Best Cuba Guide › Forums › General › 5 day itinerary, arriving in Cienfuegos departing Santa Clara? › Reply To: 5 day itinerary, arriving in Cienfuegos departing Santa Clara?
Hi, if you think you will not have much energy when you arrive then, sure, you can spend the first night in Cienfuegos. I would just stay in the downtown. Basically check some casa particular websites and find a nice casa, and just reserve it. Most casas are more or less the same and the city is really no that large.
I doubt you would have the time to visit El Nicho. It’s the kind of place that you will enjoy much more if you have time to walk around and see it fully. By the time you pass customs and then get to your casa and settle in, it will be past 1pm. Then finding a taxi to drive you to El Nicho… then driving there.. You might have only an hour or two to actually see the place. It won’t be much quality time. You can do it, certainly, depending on how much energy and how adventurous you are, but you won’t have a relaxing time. And I doubt you would have time to sit and paint comfortably.
My recommendation would be to spend more time in Trinidad and then day trip to other towns. Remedios is small and far from action. It only has a Christmas festival that is popular. Other than that, there is nobody there. Santa Clara and Sancti Spiritus are larger, but still small towns. You can go visit them on a day trip if you want. Given the choice, I would choose Sancti Spiritus as it is more charming and relaxed. It will be hot because it is in central Cuba, but it will be fun and you can say that you saw a small town without many tourists.
Overall, I would say, learn about these small towns before going to Cuba, but try not to make too many plans ahead of time. It is nice to wake up in Cuba and plan your day as you go. Plans are great, but they can get in the way sometimes. And in Cuba, plans have a way of falling apart sometimes through no fault of your own. So go with the flow and be open minded, but not stuck to a plan. Honestly, 50$ in taxi fare can get you a hundred miles, so it’s easy to make quick arrangements and not particularly expensive. Maybe it rains one day and you decide to check out Sancti Spiritus. Maybe it is sunny and you decide just to swing by the beach. Either way, it will be lots of fun.
