Ten days in Cuba: one road west for the tobacco, one east for the sugar
Three nights in Havana, two in the Viñales valley, one in Cienfuegos and three in Trinidad, driven or bussed in four legs.
- Length
- 10 days, 9 nights
- Where you stay
- Havana, Viñales, Cienfuegos, Trinidad (Cuba)
- Places
- 21 across 10 days
Cuba is long, and most first visits try to see too much of it. The version that works keeps to the western third: the capital, the tobacco valley two and a half hours west of it, and the pair of colonial towns on the south coast, all of which are within a comfortable half day of each other.
The two ends of the loop are opposites. Viñales is farmland, limestone towers, ox teams and drying barns, and the evenings are dark and quiet. Trinidad is a sugar town that made a fortune in the early 1800s, lost it, and then stopped: cobbles, single storey houses in pink and ochre, and live music on the church steps every night of the week.
The drives are the part people underestimate. Havana to Viñales is straightforward, but the run from Viñales down to Cienfuegos goes back past Havana and takes most of a day. Start it early, take food, and treat the arrival as the evening's entertainment.
Highlights
- Habana Vieja on foot for three days, with the cannon fired at La Cabaña on one of the evenings
- The Viñales valley from a footpath rather than a bus window, between the limestone mogotes
- A rooftop drink at the Palacio de Valle, the strangest building in Cienfuegos
- The steam train out to the Valle de los Ingenios, where the sugar money came from
- Live music on the steps beside Trinidad's cathedral, which starts most nights and does not stop early
Where to stay
Havana, three nights
Stay inside Habana Vieja or on its western edge, which puts the squares, the harbour and the Capitolio all within twenty minutes on foot. Three nights is enough for the old town and one afternoon of the twentieth century, and leaves you a morning for the sea wall.
Havana is the only stop on the loop where you do not want a car. Parking is difficult, the old town is closed to traffic in places, and taxis cost very little.
Viñales, two nights
About 151 km from Havana.
A single main street, a plaza with a church on it, and a valley of limestone towers behind. Almost everybody stays in a casa particular, a room in somebody's house, and almost everybody eats where they sleep at least once, which is usually the best meal of the two days.
The valley is worked farmland rather than a park: tobacco and sweet potato in the fields, oxen doing the ploughing, and thatched barns you can walk into. Two nights gives you one full day in it and one evening to sit on a porch.
Cienfuegos, one night
About 341 km from Viñales.
Founded in 1819 by French settlers, and it shows: a grid of neoclassical arcades around one large square, laid out all at once rather than grown. It is the tidiest town on the route and the only one that feels planned.
One night is the right length. It breaks the long drive from the west, and the sunset hour by the water is genuinely worth arranging the day around.
Trinidad, three nights
About 62 km from Cienfuegos.
Founded in 1514, rich on sugar by 1800, and broke by the end of that century, which is exactly why it still looks the way it does. Nothing was knocked down because nobody could afford to build anything new.
Three nights covers the town itself, the sugar valley behind it, and a day at the beach on the Ancón peninsula. It is also the one place on the loop where the nightlife is worth staying up for.
Day by day
Day 1 in Havana
Habana Vieja: Plaza de Armas and the cathedral
Land, leave the bags, and walk. Plaza de Armas is the oldest square in the city and the shadiest, with second hand book stalls under the trees; the cathedral square is five minutes west and is the one on all the postcards, an eighteenth century baroque front with one bell tower fatter than the other.
Finish on Plaza Vieja with a beer from the brewery on the corner, then eat on the harbour front. Do not attempt anything ambitious on the first evening: the flight in is long and customs at José Martí is slow.
- 16:00
Plaza de Armas
ArchitectureThe old administrative square of Spanish Cuba, and the one place in the old town with proper shade over the benches.
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- 17:00
Havana Cathedral
ReligiousBaroque, cut from coral limestone with fossils in the stone, facing the smallest and best of the four squares.
- 18:30
Factoría Plaza Vieja
EatA brewpub on Plaza Vieja pouring its own light, dark and black beer, which is a rarer thing here than rum.
- 20:00
Los Marinos
EatSeafood on a pier in the harbour, with enough breeze on the terrace to make the end of a hot day bearable.
With more time: If you are still moving afterwards, La Bodeguita del Medio is a block from the cathedral and is where every visitor is sent for a mojito. Go late, when the day trippers have gone.
Day 2 in Havana
The Museum of the Revolution, the Capitolio and the cannon at La Cabaña
The Museum of the Revolution occupies the presidential palace Cuba was governed from until 1959, and the building is half the exhibit: bullet damage from the 1957 student assault in the marble stairs, gilt ceilings, rifles in cases. The account of the years since is the official one, stated without hedging, which is itself the interesting part.
Walk on to the Capitolio, finished in 1929 and openly modelled on the one in Washington, and eat somewhere near it in the early afternoon.
In the evening, cross the harbour to the fortress on the far side. Soldiers in eighteenth century uniform fire a cannon over the water just before nine, a ceremony that once announced the closing of the city gates. Get there while there is still light on the old town opposite, because the view back across the water is better than the ceremony.
- 09:30
Museum of the Revolution
CultureThe former presidential palace, giving the state's own account of Cuban history, in rooms that are worth the ticket by themselves.
- 12:00
National Capitol Building
ArchitectureNeoclassical, completed in 1929, and the seat of the National Assembly again after decades used for something else.
- 13:30
Hanoi
EatAn old fashioned dining room near the Capitolio, live music, no air conditioning, black beans and rice done properly.
- 19:00
Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña
OtherThe big eighteenth century fort across the harbour, with an armoury, a Che Guevara room and the cannon at the end of the evening.
With more time: With an hour spare before the fort, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes is next door to the Museum of the Revolution and holds the strongest collection of Cuban painting anywhere.
Day 3 in Havana
The Malecón, Plaza de la Revolución and Colon Cemetery
Walk the sea wall first thing, before eight, while it still belongs to fishermen and people going to work. By mid morning it is a hot exposed road with traffic on it.
Then head west into Vedado, which is the twentieth century half of Havana: wide streets, 1950s apartment blocks, and the enormous political square with a marble José Martí at one end and Che Guevara's face picked out in steel on the ministry opposite.
Colon Cemetery is ten minutes further on and is the surprise of the day. It is laid out like a small city, block after block of marble angels and family chapels, and you can lose two hours in it without noticing.
- 07:30
Walk along the Malecón
VisitThe sea wall walk, done early, while it is still fishermen rather than traffic.
- 10:00
Plaza de la Revolución
OtherA vast bare square in Vedado, with the Marti memorial on one side and the steel Che facing it from the interior ministry.
- 11:30
Coppelia Ice Cream parlour
EatA Cuban institution in a 1960s pavilion in Vedado. Expect to queue, and expect the queue to be the point.
- 13:00
Colon Cemetery
HistoricOne of the great cemeteries of the world, laid out on a grid, with an hour or two of extraordinary funerary sculpture in it.
With more time: Pick up the car this evening rather than tomorrow morning if you are driving. The road west out of Havana is easier to find in daylight, and the rental paperwork takes longer than anyone expects.
Day 4 in Viñales
West to Viñales: a tobacco farm and the plaza
A short morning's drive west on the one good road, and the country changes completely: flat red fields, royal palms, and then the mogotes, round limestone towers standing straight out of the farmland with vertical sides.
Give the afternoon to a drying barn. The tobacco is picked leaf by leaf, hung in a thatched shed for weeks, and then fermented, and any of the farms on the valley road will walk you through it in twenty minutes.
Then the plaza, which is the whole of Viñales social life: a church, a cultural centre that puts on something most evenings, and a row of rocking chairs. Eat on a balcony over the valley and watch the light go.
- 15:00
Tobacco Farm Casa del Veguero
VisitA working tobacco farm and drying shed on the edge of town, set up for visitors, and the clearest half hour on how a cigar is actually made.
- 17:00
The Central plaza
VisitThe centre of everything in Viñales: church, art gallery, rocking chairs, and a farmers' market on Saturday mornings.
- 19:00
Balcón del Valle
EatA wooden balcony built out over the hillside, with the valley in front of it. Reserve, and go for the last hour of light.
With more time: The Casa de la Cultura on the plaza puts on music or dancing most nights and costs almost nothing. Ask at the door what time it starts, because it is rarely advertised.
Day 5 in Viñales
The valley on foot, then the Cueva del Indio
The walk everyone does loops around the Mogote de Valle, out through the fields and past the drying sheds, and takes four or five hours at a slow pace. Start at eight. There is no shade to speak of once the sun is up, and the middle of the day is punishing between May and September.
In the afternoon, drive out to the Cueva del Indio, where the tour ends with a short boat ride along an underground river. It is thoroughly organised and busy with coaches, and it is still a good half hour.
Finish at one of the roadside miradors above the valley with a drink, then eat in town.
- 08:00
Mogote de Valle
VisitThe classic circuit of the valley floor, half a day on foot around the mogote behind the town, through working farmland the whole way.
- 13:00
Don Carmelo
EatStraightforward Cuban food in the middle of town at the friendliest prices in Viñales.
- 14:30
Cueva del Indio
VisitA cave with an underground river running through it, visited on foot and then by boat. Organised, popular, and worth the half hour.
- 17:00
Mirador
EatA viewpoint bar above the valley road with fruit juices and the best angle on the mogotes.
- 19:30
El Olivo
EatSmall plates done carefully, the most popular table in Viñales, and no chance of a seat outside without booking.
With more time: The one thing to skip is the Mural de la Prehistoria, a cliff painted with dinosaurs and ammonites in the 1960s on Fidel Castro's suggestion. It is visible from the road, which is close enough.
Day 6 in Cienfuegos
The long drive east, and an evening in Cienfuegos
This is the day the map costs you. Cienfuegos is on the south coast and the only sensible route runs back past Havana, so it is five to six hours with stops. Leave at seven, eat what you brought, and do not plan anything before four in the afternoon.
Cienfuegos repays it quickly. The whole centre went up at once after 1819, which is why it reads as one building: arcade after arcade around a single enormous square, with a theatre on one side that opened in 1890 and still has its original interior.
Then go down to the water for sunset. The Palacio de Valle is a Moorish fantasy of a mansion by the hotel on the point, and the roof terrace is the place to be at six o'clock with something cold.
- 16:30
José Martí Park
ArchitectureThe main square, ringed with neoclassical arcades, and the reason the centre of Cienfuegos is a protected site.
- 17:30
Tomas Terry Theatre
CultureAn 1890 theatre on the main square with its original interior intact, and a decent cafe if it is shut.
- 18:30
Palacio de Valle
ArchitectureA Moorish revival mansion by the water with a rooftop terrace. Come for the roof and the sunset rather than the kitchen.
- 20:30
Te Quedara's
EatA first floor balcony over the pedestrian street, live music in the evenings, and the best seat in town for watching it.
With more time: With a spare morning, the Castillo de Jagua guards the mouth of the bay and can be reached by the little passenger ferry rather than by road, which is much the better way to arrive.
Day 7 in Trinidad (Cuba)
Into Trinidad: the convent tower and the cathedral square
An easy hour and a half east along the coast, with the sea on one side and the Escambray hills on the other, and then the road turns to cobbles and you are in Trinidad.
Start at the old convent on the corner of the main square, now a museum about the counter-revolutionary fighting in the Escambray between 1961 and 1969. Its yellow bell tower is the building on every photograph of the town, and the museum is small enough to do properly in an hour.
The cathedral is a minute away on the same square. After dark, the steps beside it fill up: bands set up on the terrace above, people bring their own rum, and it goes on far later than you intend.
- 11:30
Museum of the War Against the Bandits
VisitA museum of the Escambray insurgency of the 1960s, in the former convent whose bell tower is the landmark of the whole town.
- 13:30
La Botija
EatA tavern with a colonial interior and plates beaten out of old sugar kettles, strong on small dishes.
- 16:00
Cathedral
ReligiousThe parish church on the main square, plain outside and much better within than the facade suggests.
- 21:00
Casa de la Música
VisitAn open air stage on the steps by the cathedral where the salsa starts after dark and the dancing is genuinely good.
With more time: The Museo Romántico on the same square is fifteen minutes of colonial furniture in a merchant's house, and the upstairs windows give you the best view down onto the cobbles.
Day 8 in Trinidad (Cuba)
The sugar valley by train, and the hill above the town
Trinidad's money came from the valley behind it, worked by tens of thousands of enslaved people through the first half of the 1800s. The tourist train runs out into it most mornings, sometimes behind a steam engine and often behind a diesel when the steam engine is broken, and stops at the old estates on the way.
What you are looking at is a plain of ruined mills and one tall stone tower built so that the cane fields could be watched from above. It is a beautiful landscape with an ugly explanation, and the trip is better for knowing that.
Back in town, climb the hill behind the houses in the last hour of light. The path goes up through the poorer streets above the old centre and comes out over the tiled roofs with the sea beyond.
- 09:30
Valle de Los Ingenios
NatureThe morning train out to the sugar estates, in a restored carriage behind whichever engine is running, with stops at the old mills.
- 17:30
Viewpoint Cerro de la Vigía
VisitThe hill behind the town, twenty minutes up through the back streets, for the roofs and the coast at sunset.
- 19:00
Paladar San José
EatA friendly private restaurant near the centre that fills up early. Book a table in the morning if you want one at eight.
- 23:00
Disco Ayala
EatA nightclub inside a cave in the hillside, stalactites and all. Absurd, and everybody in Trinidad ends up there once.
With more time: If the train is not running, the same valley can be driven in an afternoon, and the tower is open to climb when there is somebody there to take the money.
Day 9 in Trinidad (Cuba)
Playa Ancón, and the Escambray if you would rather walk
Ancón is the beach Trinidad sends you to and one of the few good ones in Cuba you can use without checking into a resort. It is fifteen minutes south by taxi, white sand, shallow water, and a handful of places selling lunch.
The alternative for the same day is inland and upwards: the Escambray hills start just outside the town, and the closer part of the park has short walks to waterfalls and river pools that are cold enough to be a shock after the coast.
Either way, come back for the last evening in the streets rather than eating early. Trinidad after dark is the best it gets.
- 09:30
Playa Ancón
NatureA long white beach on the peninsula south of town, reachable by a short taxi ride, and open to anybody rather than to hotel guests.
- 15:30
Local food stall
EatA cheap fixed menu near the centre that serves actual cooked dishes, which is a relief after a week of pizza by the slice.
- 17:00
Waterfall
VisitA waterfall in the hills with a cave behind it you can swim into, and usually somebody selling drinks at the bottom.
With more time: For a longer walk, Topes de Collantes in the Escambray has half day routes to higher falls and needs a guide and an early start, so it works better swapped with the train day.
Day 10 in Trinidad (Cuba)
Back to Havana for the flight
Trinidad to José Martí airport is about four and a half hours, and there is nothing on the road worth stopping for except lunch. Leave at least six hours before the flight: check in for international departures is slow and the queues do not move.
If your flight is late in the day, the last morning in Trinidad is better spent on the cobbles with a coffee than trying to add another museum.
- 08:00
Drive back to Havana
TravelRoughly a half day on the road to the airport, with one stop for lunch. Book the car or the shared taxi the night before.
Before you go
Driving, buses and shared cars
Three ways of doing these four legs. A hire car gives you the valley roads and the freedom to stop, and is the reason the Viñales and Trinidad days work at all. The long distance coaches connect every town here and are cheap, air conditioned and slow. Shared taxis, arranged through your accommodation the night before, sit in between on price and beat the coach on time.
Whichever you pick, book the long Viñales to Cienfuegos leg the day before rather than on the morning. Fuel supply in Cuba is unpredictable and a driver who has already filled up is worth paying for.
Money, food and expectations
Cuba's currency and card rules have been rewritten repeatedly, so treat any figure you find online as out of date. Bring cash in a major currency, assume your bank card will not work, and ask where you are staying what applies that week.
Shortages are normal and affect restaurants as much as shops. Ask what the kitchen has rather than reading the menu, eat in private restaurants where you can, and carry water out of the towns because the small ones run out of it.
When to go
December to April is dry and warm and busy. The tobacco is in the ground from about November and cut in the early spring, so the Viñales fields look their best in that window.
The summer is hot, wet in the afternoons, and inside the hurricane season, which runs to the end of November. It is also the cheapest and emptiest time, and the south coast beaches are at their warmest.
What stays with people about Cuba is rarely a building. It is the quiet: very little traffic, so you hear conversation, dominoes, somebody practising an instrument through an open window, horses on the road out of town.
Ten days is enough to stop being surprised by that and start enjoying it. Keep the driving days early, keep the afternoons free, and let the evenings run long.
Go deeper on one city
Each of these covers a single stop on this route in its own right.
Make it your trip
Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.
Common questions
- Is ten days enough for Cuba?
- Enough for the western third, which is what these ten days cover. Santiago de Cuba and the far east are another twelve hours of road or a domestic flight away, and adding them to the same trip turns a holiday into a bus tour. Better to do Havana, Viñales and Trinidad properly and leave the east for a second visit.
- Should I hire a car or take the bus?
- Hire a car if you want the valley roads around Viñales, the sugar estates behind Trinidad and the freedom to stop; the coaches are cheap and reliable but only connect the towns. Fuel is not always available, so fill up whenever you pass a station with a supply rather than when the gauge tells you to.
- How bad is the drive from Viñales to Cienfuegos?
- It is the one long day, five to six hours because the route goes back past Havana, and it is much easier if you start at seven and carry your own food and water. Some people break it with a night in the capital, which costs a night elsewhere but makes the rest of the week gentler.
- Can I change the order or the nights?
- Yes. The obvious variation is dropping Cienfuegos and giving the night to Trinidad, which works if you are willing to drive seven hours in one go. Load the plan into a trip, move the nights around, and the drives will redraw themselves.