Cuba: Havana, Viñales and Trinidad

Arrive in Havana

José Martí International Airport to your casa particular in Havana

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Havana
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Most flights from Canada land in the afternoon, and a driver meets you outside arrivals for the transfer to your casa particular, a privately owned guesthouse, in or near Old Havana. Arrive whenever your flight allows.

Soir

If you land early, walk down to the Malecón, the long sea wall where the city comes out in the evening to talk, fish and watch the waves. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how the days are 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 Cuban welcome dinner. Menus depend 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

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 out along the Malecón, through the leafy avenues of Vedado and up to Plaza de la Revolución, where steel outlines of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos look down from the ministry buildings. 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

Fusterlandia, Las Terrazas and into Viñales

Havana to Jaimanitas and Las Terrazas, then west to Viñales

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

Après-midi

A local guide takes us to the ruins of the Buenavista coffee estate, worked by enslaved people in the 1800s, for the view back towards the coast, then we have lunch in the village. The afternoon drive runs through tobacco and sugarcane country past Pinar del Río. Just before Viñales we stop at the Los Jazmines viewpoint, where the valley opens below you: red earth, royal palms and the round limestone hills called mogotes.

Soir

We reach Viñales by about 4:30 pm, with the evening free in a town of single-storey houses and porches lined with rocking chairs.

Compris

• Fusterlandia in Jaimanitas
• Las Terrazas with a local guide and the Buenavista coffee estate ruins
• Lunch in Las Terrazas
• The Los Jazmines viewpoint over the Viñales Valley

A tobacco farm walk in the Viñales Valley

Viñales town across the valley to a tobacco farm, then the Cueva del Indio

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

Après-midi

Lunch is a long farm meal of roast pork, rice and beans, root vegetables and salad. Afterwards we drive a few minutes north to the Cueva del Indio, a limestone cave you walk into and leave by small boat along an underground river.

Soir

The late afternoon is free, and at sunset the valley turns gold from the viewpoints just outside town.

Compris

• Valley walk with a local guide
• Family tobacco farm visit with cigar rolling, coffee and guayabita
• Farm lunch
• Cueva del Indio with the underground boat ride

Activités en option

• Horse ride through the valley with a local guide

To the Bay of Pigs and Cienfuegos

Viñales to Playa Larga and Playa Girón on the Bay of Pigs, then Cienfuegos

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Cienfuegos
• Environ 6 h de route

Soir

Today is a full day of about ten hours, with about 440 km and six hours of driving, because there is no shorter way from the far west to the south coast; the alternative is another night back in Havana. We leave Viñales at 8 am and break the drive three times. First a coffee stop after about two hours, as we skirt Havana on the motorway. Then lunch at Playa Larga, booked ahead for about 12:30 so nobody waits for a table, at the head of the Bay of Pigs, with time to swim in the clear water off the rocks when the sea allows. Mid-afternoon we stop at Playa Girón and its museum about the invasion of April 1961, when an exile brigade trained and backed by the CIA came ashore on these beaches and was defeated within three days. The last 90 minutes run inland through cane fields to Cienfuegos, arriving at about 6 pm. The evening is free; your guide points you to the Paseo del Prado and the waterfront for a walk before dinner.

Compris

• Lunch at Playa Larga with a swim stop on the Bay of Pigs
• The museum at Playa Girón about the 1961 invasion

Activités en option

• Snorkel gear hire at the swim stop

Cienfuegos in the morning, Trinidad by evening

Cienfuegos to Punta Gorda, then the coast road to Trinidad

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Trinidad
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

By late morning we take the coast road east, about 80 km and an hour and a half, with the Escambray mountains on one side and the Caribbean on the other.

Après-midi

Lunch in Trinidad is your choice. At 4 pm, when the cobbles have cooled, your guide walks you to the Plaza Mayor and the lanes around it.

Soir

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

Compris

• Cienfuegos walk with your guide: Parque José Martí, the cathedral and the Teatro Tomás Terry (when open)
• The Palacio de Valle at Punta Gorda
• Trinidad walking tour: the Plaza Mayor and the old town

The Valley of the Sugar Mills and a salsa lesson

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

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

Après-midi

Lunch is at a farm restaurant in the valley. We are back in Trinidad by about 2 pm for a free afternoon: a museum, a rest, or a taxi to Playa Ancón, about 12 km away.

Soir

At 5 pm a local teacher gives the group a one-hour salsa lesson, so you have a few steps ready for the music on the steps tonight.

Compris

• Valle de los Ingenios with your guide: the Loma del Puerto viewpoint and Manaca Iznaga
• Lunch in the valley
• One-hour salsa lesson with a local teacher

Activités en option

• Taxi to Playa Ancón for the afternoon
• The Museo Romántico or the Museo de Historia Municipal in Trinidad (when open)

Back to Havana for a last evening

Trinidad to Cienfuegos and the Autopista Nacional, then Havana

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Havana
• Environ 5 h de route

Soir

That is over our four-hour aim, but there is no shorter road, and splitting it would cost a night in Trinidad or Havana. We stop for coffee after the first hour and for a sit-down lunch at about the halfway point, so no stretch runs much over two hours. We skip the detour to Santa Clara and the Che Guevara memorial, which would add more than an hour; ask if you want it on a private trip. We are back at a casa particular in Havana in the late afternoon, with time to rest. In the early evening your guide walks the group along the Malecón as the light drops behind Vedado and, on windy days, the spray comes over the wall. Our farewell dinner is at a paladar, and afterwards anyone who wants to can take a taxi across the harbour to La Cabaña fortress for the cañonazo, the 9 pm cannon firing performed in colonial uniform.

Compris

• Drive from Trinidad to Havana with your guide
• Sit-down lunch on the way
• Evening walk on the Malecón
• Farewell dinner at a paladar

Activités en option

• The 9 pm cañonazo cannon ceremony at La Cabaña fortress

Havana and home

Havana to José Martí International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

The last morning is yours. If your flight leaves later in the day, have a last coffee on Plaza Vieja, visit the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, or walk the Paseo del Prado under its laurel trees. Check-out is usually late morning, and your luggage can wait at the casa until the driver comes.

Soir

A private transfer takes you to José Martí International Airport (HAV), about 30 minutes away, and your guide confirms the pick-up time with you the evening before. Allow three hours before an international departure, since check-in and security at HAV can be slow. Book a flight home leaving after about 12 pm. If you want to stay on in Havana, ask us to add nights at the same casa before the trip. 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 at the airport.

Compris

• Drop-off at José Martí International Airport (HAV)