Cuba: Havana to Santiago and Baracoa

1. Day 1: Arrive in Havana

   José Martí International Airport to your casa particular in Havana

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Havana
   Day 1 details

   Fly into José Martí International Airport (HAV), about 18 km south of central Havana. 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. If you land early, walk down to the Malecón, the 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 briefing on the two weeks ahead: how the long eastern days are paced, what power cuts and shortages mean on the ground, the domestic flight home from Baracoa, and how to change money, since cash is what works here. Then we walk to a paladar, one of the privately run restaurants, for a Cuban welcome dinner. Menus depend 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.

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

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

   • 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 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. Between them are the side streets where bicitaxis wait in the shade and paint peels from colonial facades. 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. We are back by about 4 pm, and the rest of the day is yours: the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, a rest, or 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: West to the Viñales Valley

   Havana to Pinar del Río and Viñales, then a valley walk to a tobacco farm

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

   We leave Havana at 8:30 am on the Autopista west, about 190 km and three hours with a coffee stop, through sugarcane and then tobacco country past Pinar del Río. We reach the Viñales Valley by about noon and go straight to lunch at a family farm: roast pork, rice and beans, root vegetables and salad, with the round limestone hills called mogotes rising behind the fields. The valley is a UNESCO cultural landscape because farming here is still done much as it was, with oxen at the plough and leaves cured in tall palm-thatched barns. After a rest through the hottest hours, at 3:30 pm a local guide walks us out on farm tracks to a tobacco grower, who shows how the leaves are hung, cured and fermented, explains how most of the crop goes to the state, and rolls a cigar in front of you. We finish at the Los Jazmines viewpoint for the sunset over the valley, then the evening is free in Viñales, a town of single-storey houses and porches lined with rocking chairs.

   Included

   • Farm lunch in the Viñales Valley
   • Valley walk with a local guide
   • Family tobacco farm visit with cigar rolling and coffee
   • Sunset at the Los Jazmines viewpoint

   Optional experiences

   • Horse ride through the valley with a local guide

   Easier option: Ride to the tobacco farm in the vehicle instead of walking, and meet the group there.

   Free time: Evening free in Viñales

   Activity: About 4 km on flat farm tracks, muddy after rain. Only one night here, so keep an overnight bag handy.

   

4. Day 4: To the Bay of Pigs and Cienfuegos

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

   • Drive about 7 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Cienfuegos
   Day 4 details

   Today is a full day of about ten and a half hours, with about 480 km and seven 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 at about 1 pm, booked ahead so nobody waits, at the head of the Bay of Pigs, with time to swim in the clear water 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 stretch, about 90 minutes, runs inland through cane fields to Cienfuegos, arriving at about 6:30 pm. The evening is free; your guide points you to the Paseo del Prado and the waterfront.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

   • Snorkel gear hire at the swim stop

   Easier option: Skip the swim and stay in the shade at the lunch stop.

   More active option: Snorkel along the reef edge at the swim stop.

   Free time: Evening free in Cienfuegos

   Activity: One of the long days: about seven hours of driving in stretches of no more than about two and a half hours. Wear swimwear under your clothes and keep a towel in your day bag.

   

5. Day 5: Cienfuegos in the morning, Trinidad by evening

   Cienfuegos to Punta Gorda, then the coast road to Trinidad

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Trinidad
   Day 5 details

   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 9 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 to see the painted ceiling and the wooden tiers of boxes. Then a short drive down the peninsula to Punta Gorda and the Palacio de Valle, a mansion of Moorish arches and tilework finished in 1917; climb to the rooftop for the bay. 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. 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. The evening is free, and live music starts on the steps beside the church after dark.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Lunch on your own and the evening free in Trinidad

   Activity: Trinidad's streets are rough cobbles on a slope; wear shoes with a firm sole.

6. Day 6: The Valley of the Sugar Mills and a salsa lesson

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

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Trinidad
   Day 6 details

   We leave at 8:30 am for the Valle de los Ingenios, the valley of the sugar mills, listed by UNESCO in 1988 together with Trinidad itself. 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 palms. At Manaca Iznaga, the old estate of one of the wealthiest planter families, you can climb the tall watchtower 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. 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. 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, and for Santiago later in the week.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   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 5 pm salsa lesson; evening free

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

7. Day 7: Sancti Spíritus and into Camagüey

   Trinidad to Sancti Spíritus, then the Carretera Central east to Camagüey

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Camagüey
   Day 7 details

   We leave Trinidad at 8:30 am on the road across the Valle de los Ingenios to Sancti Spíritus, about 70 km and an hour and a quarter. It is one of the seven towns the Spanish founded in the early 1500s and is quieter than Trinidad; we walk for half an hour to the stone Yayabo bridge, built between about 1817 and 1825, and the old parish church beside it; if the road is slow, we skip this walk to keep the afternoon. Then the Carretera Central east, the island's old spine road, through cattle and cane country to Camagüey, with lunch on the way at Ciego de Ávila. About 255 km and four hours of driving in all. We reach Camagüey by about 3 pm. Its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, laid out as a maze of crooked streets and small squares, and is full of tinajones, the big clay jars once used to catch rain. At 4 pm, as the heat drops, local bicitaxi riders pedal the group through the labyrinth to the Plaza de San Juan de Dios and the Plaza del Carmen with its life-size bronze figures. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Short walk in Sancti Spíritus to the Yayabo bridge
   • Lunch on the way at Ciego de Ávila
   • Bicitaxi tour of Camagüey's old centre with local riders: Plaza de San Juan de Dios and Plaza del Carmen

   Free time: Evening free in Camagüey

   Activity: Only one night in Camagüey, so keep an overnight bag handy. Bicitaxis seat two; tell your guide if you would rather walk.

8. Day 8: Bayamo and on to Santiago de Cuba

   Camagüey to Las Tunas and Bayamo, then Santiago de Cuba

   • Drive about 5.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santiago de Cuba
   Day 8 details

   Today is a full day of about nine hours, with about 330 km and five and a half hours of driving on the Carretera Central, because there is no shorter road east and a night in Bayamo would cost one of our Santiago nights. We leave at 8 am and break it twice. Coffee in Las Tunas after about two hours. Then lunch in Bayamo, the town where Carlos Manuel de Céspedes's rebels first sang La Bayamesa, now Cuba's national anthem, in 1868; the next year the townspeople burned Bayamo rather than hand it back to Spain. After lunch we walk the pedestrian Calle General García and the Plaza del Himno, with its church and the anthem carved in stone. The last stretch runs south past the Sierra Maestra foothills to Santiago de Cuba, Cuba's second city, which we reach at about 5 pm. Your guide walks you to the Parque Céspedes, the square in front of the cathedral, for your bearings, and the evening is free: music spills out of doorways on Calle Heredia most nights.

   Included

   • Lunch and a walk in Bayamo: Calle General García and the Plaza del Himno
   • Orientation walk to the Parque Céspedes in Santiago

   Free time: Evening free in Santiago

   Activity: The longest day in the east, in stretches of no more than about two and a half hours. From here you unpack for three nights.

   

9. Day 9: Santiago: the Moncada, Santa Ifigenia and son

   Santiago de Cuba: the Moncada Barracks, Santa Ifigenia cemetery, the old centre and Calle Heredia

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santiago de Cuba
   Day 9 details

   Santiago tells the story of the Revolution from both ends, and we start at 9 am, before the heat, with a licensed Santiago guide. The Moncada Barracks are where Fidel Castro and about 130 rebels attacked on 26 July 1953 and failed; the bullet marks on the yellow walls were put back after the Revolution, and part of the building is now a museum of the attack. Then Santa Ifigenia cemetery, where José Martí, the hero of independence, lies in a mausoleum guarded by soldiers who change every half hour, and where Fidel Castro's ashes have rested in a granite boulder since 2016. Lunch is at a paladar in the centre. In the afternoon we walk the old town: the Parque Céspedes, the Casa de Diego Velázquez, built for Cuba's first Spanish governor in the 1500s, Calle Enramadas and the shady Parque de Aguilera. Rest through the late afternoon. At about 9 pm we go together to a music house on Calle Heredia for an evening of son, the guitar and percussion music that grew up in eastern Cuba, entry included.

   Included

   • The Moncada Barracks and its museum with a local guide
   • Santa Ifigenia cemetery: José Martí's mausoleum and the changing of the guard
   • Lunch at a paladar
   • Old town walk: Parque Céspedes, the Casa de Diego Velázquez and Calle Enramadas
   • An evening of son at a music house on Calle Heredia, entry included

   Easier option: Skip the afternoon walk and rest until the evening music.

   Free time: Late afternoon free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot in the heat, on steep streets in the centre. Dress modestly at the cemetery. The order of days 9 and 10 is adjusted to the opening days of the Moncada museum, El Morro and the Bacardí museum, and to the state of each site after Hurricane Melissa.

   

10. Day 10: El Cobre and El Morro

    Santiago de Cuba to El Cobre and back, then the Castillo del Morro at the mouth of the bay

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast
    • Stay in Santiago de Cuba
    Day 10 details

    At 9 am we drive about 20 km west into the hills to El Cobre, an old copper-mining village, and the basilica of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba. We arrive before most of the day's pilgrims. Downstairs, a room is filled with what people have left to thank the Virgin: crutches, baby clothes, letters, sports medals, and the story is that Ernest Hemingway gave his Nobel Prize medal to the shrine. Your guide explains how the small statue came to be found floating in the Bay of Nipe in the 1600s and how she carries both Catholic and Santería devotion. We are back in Santiago for lunch on your own and a free afternoon: the Museo Emilio Bacardí, the Balcón de Velázquez over the bay, or a rest. At 4:30 pm we drive about 10 km south to the Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca, El Morro, a Spanish fortress of the 1600s listed by UNESCO, stepped down the cliffs at the mouth of the bay. We walk its ramparts and stay for the late light over the Caribbean before returning for a free evening.

    Included

    • The basilica of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre with your guide
    • The Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca (El Morro), entry included

    Optional experiences

    • Museo Emilio Bacardí in the centre
    • A Saturday or Sunday afternoon rumba session where one is on (your guide checks what is on that week)

    Easier option: Stay on the lower level at El Morro, where the views are almost as wide, and skip the steep stairs.

    Free time: Lunch on your own, afternoon and evening free

    Activity: El Morro has uneven steps and low walls; wear shoes with grip. Shoulders covered in the basilica. The order of days 9 and 10 is adjusted to the opening days of the Moncada museum, El Morro and the Bacardí museum, and to the state of each site after Hurricane Melissa.

    

11. Day 11: Over La Farola to Baracoa

    Santiago de Cuba to Guantánamo and the south coast, then over La Farola to Baracoa

    • Drive about 5 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Baracoa
    Day 11 details

    Today is a full day of about eight hours, with about 230 km and five hours of driving, because La Farola is the only road into Baracoa from the west. We leave at 8:30 am, east past Guantánamo, where the US naval base sits out of sight on the far side of the bay, and stop for coffee after about 90 minutes. The road then drops to the dry south coast, where cactus grows down to the shore, and we stop for lunch by the beach near Imías, with time to swim. After lunch the road climbs inland on La Farola, the mountain road finished in the 1960s, which until then left Baracoa reachable mainly by sea. It switchbacks up through pine forest, then down into rainforest, with viewpoints on the way where farmers sell cucurucho, a sweet of coconut, fruit and honey wrapped in a palm-leaf cone. We arrive in Baracoa at about 4:30 pm. Founded in 1511, it was the first Spanish town in Cuba. Your guide walks you along Calle José Martí to the Malecón for sunset.

    Included

    • Lunch and a swim stop on the south coast near Imías
    • Viewpoints on La Farola
    • Orientation walk in Baracoa along Calle José Martí to the Malecón

    Free time: Evening free in Baracoa

    Activity: La Farola is narrow and winding for about an hour and a half; tell your guide if you get carsick and take a front seat. Swimwear under your clothes.

    

12. Day 12: El Yunque and the chocolate coast

    Baracoa to El Yunque and the Duaba river, then a cacao farm and back to Baracoa

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
    • Stay in Baracoa
    Day 12 details

    El Yunque, the anvil, is the flat-topped mountain that rises behind Baracoa, and Columbus is said to have described it on his first voyage. At 8 am, before the cloud builds, a local guide leads the climb from the foot of the mountain near the Duaba river, about 8 km return and four to five hours, through cacao and coconut groves and then rainforest to the summit at about 575 m, with a view over the coast and the bay. The trail is steep at the top and often muddy, so the easy group goes with your guide to swim in the Duaba river and walk a short riverside trail instead. Both groups meet at about 1 pm at a family cacao farm for lunch, then see how the pods are opened, the beans fermented and dried, and ground into chocolate, and taste it. The Baracoa region grows most of Cuba's cacao. The rest of the afternoon is free. Dinner is together at a paladar for the local dishes: fish in lechita, a coconut-milk sauce, and bacán, a plantain tamal.

    Included

    • The El Yunque climb with a local guide, entry included
    • A cacao farm visit with lunch and a chocolate tasting
    • Dinner at a paladar in Baracoa

    Optional experiences

    • Boat trip on the Yumurí river gorge, about 30 km east of town (extra cost, confirmed at booking)

    Easier option: Swim in the Duaba river and walk a short riverside trail with your guide, then meet the climbers at the cacao farm.

    More active option: The full El Yunque climb, about 8 km return and 4 to 5 hours to the summit at about 575 m.

    Free time: Late afternoon free

    Activity: The summit trail is steep, slippery after rain and humid; wear shoes with grip and carry two litres of water. Your guide may turn the group round if it is unsafe.

13. Day 13: Fly back to Havana

    Baracoa to Havana by domestic flight, then the Malecón

    • Drive about 45 min
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Havana
    Day 13 details

    Rather than drive the length of the island back, we fly. Baracoa's small airport sits across the bay from the town, a few minutes away, and the flight to Havana takes about two hours. Flights are few, often early in the day, and sometimes cancelled, so we confirm the flight time before departure and your guide reconfirms it the evening before. If the flight is later in the day, the morning is free for a last walk on the Malecón or a coffee on the Parque Independencia, by the church that holds the wooden Cruz de la Parra, said to have been planted by Columbus. If the Baracoa flight is cancelled, plan B is the drive back over La Farola to Santiago, about five hours, and a flight from there; that may mean an extra night in the east and a next-day flight, so a spare day before your flight home is wise. In Havana we transfer to a casa in or near the old town, and in the early evening your guide walks the group along the harbour front and the Malecón before our farewell dinner at a paladar.

    Included

    • Domestic flight from Baracoa to Havana (or from Santiago if the Baracoa flight is not running)
    • Transfers at both airports
    • Evening walk on the harbour front and the Malecón
    • Farewell dinner at a paladar

    Optional experiences

    • The 9 pm cañonazo cannon ceremony at La Cabaña fortress

    Free time: Morning free in Baracoa if the flight is later in the day

    Activity: Pack one medium bag: domestic baggage limits can be tighter than international ones.

    

14. Day 14: Havana and home

    Havana to José Martí International Airport

    • Drive about 30 min
    • Breakfast
    Day 14 details

    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. A private transfer takes you to José Martí International Airport (HAV), about 18 km 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.

    Included

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

    Free time: Morning free until your transfer

    Activity: Book a flight leaving Havana after about 12 pm. A spare night in Havana gives you a buffer if the Baracoa flight is disrupted.

Wildlife and weather: November to April is the dry season and the time to go: warm days, cooler evenings, less humidity. The east is hotter than Havana, and Santiago is the hottest city on the island. Baracoa gets rain in most months, so El Yunque's trail is often muddy even in the dry season. From May to October it is hot and wet, and the hurricane season runs June to November, peaking August to October, with the east most exposed. In the Viñales valley, tobacco is planted around October to December and harvested roughly January to March.

• Havana2 nights
• Viñales1 night
• Cienfuegos1 night
• Trinidad2 nights
• Camagüey1 night
• Santiago de Cuba3 nights
• Baracoa2 nights
• Havana1 night