Cuba: Havana, Las Terrazas and Viñales

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 for the transfer to your casa particular, a privately owned guesthouse, or small private hotel within walking distance of 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 break. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how the six days are paced, what power cuts and shortages mean on the ground, what to pack for the river swim, 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. 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 your casa and briefs you over breakfast.

2. Day 2: Old Havana on foot and a music evening

   Old Havana's four squares, then a free afternoon and an evening of live son

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • 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. A licensed Havana guide joins your See Sight Tours guide to link 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. Along the way we step into a working cigar shop and a printmaking workshop where they are open. Lunch is at a paladar in the old town, and the afternoon is free: the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, a siesta through the heat, or a rooftop at sunset. In the evening we meet for dinner, then walk to a music venue for live son, the Cuban music of guitar, tres, bass and percussion that grew into salsa. Seats and your first drink are booked; dance or just listen.

   Included

   • Old Havana walking tour with a licensed Havana guide: Plaza de Armas, Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza Vieja and Plaza de San Francisco
   • Lunch at a paladar in Old Havana
   • Dinner at a paladar
   • A live son music evening, with seats and a first drink

   Optional experiences

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

   Free time: Afternoon free until dinner

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot on flat but uneven paving. Bring a hat and water. The music evening usually runs to about 11 pm; you can head back earlier with a taxi your guide arranges.

3. Day 3: A classic-car hour, then the hills of Las Terrazas

   Havana by classic car along the Malecón to Plaza de la Revolución, then west to Las Terrazas

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Las Terrazas
   Day 3 details

   At 9 am, before the traffic and the heat build, the classic cars pull up outside: American cars from the 1950s, kept running by Cuban mechanics. For an hour they carry us 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. Our own vehicle meets us there with the luggage, and we drive west on the Autopista for about an hour and a quarter into the Sierra del Rosario, a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Las Terrazas is a village built in the late 1960s on hillside terraces as part of a reforestation project, around a small lake. Lunch is in the village. At about 3 pm a local guide walks us up to the ruins of the Buenavista coffee estate, worked by enslaved people in the 1800s, to see the drying floors and the view to the coast, and we taste coffee grown in these hills. The late afternoon is free by the lake.

   Included

   • One-hour classic-car ride along the Malecón, through Vedado to Plaza de la Revolución
   • Lunch in Las Terrazas
   • The Buenavista coffee estate ruins with a local guide, and a coffee tasting

   Easier option: Ride up to the Buenavista estate in the vehicle and skip the short walk.

   More active option: Walk a forest trail from the village with the local guide before dinner, about 3 km, looking for the tocororo, Cuba's national bird.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in the village; dinner tonight is at the hotel or a village restaurant, which your guide books, as choices in Las Terrazas are few

   Activity: About 1 km on a rough path at the coffee estate, with some steps.

   

4. Day 4: A river swim, then into Viñales

   Las Terrazas to the San Juan river pools, then west via Pinar del Río to Viñales

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Viñales
   Day 4 details

   Breakfast is unhurried. At 9 am we drive a few minutes to the Baños del San Juan, where the San Juan river drops over rock shelves into a chain of natural pools. Arriving early means quiet water before the day visitors from Havana come. Swim, sit in the shallows or watch from the bank. We have an early lunch by the river at about 11:30, then drive about two and a half hours west, back onto the Autopista and through the tobacco and sugarcane country around 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 at about 3:30 pm. The Viñales Valley is a UNESCO cultural landscape, and the town is a long street of single-storey houses with porches lined with rocking chairs. The rest of the day is free; the light is best on the edge of town just before sunset.

   Included

   • Morning at the Baños del San Juan river pools, with entry
   • Lunch by the river
   • The Los Jazmines viewpoint over the Viñales Valley

   Easier option: Stay on the bank in the shade rather than swim.

   More active option: Walk the riverside path upstream from the pools with your guide, about 2 km return.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Viñales; dinner at your casa or a paladar on the main street, which your guide can book

   Activity: The rocks around the pools are slippery; bring water shoes. Swimming depends on the water level after rain.

   

5. Day 5: The Viñales Valley on foot or on horseback

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

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Viñales
   Day 5 details

   The cool hours belong to the valley. At 8 am a local guide leads us out of town on farm tracks between fields of tobacco, maize and cassava, with the mogotes rising on every side. You choose the night before: walk, about 5 km at an easy pace, or ride one of the farm horses at a walk, with a handler beside the novices. 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. At about 2 pm the vehicle takes us 5 km north to the Cueva del Indio, a limestone cave where a short walk leads to a boat ride on the underground river inside. We are back in town by about 3:30 pm, and the rest of the day is yours: a rest on the porch or a salsa class.

   Included

   • Valley morning with a local guide, on foot or on horseback
   • Family tobacco farm visit with cigar rolling, coffee and guayabita
   • Farm lunch
   • The Cueva del Indio, with the boat ride on the underground river

   Optional experiences

   • A salsa class in town
   • A taxi to Cayo Jutías beach for a day on your own

   Easier option: Ride to the tobacco farm in the vehicle instead of walking or riding, 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 and evening free; dinner at your casa or a paladar in town

   Activity: About 5 km on flat farm tracks, muddy after rain. Horses are walked, not galloped; wear long trousers and closed shoes. What is growing depends on the month: tobacco is planted around October to December and harvested roughly January to March.

   

6. Day 6: Viñales to Havana and home

   Viñales via Pinar del Río and the Autopista to José Martí International Airport

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 6 details

   A last coffee on the porch, then we leave Viñales at 9 am for the drive back east, about 185 km and three hours on the Autopista, with a coffee stop at the halfway point. The road runs through the tobacco and cane country of Pinar del Río province, with the hills of the Sierra del Rosario on the left. We reach José Martí International Airport (HAV) at about 12:30 pm. Allow three hours before an international departure, since check-in and security at HAV can be slow, so book a flight home leaving after about 4 pm, which leaves room for a slow road or a fuel stop. If your flight is the next day, or you want to stay on, ask us to add nights in Havana before the trip and we drop you at your casa instead; our 9-day Havana, Viñales and Trinidad trip is the longer way to see the island. Cuban pesos are hard to change back outside Cuba, so spend or change what you have left before security.

   Included

   • Drive from Viñales to José Martí International Airport (HAV) with your guide

   Free time: Early morning free before the 9 am departure

   Activity: Book a flight leaving Havana after about 4 pm.

Wildlife and weather: November to April is the dry season, warm by day and pleasant in the evening, the best time for walking in Viñales and swimming in the San Juan river, which runs clearest when it has not rained. From May to October it is hot, humid and wet, with heavy afternoon showers that muddy the valley paths. The hurricane season runs from June to November, peaking from August to October. The tobacco fields are green from about December to March and bare after the harvest. Las Terrazas is good for birds, including the tocororo, Cuba's national bird.

• Havana2 nights
• Las Terrazas1 night
• Viñales2 nights