Cuba: Havana, Santa Clara, Trinidad and Cienfuegos

Arrive in Havana

José Martí International Airport to your casa particular in Havana

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Havana
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Arrive whenever your flight allows; most flights from Canada land in the afternoon.

Soir

If you have time before the briefing, walk down to the Malecón, the long sea wall where the city comes out in the evening to talk, fish and watch the waves break. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how the week is paced, what power cuts and shortages mean on the ground, and how to change money, since cash is what works here. Then we walk to a paladar, one of the privately run restaurants that have changed eating out in Cuba, for a welcome dinner of Cuban dishes such as ropa vieja or picadillo, depending on what the market has that day.

Compris

• Pick-up at José Martí International Airport (HAV)
• Welcome briefing with your guide, including how to change money
• Welcome dinner at a paladar

Old Havana on foot, then by classic car

Old Havana's four squares, then the Malecón, Vedado and Plaza de la Revolución

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Havana
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

We start at 9 am on foot in Old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982, before the midday heat. Your guide links the four old squares in the order the city grew: Plaza de Armas with its secondhand book stalls and the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, the baroque cathedral on Plaza de la Catedral, the restored merchants' houses around Plaza Vieja, and Plaza de San Francisco by the harbour. Lunch is at a paladar in the old town. In the afternoon the classic cars arrive: American cars from the 1950s carry us along the Malecón, through the leafy avenues of Vedado and up to Plaza de la Revolución, where the steel outline of Che Guevara looks down from the Ministry of the Interior, the first sight of the man whose memorial we visit tomorrow. The ride ends back at your casa by about 4 pm.

Soir

The rest of the day is yours: the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, a rest through the heat, or a drink on a rooftop at sunset.

Compris

• Old Havana walking tour with your guide: Plaza de Armas, Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza Vieja and Plaza de San Francisco
• Lunch at a paladar in Old Havana
• Classic-car ride along the Malecón, through Vedado to Plaza de la Revolución

Activités en option

• Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Cuban art)
• The 9 pm cañonazo cannon ceremony at La Cabaña fortress

Santa Clara and Che Guevara's memorial

Havana east on the Autopista Nacional to Santa Clara

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Santa Clara
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Santa Clara is about 280 km and three and a half hours away, and we arrive for lunch near the centre. At about 2:30 pm we go to the memorial on the western edge of town: a bronze statue of Che Guevara above a plaza, and below it the mausoleum where his remains were laid in 1997, thirty years after his death in Bolivia, beside an eternal flame. The museum next to it holds his letters, photographs and the black beret. Then to the Tren Blindado monument, where in December 1958 Che's column used a bulldozer to derail an armoured government train, the battle that opened the road to Havana; the wagons are still on the track.

Soir

The late afternoon and evening are free in Parque Vidal, the main square, where the town gathers after dark.

Compris

• Drive from Havana to Santa Clara with a coffee stop
• Lunch in Santa Clara
• The Che Guevara memorial, mausoleum and museum with your guide
• The Tren Blindado monument

Activités en option

• An evening show at El Mejunje, Santa Clara's long-running cultural centre

Over the Escambray to Trinidad

Santa Clara to Manicaragua and Topes de Collantes, then down to Trinidad

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Trinidad
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

Mid-morning we reach Topes de Collantes, a protected park of pine and tropical forest at about 800 m, noticeably cooler than the coast. At the Casa del Café we taste coffee grown in these hills, then a local guide takes us on a forest walk of about 2 km among ferns and coffee bushes to a viewpoint.

Après-midi

Lunch is in the park. In the afternoon the road drops steeply to the Caribbean, with views over the sugar plains, and we reach Trinidad at about 3:30 pm. At 4:30 pm, as the cobbles cool, your guide walks you to the Plaza Mayor and through the lanes of a town founded in 1514 and listed by UNESCO in 1988.

Soir

The evening is free; live music starts on the steps beside the church after dark.

Compris

• Topes de Collantes with a local guide: the Casa del Café and a forest walk
• Lunch in Topes de Collantes
• Trinidad walking tour: the Plaza Mayor and the old town

Activités en option

• Live music at the Casa de la Música steps or the Casa de la Trova

The Valley of the Sugar Mills and a family dinner

Trinidad to the Loma del Puerto viewpoint and Manaca Iznaga, then back to Trinidad

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Trinidad
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is at a farm restaurant in the valley, and we are back in Trinidad by about 1:30 pm. The afternoon is free: a museum, a rest, or a taxi to Playa Ancón, about 12 km away.

Soir

At 7 pm a Trinidad family welcomes the group into their home for dinner, starting with canchánchara, the town's drink of rum, honey and lime, and your guide takes anyone who wants to on to the live music afterwards.

Compris

• Valle de los Ingenios with your guide: the Loma del Puerto viewpoint and Manaca Iznaga
• Lunch in the valley
• Dinner hosted by a family in their Trinidad home

Activités en option

• Taxi to Playa Ancón for the afternoon
• The Museo Romántico or the Museo de Historia Municipal in Trinidad (when open)
• A one-hour salsa lesson with a local teacher

Cienfuegos by land and by boat

Trinidad on the coast road to Cienfuegos, Parque José Martí, the bay and Punta Gorda

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Cienfuegos
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

The early morning is free in Trinidad, for a last coffee on the Plaza Mayor before the day-trippers arrive. At 9:30 am we take the coast road west, about 80 km and an hour and a half, with the Escambray on one side and the Caribbean on the other. Cienfuegos was founded in 1819 by French settlers from Bordeaux and Louisiana, and its grid of wide streets and neoclassical facades is why the centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At 11 am we walk Parque José Martí, with the cathedral, the columned Colegio San Lorenzo and the Teatro Tomás Terry, opened in 1890, where we step inside when it is open.

Après-midi

After lunch we board a boat for about two hours on the Bay of Cienfuegos, past the fishing houses of La Punta towards the old Jagua fortress at the bay's mouth.

Soir

We land at Punta Gorda for the Palacio de Valle, a 1917 mansion of Moorish arches, and watch the sun go down over the bay from its rooftop before the farewell dinner.

Compris

• Cienfuegos walk with your guide: Parque José Martí, the cathedral and the Teatro Tomás Terry (when open)
• Lunch in Cienfuegos
• Boat trip on the Bay of Cienfuegos
• The Palacio de Valle at Punta Gorda with sunset from the rooftop
• Farewell dinner

Back to Havana and home

Cienfuegos to the Autopista Nacional, then José Martí International Airport or central Havana

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Soir

If your flight is in the evening or the next day, the vehicle continues to central Havana, about 30 minutes further, and drops you there instead; ask us before the trip to add a night in a casa particular in Havana. Cuban pesos are hard to change back outside Cuba, so spend or change what you have left before security, and keep a few small notes for coffee and a sandwich at the airport, where food choices are limited.

Compris

• Drive from Cienfuegos to Havana with a coffee stop
• Drop-off at José Martí International Airport (HAV) or in central Havana