Cuba

If you are planning to travel to Cuba and enjoy some of its finest perks such as stunning beaches, great rum, and friendly people, go ahead and also read our travel tips post for the island. Even though travelling abroad is still mostly suspended due to the pandemic we still wanted to share our experiences with you, which might inspire or help you in the future.

We stayed in Cuba for a total of two and a half weeks, starting in Havana and taking a road trip west to Vinales and all the way south to Trinidad via the Bay of Pigs and ending in Varadero, at one of the most beautiful beaches in the north of Cuba.

We didn't really know what to expect when we were flying into Havana from Frankfurt but I guess we expected some form of organized chaos and at first, the immigration and security check went rather smoothly. However, retrieving our luggage left us a bit baffled. There were two baggage belts in the baggage claim area but there was no information whatsoever when or where the bags were to be delivered. Tired after the long flight and with no water (or shop to buy some) I got pretty grumpy during the two hours we had to stand around and wait and by the time we made it to our Casa I just wanted to sleep.

One more tip, refrain from taking pictures inside the airport, as there are quite a bit of military and police personnel around and it is strictly forbidden to take pictures of military personnel or buildings. You might be asked to delete the pictures or if your unlucky, have your camera or smartphone confiscated.

Our host at Casa Viceversa saw how tired we were and immediately served us some cold beers, which we really needed and really appreciated. Viceversa was the first Casa in Cuba we stayed at and our favorite. It is just a short Coco Taxi ride away from the centre of Havana. (Coco Taxis are usually found in the larger towns in Havana and are usually yellow-coloured rickshaw-type taxi vehicles with a round shape, giving them the appearance of a coconut-shape and just a fun way to drive around and explore the city.)

The house is absolutely lovely, with a large terrace on the ground floor for breakfast and a large patio on the roof to chill and enjoy a drink. By the way, at Viceversa you will find the best cocktail in Cuba! The rooms are sparsely furnished but there is everything you need and the breakfast is abundant, made with love, and served with a smile! The Casa is owned by a Swiss-Cuban couple and so there are many languages spoken in the house, such as English, French, and even a bit Italian. One of the most welcoming places in Cuba for us and where we first discovered Legendario rum, the best Cuban rum there is!

From the rooftop, at Viceversa you actually have a great view towards El Cocinero, an old vegetable oil factory with a huge brick chimney, which has now been transformed into a restaurant and bar space. We can recommend the bar on the rooftop for drinks, it is a cool, decked out open space to hang out and enjoy a cocktail or two. The food wasn't the greatest but the atmosphere, drinks, and staff were great. Be sure to book our table as this place is popular.

Havana is one of the most beautiful cities we have ever seen and an awesome town to just wander around and discover cool places, beautiful architecture, and friendly people. Some parts of Havana have been carefully renovated and restored and it gives you a glimpse of how incredible this city would look if it would be completely redone. With many baroque, French, and Spanish influences, Cuban architecture is very diverse, with grand buildings especially in the old part of town, colourful houses with lots of columns, semi-enclosed porches, hidden courtyards, high ceilings, large windows and stunning rooftop terraces.

We wanted to dive more into Cuban history and know more besides the stories written in the history books, so we booked a guide in Havana for two days. We actually got really lucky. Our guide Seniõr Jorge was extremely knowledgeable and told us a lot of interesting stories and facts about Cuban's rich but often troubled history. (Shoutout to Seniõr Jorge, we hope you enjoy reading this!) As a bit of a history nerd, this was one of my highlights of the trip, learning how José Marti lead Cuba's fight for independence, to Fidel Castro's ascent to power. It was refreshing to get a different perspective on the cold war and the Cuban missile crisis from the point of view of the Cubans. There are a couple of different tour operators, which you can differentiate by the colour of their t-shirts, we recommend you go with the red operator and Seniõr Jorge and his colleagues.

In Havana, we picked up our rental car and drove west to Vinales, a town in the province of Pinal del Rio. It is famous for its beautiful landscape and red soil, as well as for some of the best tobacco and coffee in the country. Vinales is a relatively new town which grew exponentially due to tourism in the area as the surrounding valley is a UNESCO world heritage site. So today, there are over 2000 Casas in Vinales and some of the most popular activities for tourists are hiking or horseback riding through the countryside, paying a visit to a local farmer, or going to one of the impressive caves in the valley. We did a little tour on one of the mornings with a local guide in a small group and on our way we stopped at the house of a coffee farmer as well as a tobacco grower. We got to try some traditionally brewed coffee and the tobacco farmer explained and showed the process of making a cigar. This was an easy, laid-back hike but we do recommend you do this in the morning as during the afternoon it can get really hot and humid in the valley.

However, our highlight definitely were the weekend celebrations on Saturday night. They closed off the main road, restaurants brought out their chairs and tables onto the street, street vendors sold food and drinks and a couple of live bands played music. It was a great atmosphere, not overly crowded and we got to try fresh sugar cane juice with lime and rum. Overall, drinks were the cheapest and the strongest in Vinales at around 1 to 2 CUC each. You could also try Cuban pizza, which has a thicker, spongier dough than traditional Italian pizza, bacadillos, Cuban bread served with meats and/or cheese and sauce as well as fresh popcorn.

After Vinales we drove down to Playa Larga via Las Terrassas. Playa Larga is a small town right at the shores of the bay of pigs, where Fidel Castro famously prevented an invasion by Cuban exiles. The small beach in town is lined with Casas and a couple of beach bars and restaurants. The village also has a small harbor, a town square, and a pharmacy. It is a very laid-back, cozy town, where you can just sit back and relax, sunbathe, take a swim or snorkel in the blue water of the ocean. This was one of our favorite spots in Cuba.

We stayed at Casa Kiki, a Casa right at the beach. Stepping out from the backyard, you found yourself right on the beach, only a couple of feet away from the water. The distance from our bed to the ocean the distance was no more than 10 meters. This was an absolute paradise for us, blue water, and surprisingly few tourists. Also, the beach and water were very clean. You can grab a cocktail and a bite to eat at one of the bars or simply lie in the sun and relax. At no point did it feel crowded or noisy, it simply was an amazing place to sit back and relax! Cuban food overall was disappointing to us (read our travel tips if you wanna know more) but in Playa Larga we had some amazing seafood at Chuchi el pescador and enjoyed some churros and drinks at a cool place called El Habanero, which was just a couple of benches in the front yard of one of the houses on the main street but with cool reggae music and a friendly host.

The city of Trinidad, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since the end of the 1980s and is located in close proximity to the Escambray Mountains and the Playa Ancón. Trinidad is famous for its cobblestone streets and Spanish colonial architecture, all centred around its famous Plaza Mayor and its church. Topes de Collantes, a nature reserve with many caves, canyons, and of course, waterfalls in the Escambray mountains is one of the most popular tourist destinations. For one of our day trips, we took a tour through Topes de Collantes, on foot and in the back of a huge old Russian truck. It can get quite windy and cold up in the mountains and especially in the back of that truck, so make sure to bring appropriate clothing; not like Chris who thought it would be a good idea to just go in a t-shirt and swim trunks.

The region is also known to be the have the best conditions to cultivate coffee and there are still some coffee farmers in Topes de Collantes who grow and roast coffee beans the traditional way. We drove down to Guanayara for a hike through the jungle, which was an easy, guided tour through nature and we came across a couple of waterfalls, such as El Ricio, you could also take a dip in one of them. Chris said that even the water of the waterfall felt warmer to him than the air on the back of that truck. We concluded our hike with lunch at one of the ranches, Casa el Gaiiega, which serves roasted chicken, rice, and potatoes.

During our stop in Trinidad we stayed at Casa Lito, which is only a short walk away from the town centre. From the outside, the house looks quite small but, in the back, it is actually quite large, with a couple of floors and there are quite a few rooms for rent. Breakfast is served in the shaded courtyard, surrounded by palm and mango trees. The room and facilities in Casa Lito, as well as the location, were all great, however, the host was a bit more reserved and not as forthcoming, which was a bit of a shame as we really would have enjoyed having a couple of drinks at the bar in the courtyard.

In town, we liked the Taberna La Botija, a bar/restaurant, which serves small, affordable tapas and good cocktails. Also, during the weekend, there are live concerts on the steps next to the church. Sitting down on one of the tables and watch the musicians play and people dance costs 1 CUC entry fee, however, cocktails are also around 0.50 CUC cheaper. It has a special, laid-back vibe to it, so make sure to check it out if you have the time! On average a cocktail costs 3 CUC in Trinidad, the most expensive that we found in Cuba. If you want a classy place to enjoy some quality, brand liquor, we can recommend Café Tutti, a bar/restaurant/Casa, run by an Italian family. Here we found the Legendario Elexir, which is a rum punch, sweetened with extracts of grapes, raisins, and other dried fruits and best enjoyed pure, on the rocks.

If you plan to stay in Trinidad for a couple of days, we recommend you get away a bit to Playa Ancón, a beautiful strip of white sand beach with a couple of resorts just a 15-minute drive outside of town. The beach is of course publicly accessible, just take the Carr Ancón to the Hotel Ancón and make a right turn down the road. A couple of hundred meters later you will find a small taxi car park through which you can get to the beach. There is also plenty of space around should you come by car. A sunbed only costs 2 CUC a day and though there were some guests from the resorts as well as some locals, the beach was still relatively quiet for our standards. We can really recommend it if you wanna take a day just to relax and chill.

Our final stop was the sea town of Varadero, which stretches along a peninsula on the northern coast of Cuba and is mostly made up of large hotel resorts. The resort we were staying at, the Royalton Hicacos, is a 5-star resort that has been partially renovated, most notably the pool area. The rooms, as well as the different restaurants at the resort, are a bit outdated and unfortunately, the food was quite bad. Overall, I was alright for a couple of days but I would not recommend it for a two-week all-inclusive beach vacation.

The beach of Varadero, however, is said to be one of Cubas's most beautiful beaches, with Playa Ancon and Playa Larga right behind and it is indeed gorgeous, white, fine-grained sand and turquoise water with just the right amount of waves. Sometimes, you could even watch the stunning Cuban pelicans flying over the water. It was surprisingly quiet, considering we were there in the middle of high season but the number of tourists at the beach was limited and it was enjoyable being at a beach which was not overcrowded.

We were at the far end of Varadero and there is no beach promenade, which means no shops and bars to walk around and have a look at, which you might be used to from other places around the world. Nonetheless, if you wanna do some shopping for some rum, we can really recommend La casa del Ron located at the beginning of the Varadero peninsula. This shop has a large selection of Cuban rums at competitive prices, such as the Legendario aged rum we enjoyed so much!

This was honestly one of the most laid-back, yet adventurous trips we had and we made so many fun memories during those couple of weeks on Cuba. If you find yourself wondering whether Cuba is worth the trip, I do admit, it might not be for everybody.

If you are looking for a luxurious, gourmet, all-inclusive experience, there are other islands in the Caribbean which are more suitable, but if food and wellness are not necessarily on top of your list, we can wholeheartedly recommend Cuba. The island has so many highlights: beautiful landscapes, impressive architecture, a unique culture and mindset and an exciting history. Of course, it doesn't hurt to like rum and cigars.

We do hope that the current pandemic will eventually subside, allowing people to safely travel and explore the world again. And maybe, this has inspired you to put Cuba on your bucket list.