Cuba: Havana, Viñales and Trinidad

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 30 minutes 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 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.

   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 four 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 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. 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: Fusterlandia, Las Terrazas and into Viñales

   Havana to Jaimanitas and Las Terrazas, then west to Viñales

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

   We leave Havana at 9 am heading west. The first stop is Jaimanitas, a fishing suburb where the artist José Fuster has covered his house, and much of the street around it, in ceramic mosaics; locals call it Fusterlandia. About an hour further on, Las Terrazas sits in the hills of the Sierra del Rosario, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, in a village built in the late 1960s as part of a reforestation project. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Evening free in Viñales

   

4. Day 4: A tobacco farm walk in the Viñales Valley

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

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Viñales
   Day 4 details

   The cool hours belong to the valley. At 8 am a local guide walks us out of town on farm tracks between fields of tobacco, maize and cassava, with the mogotes rising on every side. The Viñales Valley is a UNESCO cultural landscape because farming here is still done much as it was: oxen pull the ploughs and leaves are cured in tall palm-thatched drying barns. At a family tobacco farm the grower shows how the leaves are picked, hung, cured and fermented, explains how most of the crop goes to the state, and rolls a cigar in front of you; there is coffee grown on the farm and a glass of guayabita, the local guava liqueur. 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. The late afternoon is free, and at sunset the valley turns gold from the viewpoints just outside town.

   Included

   • 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

   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.

   More active option: Carry on with the local guide after the farm on a longer loop through the valley floor, about 4 km more, and rejoin the group for lunch.

   Free time: Late afternoon free

   Activity: About 5 km on flat farm tracks, muddy after rain. What is growing depends on the month: tobacco is planted around October to December and harvested roughly January to March.

   

5. Day 5: To the Bay of Pigs and Cienfuegos

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

   • Drive about 6 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Cienfuegos
   Day 5 details

   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.

   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, where the water is clear and full of fish.

   Free time: Evening free in Cienfuegos

   Activity: The longest day: about six hours of driving, broken into stretches of no more than about two hours. Wear swimwear under your clothes and keep a towel in your day bag.

   

6. Day 6: 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 6 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.

   

7. Day 7: 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 7 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.

   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.

   

8. Day 8: Back to Havana for a last evening

   Trinidad to Cienfuegos and the Autopista Nacional, then Havana

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Havana
   Day 8 details

   We leave Trinidad at 8:30 am for the drive back to Havana, about 330 km and five hours of driving by way of Cienfuegos and the Autopista Nacional. 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.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

   • The 9 pm cañonazo cannon ceremony at La Cabaña fortress

   Free time: Late afternoon free

9. Day 9: Havana and home

   Havana to José Martí International Airport

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 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 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.

   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.

Wildlife and weather: November to April is the dry season, warm by day and pleasant in the evening, and the best time for walking in Viñales and Trinidad. 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. The tobacco fields are green from about December to March and bare after the harvest.

• Havana2 nights
• Viñales2 nights
• Cienfuegos1 night
• Trinidad2 nights
• Havana1 night