at the beach... there are only three hotels there, and many kilometres of wild beach. Hotel Ancon is nearest the tip of the peninsula, and the beach beyond the hotel, further out to the tip, is very lovely and nearly empty. Walk the other way and you pass the other two hotels, Costa Sur and Las Breezes, I think they're called. Directly across the street from Hotel Ancon is the marina where the scuba dive boat goes out, if that is of interest to any of you. And of course, the hotel will have, or will be able to tell you how to arrange, a trip up into the Escambray Mountains where, just 30 km away, you can hike through cloud forest to little waterfalls. Or, closer at hand, catch a choo-choo train out through the sugar cane fields. Or just go into town and hang out at the Parque Cespedes and watch the locals play chess and dominoes.
Re Varadero, your friends might be more willing to spend their beach days on Trinidad's Playa Ancon if you took an early AM bus d to Varadero from Havana (2 hours, mostly waterfront scenery), and spent a morning on the beach, had lunch, and then bussed back to the city. If after doing that, they still think that kind of tourist ghetto is where they want to spend vacation time,well, maybe it is their thing.
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