Cuba: Havana, Santa Clara, Trinidad and Cienfuegos

1. Day 1: Arrive in Havana

   José Martí International Airport to your casa particular in Havana

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Havana
   Day 1 details

   Fly into José Martí International Airport (HAV), about 30 minutes south of central Havana. A driver meets you outside arrivals and takes you to your casa particular, a privately owned guesthouse, in or near Old Havana. Arrive whenever your flight allows; most flights from Canada land in the afternoon. 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.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the 6 pm briefing

   Activity: If you land after 6 pm, your guide meets you at the casa and briefs you over breakfast. The casas we aim for in every town are central and walkable to the old quarter, each room with its own bathroom and air conditioning; that is our standard, and we name each casa when we confirm your dates.

2. Day 2: Old Havana on foot, then by classic car

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

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Havana
   Day 2 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot on flat but uneven paving. Bring a hat and water.

3. Day 3: Santa Clara and Che Guevara's memorial

   Havana east on the Autopista Nacional to Santa Clara

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santa Clara
   Day 3 details

   We leave Havana at 9 am and drive east on the Autopista Nacional, the motorway through the cane and cattle country of Matanzas, with a coffee stop at about the halfway point. 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. The late afternoon and evening are free in Parque Vidal, the main square, where the town gathers after dark.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Parque Vidal

   Activity: Bags and cameras are usually left outside the mausoleum; dress respectfully. The mausoleum closes on Mondays, so we only schedule departures where this day is not a Monday; if it is closed for any other reason, we visit on the morning of day 4 before leaving for Trinidad.

   

4. Day 4: Over the Escambray to Trinidad

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

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Trinidad
   Day 4 details

   We leave Santa Clara at 8:30 am and head south into the Escambray mountains, the hills where rebel columns hid in the late 1950s. It is about 115 km to Trinidad, but the mountain road is slow and winding, so allow three hours of driving with stops. 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. 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. The evening is free; live music starts on the steps beside the church after dark.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Skip the forest walk and stay with coffee on the terrace at the Casa del Café.

   Free time: Evening free in Trinidad

   Activity: The mountain road has steep hairpins; tell your guide if you get carsick and take a front seat. If the road is in poor condition we drive via Sancti Spíritus instead, about 2.5 hours, and visit Topes de Collantes from Trinidad.

   

5. Day 5: The Valley of the Sugar Mills and a family dinner

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

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Trinidad
   Day 5 details

   We leave at 8:30 am for the Valle de los Ingenios, the valley of the sugar mills, listed by UNESCO together with Trinidad. In the 1800s dozens of mills here made the town rich on sugar and on the labour of enslaved Africans, and the mansions you walked past yesterday were built on that money. From the Loma del Puerto viewpoint the whole valley lies below, green with cane and royal palms. At Manaca Iznaga, the estate of one of the wealthiest planter families, you can climb the tall tower once used to watch over the fields, or stay below where local women sell embroidered tablecloths. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

   • 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

   Easier option: Skip the tower climb at Manaca Iznaga and wait in the shade of the estate house.

   More active option: Instead of the free afternoon, a guided hike to the Salto del Caburní waterfall in Topes de Collantes, about 5 km return on a steep trail (extra cost, confirmed at booking).

   Free time: Afternoon free until the 7 pm dinner

   Activity: The Manaca Iznaga tower has steep, narrow stairs.

   

6. Day 6: Cienfuegos by land and by boat

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

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Cienfuegos
   Day 6 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Early morning free in Trinidad; time after dinner to walk the Malecón of Cienfuegos

   Activity: The boat depends on wind and port rules; if it cannot sail, your guide takes the group to the Jagua fortress by road instead.

   

7. Day 7: Back to Havana and home

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

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   We leave Cienfuegos at 8 am for the drive back to Havana, about 240 km and three and a half hours to José Martí International Airport (HAV), inland through cane fields to the Autopista Nacional at Aguada de Pasajeros and west across Matanzas. A coffee stop at about the halfway point breaks the drive. We aim to reach the airport at about 12 noon, though fuel queues or road works can add time, so book a flight home leaving after about 3:30 pm, which allows the three hours that check-in and security at HAV can take. 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.

   Included

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

   Activity: Book a flight leaving Havana after about 3:30 pm, or add a night in Havana. The 3.5-hour drive can run longer if fuel or power problems slow the road.

Wildlife and weather: November to April is the dry season, warm by day and pleasant in the evening, and the best time for walking the old towns and the forest trail in Topes de Collantes, which is cooler than the coast. From May to October it is hot, humid and wet, with heavy afternoon showers. The hurricane season runs from June to November, peaking from August to October, when plans can change at short notice and the bay boat may not sail.

• Havana2 nights
• Santa Clara1 night
• Trinidad2 nights
• Cienfuegos1 night