Cuba- Trinidad and Varadero

Dear lilioftheworld.com reader, here is Lili, your co-editor.

Cuba is not only Havana. Trinidad is a must-visit town in the central part of the country where you will for sure feel a preserved colonial spirit. But why Varadero- isn’t it too trivial for the type of travelers we pretend to be? Find the answer below :).

This is the second post dedicated to Cuba. If you have missed the general info about travelling to Cuba and also what to do when in Havana, click on the link. For more inspirations for long haul trips, visit the special section in the blog.

Trinidad

The second stop of our trip was Trinidad. It is a town in Central Cuba, a UNESCO World Heritage. It is located 315 km south-east from Havana. Although there were options to travel by bus, we were a group of 4 and it was economically justified to take a car (you can find in our Havana story some tips for renting a car).

Trinidad is a colonial town and is famous for its typical brightly colored buildings and cobblestone streets. You do not need more than two days there as it is quite small. The good thing is that there is a beach (nice one) nearby, thus you can even spend more days there without getting bored.

What to do in Trinidad in 2 days?

• Visit Plaza Mayor

One of the main streets in Trinidad, leading to Plaza Mayor

Like in any old colonial town, the central part is picturesque. Usually there is a cathedral (like here in Trinidad as well) and gardens. The streets around the Plaza Mayor are full of amazing restaurants and cute shops selling different crafts. One important thing is that this is one of the few spots in town where you have wi-fi access. You still need to buy vouchers. They are very scarce here, so you can prepare yourself and buy them in advance from Havana. Same refers to the money exchange- our advice is that you have everything done in the capital.

• Stroll along the cobbled streets of Trinidad

Like in Havana Vieja, every single street in Old Trinidad has many things to offer.

• Climb up the radio tower hill to admire the sunset

It cannot be referred to as a hike, as this is a 40-min walk up the hill above Trinidad. We even climbed it with our flop-flops, so nothing physically demanding. You just need to have in mind that after sunset it gets dark and there is hardly any lights on the streets. In order to get to the road, you pass through a poor and a bit scary part of the town (although we didn’t have any issues). The sunset view though is really amazing.

• Visit the disco in the cave

On the way to the tower you will pass by a disco which is actually located in a cave. We have never been to a place like this and we were curious to see it. I was a bit concerned to go through this way during the night, but actually it was better than during the day. There were so many people on the way. Locals, but also some tourists. We waited in a queue to enter the place (we waited about an hour in fact), but in the end it was worth it.

• Spend a lazy day at Playa Ancon

Take a car as the beach is located around 8 kms away. The cost of the ride was around 10 CUC. The beach is really beautiful, but you should have in mind that there is only one restaurant there. So, you have quite limited choice: chicken or fish as a main dish and beer and coconut for drinks. Besides the standard beach activities, you can also go for a short snorkeling trip. 

• Visit the cigar factory

We went there on our own. The one we visited was located at the end of the town in direction Playa Ancon. We asked whether we can enter and for a small fee they allowed us to see the process. Again one of the things I’ve done, which I’m not very proud of. These people were working in what can be described as unacceptable conditions.

This is where we left our presents which we mentioned in the beginning. The people were nice and let us try making cigar ourselves. They also offered to sell us some unbranded cigars, but this didn’t seem to be legal.

• Bargain for buying cigars

What is the best souvenir you can bring Cuba? Cigars and rum of course. What you should have in mind is firstly to check what is the allowance of cigars you can bring back to your country. And about the rum- the same, plus make sure you have all receipts with you (this is how our rum we even bought from the airport was confiscated in Canada). Although we don’t smoke cigars, we bought some gift pieces from Havana and Trinidad. The mechanics is the same- someone approaches you and offers you cigars. Then you follow him to a bit dodgy place (usually they invite you to their home). Then the bargaining starts. Of course, the chances that you buy fake cigars are quite high. As we aren’t experts for more information on buying cigars you can see this article.

A tip for people who have no clue about cigars (like us 🙂 – there are three main brands/classes sold: the best one is Cohiba, then comes Romeo y Julieta (a bit lower class) and the least qualitative is Monte Cristo.

Varadero

Why an all-inclusive stay in Cuba is worth?

After spending almost a week in Cuba and facing permanent difficulties to find a decent place to eat, staying in an all-inclusive hotel was a good decision. We were also tired of the not-so-good-hygienic conditions of the toilets at the beach near Trinidad. So, this all-inclusive holiday came as a bliss.

What we have to admit is that the hotels are quite old and relatively high priced. But we knew what to expect. We took some risk, finding a bargain on a booking portal of mixed reputation. The risk paid off significantly: we got lucky as the initially booked hotel had problems with hot water and we were upgraded to a superior one. The premises were quite clean, we saw just one cockroach for the whole stay. As we were very happy with the hotel in Varadero, we will recommend it. Its name is Gran Caribe Puntarena playa Caleta. So at the end we paid 200 euros per person for six days all-inclusive in the equivalent of a decent four-star hotel in Europe 🙂  

The rest of the days we spent in learning kite-surfing, swimming, relaxing, drinking rum and enjoying the delicious food choice we had all day long. The Cuban cuisine consists mainly of beans, mandioka (yuka), fish and sea food. Local herbs and spices add to unique taste of relatively simple dishes.

A tip for lobster lovers: unlike many other world destinations, lobsters are quite common and inexpensive in Cuba. For around 10 CUC (or slightly more depending on the type of restaurant), you get full, extremely well prepared lobster. Enjoy!

With this said, we hope we managed to put Cuba on your travel list. Hurry up as the authenticity you read above might soon be gone and then you will feel sorry.