14 day itinerary???

Hi,

So, if you are planning to travel around in Cuba, then you will definitely make good use of your son’s Spanish. Even in Havana you will not find many good English speakers. In a town like Trinidad which is small and is a popular tourist destination, you should be ok. In Remedios I do not think English will be common at all.

I think you will enjoy Christmas in Cuba because you will be with your family. But there will not be many other  celebrations happening, other than the event in Remedios. Personally, I do not think it is worth it to go to Remedios just for the festival. It is good, but Remedios is far. There are some details here: http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g671534-i14167-k6848734-Christmas_in_Cuba-Santa_Clara_Villa_Clara_Province_Cuba.html

If I was you, I would consider Vinales too. It’s like Trinidad, but more about nature. Trinidad is a bit more about architecture in the town. They are similar in many ways, but Vinales is a bit closer to Havana (190km), so there is much less time in transit. Trinidad is 260 km from Havana.

I would spend time in Havana. Do the tourist things for the first few days, and then start doing the local things. I wrote in the book about the beaches located both west and east of the city. Take a taxi particular to each. The western beach is small, but very close to the city. The eastern beach is much larger (Guanabo) and only about 30 minutes away. Consider arriving there in the morning and then walking around the town a bit and finding a casa to stay in for the night. I mention how you do this in the video I just linked to. You will have to knock on a few doors, but it will be fun and you will meet people. You can stay at a nice casa near the beach. But pick a nice warm day.

If you go to Vinales, stay for 2 or 3 days. The town is tiny, but you go there to explore the Valley, which is huge. You can see the plantations, the tobacco fields. Ride on horses, explore caves and climb up limestone hills. It’s a great place. It’s like country living hundreds of years ago. It has well developed tourist infrastructure. The beach is not very close to Vinales.

Also, have you considered going to Varadero? In terms of relaxing and having fun, it is good. It’s a tourist area, but still, a few nights at an all inclusive (drinks and food) resort never hurt anybody. You can find some cheap deals on the website http://www.Sunwing.ca.

I did not want to confuse you with too many options. My best overall advice would not be to overthink it too much. Cuba is the kind of place where you do not need to make very big plans. You could land in Havana right now and ask a few people on the street, and they would be able to find you a good casa particular to stay in. Everybody knows everybody. And taxis are easy to take. 

Hi, honestly, it will be better to be in Vinales. Although Remedios is nice, there will be a lot more fun activities in Vinales. 

If you are into adventure and cave exploration, you might have a great time with that in Vinales. There is a website for some more information on it. You can take a look here. http://www.cubarocks.co.uk/caves-in-cuba

As for restaurants on Christmas day, you should know that I would recommend making a reservation beforehand. I can take care of this for you, or you can just ask your casa landlord to do it.

For the actual restaurant, I would suggest 2 places:

1. El Carmelo (locate on 23rd street, near the corner of H, right beside the Riviera theater.) The food will be good and plentiful. But stick to the ofertas (meal deals). The waitresses will try to up-sell you all sorts of fancy things, but those will cost a lot more and you will likely be disappointed. But the ofertas are what 99% of people order and they are great. Escalope de Cerdo is their signature dish. You get a huge portion of breaded, fried pork steak. It will be good. It costs about 5$ and the meal includes a beer or other drink and a dessert (postre) which is usually a scoop of ice cream. If you are in the mood for carbs, they also have lasagna. The portion is usually massive. It’s nothing fancy, and it’s not authentic Italian, but it’s not terrible and as I said, it’s huge. It costs $2.50 (no beer or dessert included). This is a state restaurant. Just check your bill at the end of the meal, in case the waitress added extra items. If the waitress gives you any problems, always immediately ask to speak with the manager. It’s a good restaurant, but you just have to always watch out for scams. It will probably have some Christmas decor for the holidays. They have a small facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/El-Carmelo-de-23-y-H-313120645377164/timeline/
2. La Catedral: This is a private paladar restaurant. It is independently owned. It is located at Calle 8, #106, between Calzada and 5th, in Vedado. The phone number is 830 0793. It’s very popular. The decor is good. It was the most popular new restaurant in Vedado last year. Prices are good too. Just marginally higher than El Carmelo. An Escalope de Cedro is 4$. The beers are $1.40. Ice cream is 1$. So, it costs a bit more, but you won’t break the bank. They have a lot of other foods on the menu too. Since it is private, there is less chance that the waitresses will scam you, just because the owner’s reputation is on the line. The prices that I quoted above are from a few months ago. Maybe they have changed a bit, but I think they are more or less similar. I don’t know if they will have changes for Christmas. They have some great reviews on Trip Advisor: http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g147271-d5826028-Reviews-La_Catedral-Havana_Cuba.html

I hope this helps. If you need reservations or want any extra help, just tell me.

Also, I have an assistant in Havana, named Claudia. Her phone number is 053895036. If you should ever need some last minute help, you can call her when you are in Havana to take care of things or if you have any issues. It’s free.

Have a great day,

Mario

Hi Eileen.

You can contact Claudia via our website. The email address is casas.bestcubaguide@gmail.com .

For a full list of all the casas particulares that we offer in Cuba, you can check out https://bestcubaguide.com/cheap-casas-particulares-havana-cuba/

When you use the contact form at the bottom of each casa listing, Claudia is automatically sent an email so she can call the casa directly and email you back.

But if you have more questions, do not hesitate to ask me. Just post it below and I can take care of providing you an answer to the best of my ability.

take care,

Mario

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Mario.

 Hi, ok, I will give you some facts and then some opinion. And then some questions that you should ask yourself, to best determine where you want to go.

So, first, facts

1. The trip from Holguin to Havana is about 12 to 14 hours, in the Viazul bus. It costs 44cuc per person. You can take a car and maybe pay just a bit more, and it will be faster, but not much faster. It’s always a long trip. And with a car, it is more dangerous. I have done it in a car, and would probably not do it again. The highway from Holguin to Havana is mostly only 2 lanes… one lane in each direction. It’s pretty scary to be driving at 100km per hour and then have another car or bus, just inches away from you, driving at the same speed, in the opposite direction. It’s a beautiful drive through the country… stunning… But you have to trust your driver.
2. To get from Havana to Vinales is another 3 or 4 hours by bus. 2.5 hours by car. 
3. To get to Parque Nacional Peninsula de Gunanahacabibes (Let’s just call it Maria la Gorda beach) is another few hours.  All told, to get from Holguin to Maria la Gorda is like 17 hours, if everything goes well… That’s basically a day in the bus, and it can easily take longer. 
4. Varadero is touristy. But 90% of the beaches in Cuba are touristy. Tourism is the main force in the economy of Cuba. If there is a good beach, it’s safe to say that other people will be there. The hidden beaches all have defects (rocky, hard to get to, no shade, deep water, coarse sand, polluted, jellyfish issues, etc… But there are hidden beaches which are good enough. And I too like finding them, and have found some nice ones. And they are closer to Holguin than they are to Havana. I will explain this later.
5. Around Holguin, there are some nice towns and major cities and popular beaches. Within a couple of hours of Holguin there are the cities of Camaguey, La Tunas and Santiago. There are the beaches of Manzanillo, Guardalavaca and Santa Lucia. There is the national park near Baracoa and the Parque Turquino with Cuba’s tallest mountain.

Opinion:

I get maybe 5 messages per week for people landing in Havana and asking me how they can visit the eastern side of the island. They want to leave Havana and go to Santiago and Baracoa and Holguin…. And I have to be honest and tell them that while they can do that, it takes a long bus ride and there is really nothing that they will see on that side of the island that they cannot see closer to Havana. And the same can be said if you are landing in Holguin. My opinion would be to stay in the eastern part of the island and explore it and enjoy it… And not waste time in a bus trying to see the western part. It’s really not worth it. I have been to the eastern parts of Cuba many times, and I prefer those areas much more than the western parts.

Vinales is beautiful. It’s one of my favorite parts of Cuba. But its a valley… Scenic, yes, but it’s a valley. And you can find valleys that are very similar in the national parks around Santiago.

Trinidad is beautiful. It’s an old world town, surrounded by a valley. The architecture dates back to the 1600s… But in the end, it’s just a cluster of old houses in a valley. It’s fun, and you can do a lot, but how many old houses are you going to visit? And, honestly, everything in Cuba dates back hundreds of years.. In Baracoa, close to Holguin, Christopher Columbus landed in the 1480s and established the first settlement in the new world. That’s even more interesting to me. And Baracoa is connected to the rest of Cuba by just a dirt road.. so the place is very remote and well preserved.

90% of tourists come to Cuba via Havana or Varadero. If you want to get off the tourist path, then you have a huge advantage by coming in through Holguin. Use it to your advantage. Don’t waste it by arriving in Holguin and then immediately getting on the Havana tourist path.

I can understand why you would want to go to Trinidad, Vinales and Maria la Gorda. They are all beautiful places, and they have all been covered extensively on Lonely Planet and other websites. The reason for this is because they are mobbed with tourists day and night. These same tourists rarely get to see the eastern part of the island, because it is far away and off the beaten track… There is far less info on things to see near Holguin. This is your huge advantage. And I can’t tell you all the places, because not even I know them, but part of the experience in Cuba is discovering them for yourself.

My Itinerary for you – 

Day 1) Land in Holguin. Check it out. Take a bici taxi tour around the city. Maybe it costs 20cuc and takes 2 hours. Go for it. I have done it and loved it.

Day 2) more exploration in Holguin. Climb the Loma de la Cruz (giant hill in the middle of the city).

Day 3) Go to Santiago de Cuba. Explore the city. It’s large and hot, and honestly, I don’t like it. But see it anyway.

Day 4) More Santiago. It has a rich history. It was the former capital city. There is lots to do. Did I mention, it will be hot?.. Very hot.

Day 5) Go to the mountains. West of the city there are the Sierra Maestra mountains and the Pico Turquino (highest peak in Cuba). In this area, Fidel Castro hid with his small army and staged many attacks on the government, during the revolution. This area is super rich in history, not to mention that it is stunningly beautiful and way off the tourist path. Go horseback riding and hiking. You probably won’t find many photos of this online.. mostly because only hardcore tourists make it this far.

Day 6) Explore the mountains more or stay in a small town beside the reserve. There are thousands of beaches along this mountain range, along the ocean side… Ask a local taxi driver to drop you off somewhere and wait a few hours. It will not be expensive. Have a day in the sun. You deserve it.

Day 7) Go back to Santiago and take the Viazul, or a taxi to Baracoa. You will not regret this trip. Baracoa is a poor, ocean side community, and the first place settled by Columbus in Cuba. It has a large mountain and the huge Toa river passing beside it. Bathe in the river and walk through the jungle leading to the mountain. It rains every day in Baracoa… And honestly, if you don’t like rain, it gets old pretty fast, but if you rent bikes and really get to explore the area, you will be distracted by the beautiful scenery and not mind so much.

Day 8) Still in Baracoa…

Day 9) Get a taxi to take you to Moa. A small town.. But it’s the only town in the area which has taxi service. There is a dirt road leading there. Get to the town, and then hop in another taxi to go to Guardalavaca Beach.. Or you can just hang around Moa and explore the area.. There are hundreds of isolated beaches in this area.

Day 10) Guardalavaca is maybe the second or third best beach in Cuba, and far lower in tourists that Varadero. You might like it. Also the area is large, so you can easily go 5 minutes away and find you own beach refuge. Stay a few days enjoying this area.. You will not regret it. Meet locals and they will tell you about and probably take you to their favorite places. Do it… In Guardalavaca there are some tourist resorts. There are not many casas particulares. You might have to stay in a nearby town, in a casa, and then either go to Guardalavaca for the beach or find a different beach (always in the same area) closer to your casa. It’s not hard. As I said, there are beaches everywhere in this location.

Day 13) Return to Holguin. You have just completed the exact route that most foreigners to Cuba would only dream of. You missed Havana, Vinales and Trinidad and Varadero… Missed them completely.. But you got to experience Cuba’s western tip, fully. Cubans call this area the Oriente… And you saw it, before 99% of other people. Before all the other tourists ruin it.

And next time, if you want to see the western side of Cuba, make sure to land in Havana… And you can see what a different world that place is.. (It’s not as good).

Questions and tips:

1. Did I totally mess your plans up with my itinerary? Trust me, if I was going to Holguin, this is what I would do.
2. Why do you want to go to Havana? I just came back from 5 weeks there. It’s beautiful, yes, but it’s not the be all and end all of Cuba. Nothing says that you have to visit Havana while in Cuba. If your friends say that you have to visit Havana while in Cuba, they are wrong.
3. Vinales and Trinidad. Again, beautiful, but Cuba is filled with beautiful places. Do you want to find your own, or just visit places that are already visited by thousands of people each day?
4. Varadero has beautiful beaches. I love Varadero, despite the commercial atmosphere. Guardalavaca or any beaches along the eastern keys will be just as nice with a lot fewer tourists. 
5. Maria la Gorda beach. People go here for scuba. It’s the best scuba in Cuba, they say. But more than that, it has a scuba complex with lodging and a whole system set up for tourism. That’s probably the reason it is the most popular scuba area. But or else, you can do scuba all over Cuba, and the facilities are almost as good. A good guide can show you reefs and all sorts of nice things. In my opinion, there is no reason to drive 15 hours to a beach, when you are on an island with hundreds of beautiful beaches.

Sorry if some parts of this message seem overly direct. I was in a very good mood while writing it, but I think I was just a bit jealous of your plans and tense because I wish I could be planning this trip myself. And sometimes my writing is just a bit less emotional than I would like. But I think you are in a perfect position to have a very memorable and special trip to Cuba. I honestly want you to take advantage of that. And on your subsequent trips, you can do the western route and see the well worn Cuba trails. That’s my opinion.

take care

Mario Rizzi

Hi, congratulations on planning a Cuba trip, I am sure it will be great fun. I wouldn’t’ worry too much about hurricane season. Yes, there could be storms, but there is nothing you can do to control that. The island is pretty well prepared in case of storms and most storms do not hit directly on the main cities in Cuba, historically.

Here are some answers.

1. The best way is to take a taxi. Yes it is 25cuc, but that is the standard rate. There is like a taxi cartel set up at the airports and they fix the prices. You won’t be able to find much cheaper than that. There are some city buses that pass near the airport, but you would have to walk out of the airport with your luggage and then find a city bus.. I would not suggest it. You are better off just paying the 25$ and starting your trip on the right foot. But, if you can find a couple of other tourists at the airport who are also going to Havana, you can split the ride with them. It’s easy to do, as there should be many people at the airport. 
2. If you read through a couple of the above posts, you will see that the most common cities to visit on a 2 week trip are Havana, Vinales and Trinidad. Vinales and Trinidad are similar. Vinales is closer to Havana and thus a bit more easy to visit. But honestly, based on what you want to do, you might be better off going to Trinidad. You can still ride horses and see tons of nature in Trinidad. And a bonus is that there is a beach just a few minutes from the town. Cayo Santa Maria is very far, both from Havana and Trinidad. And extremely far from Vinales. You would spend a whole day in a car trying to get there. I would suggest you skip it. The beach is nice, but it’s not so much better than many other beaches in Cuba. You would be better off going to Varadero, which is close to Havana. Also note that in Cayo Santa Maria there are no casas particulares. You would have to stay in an expensive hotel (but it would be fun) or to rent a casa in a small town outside of the Cayo, which would be far and you would have to drive to the beach each day.
3. You should only buy cigars at state run stores, called the Casa del Habano. There are many of these stores across Cuba and at the airports. They sell official cigars. Everything else you find in the street is likely to be fake. Even if they look real, they are probably fake. Anybody who offers to get you discount cigars is running a scam. The plantations, like the ones near Trinidad or Vinales will sell cigars, but they will be no-name. If they are selling them in boxes with official looking stickers, they are fake, 100% guarantee. 
4. Horse riding is easy to set up. Either in Trinidad or Vinales or anywhere else in Cuba, you just ask your casa landlord a day in advance, and they set it up. They might make a few dollars in commission, but it is fine and better to let them set it up rather than you going to find a horse guy on your own. Surfing is not big in Cuba. You probably will have trouble finding a place to do it and get the equipment. You can check out the following websites. http://www.havanasurf-cuba.com/ and http://www.surfingmagazine.com/originals/reality-surfing-cuba/#BzMQvfwzeKqxl7YO.97 . It’s really a tiny community in Cuba and it’s not a big thing here.
5. The best advice I can give you is to explore. You are only there for 14 days. If this is your first trip I guess you will want to see Havana a bit. So that would take a few days. Also you don’t mention if you speak Spanish or if you have a budget. My recommendation for a first trip is to follow the advice given in the other posts and see a Havana and then either Vinales or Trinidad and go to Varadero for a good beach experience. You can do those things without having a real plan and it will be fun. There are caves in both Trinidad and Vinales which are fun to explore. Also near Trinidad there is the Topes de Collantes natural park with nice mountains and many waterfalls. It is a great place to explore. You can do more.. If you felt comfortable and wanted to go all out you could fly from Havana to Santiago and visit the east of the island, which is less touristy and has mountains and jungle. But that would be more expensive and take more time, and it is better to go there is you speak a bit of Spanish. But you don’t need to get far away from Havana to have a good time. As a first trip I would recommend focusing on Havana, Vinales and Trinidad areas.
6. Tourists have been coming to Cuba for decades. There are no more real secret places on the island. But, the further you get from Havana, the more likely you are to find small places where there are almost no tourists. But these places are harder to get to, more expensive to get to and usually are not worth the effort. I know beaches near Playa Santa Lucia (eastern part of Cuba), where you can spend a week and never see another person pass by, and the water is crystal clear. But to get to that beach from Havana would take a day of driving. And there are also no casas near the beach, and no restaurants or bars. So, it’s a great place to be if you are in the area and stumble upon it, but you would never want to actually make a trip there. But generally, in Cuba you will be surprised at how easy it is to get away from the tourist path. If you are in Vinales or Trinidad and take a horse tour, it will probably be you, your girlfriend and the guide. If you feel comfortable on the horses, you can tell the guide you want to get off the path and just wander. Or you can ask the guide to show you something cool.. And they can take you to a hidden cliff or waterfall. And also know that in Vinales or Trinidad on any given day there might be 3000 tourists. But only 30 or 40 will take a horse tour. So once you get out of the town and get on horseback, you will be pretty much alone. The caves you visit will be empty of tourists. You will probably find yourselves alone at the waterfalls. It’s not packed with tourists, especially not in September.

take care and all the best.

Mario