Varadero is quite unlike anywhere else in Cuba. When we mentioned Varadero as part of our route to other people on our travels we’d often hear: ‘everyone goes there, it’s so touristy, we’re going to … instead .’ All valid, I’m sure, so if you’d rather avoid that then that’s fine, but as much as we love trying to see the ‘real’ places, we are tourists, let’s not pretend otherwise! Yes, you do get the sense that some people only see that part of Cuba as it’s where the package holiday hotels are and I think that is a real shame, but we booked 2 nights in Varadero at the end of our 3 week trip and we had a great time! We hadn’t had a ‘beach holiday’ for a long time and I can see why people enjoy them!
We were in Varadero in early December as part of a 3 week trip in Cuba, so all my notes are based around my experiences as a tourist at that time. Please do check any dates/opening times/locations etc. if you’re planning your own trip – things change! Links are to websites if I can find useful ones, or Google Maps locations if not, so you can see where they are. Please also note this post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!
Contents
Pictures, please!
If you’d prefer just to look through my photos for now I’ve made a gallery of the photographs in this post here, but if you’d like to read my notes you can find them all below.
Top recommendations in Varadero
You can read my notes on what we got up to below, but if you are short on time click below to show my top recommendations on what to do in Varadero, plus you can take a look at my more general notes on Cuba, too:
Top recommendations on a map
Full notes on my time in Varadero: how we spent 2 days in Varadero
Travelling to Varadero
We’d originally booked the Viazul bus from Santa Clara to Varadero but we realised that the timing of that meant travelling in the middle of the day and arriving quite late, meaning we wouldn’t have much time in Varadero, so we got a Taxi Collectivo through our Casa instead. It cost €25 per person, we arrived at midday and were on the beach by 2pm so it was well worth it.
First afternoon: the sea, beer and fancy dinner
We arrived at our Casa, Casa de Willy y Aurora, a bit early but our brilliant host, Willy, welcomed us, took in our bags and talked us through a detailed map of the town, labelling all sorts of useful information, explaining where we could access the beach between the all inclusive hotels and drawing on recommended restaurants, bars, snack bars and wifi hotspots. We were very excited to see so many options!
We headed off for an hour while Willy and Aurora finished our room. Calling it a room is a massive understatement – we basically had a small apartment in a standalone building! As well as the room and bathroom we had a little kitchen/living room area with all the facilities you’d need to pretty much live there! There was even an outdoor shower so you could rinse the sand off your legs and feet before going inside. Wonderful!
We got our bearings, located the public wifi, the beach and sat for a while in Parque Josone, where we had planned on getting a lemonade from Bar Varadero 1920 but were far too easily convinced to have a Piña Colada instead. A musical duo played us some great music and we sat and watched a wedding couple have their photographs taken by the lake. Lovely!
As soon as we’d fully checked in we got changed and headed to the beach. Varadero is on a really narrow peninsula so there’s plenty of it, running along the north edge. Towards the west is publicly accessible beach and further to the east it is owned by hotels. We were perfectly positioned so all we needed to do was cross the road, take a little path through some bushes and suddenly we were on white sand looking at the most perfect blue sea I think I’ve ever seen.
The sea was glorious! Warm, shallow for a long way (and got shallower at one point, which always feels weird) and not busy at all. There were just a few families, some men soaking up the rays and an American couple who seemed to attract older American men who asked lots of questions. We relaxed all afternoon on the super soft sand under the shade of an umbrella. We expected to have to pay for that but the first day no one seemed to be working there. A guy did come and let us know we could order drinks from him, but other than that we were completely undisturbed (not that he was anything but helpful, you know what I mean!) We spent the afternoon looking at the sea, bobbing around in the sea and looking at the sky whilst listening to the sea.
After showering and changing we thought we’d check out Factoria Varadero 43 cerveceria, supposedly a brewery, keeping our expectations in check as we haven’t had much luck with beer. It was an actual brewery and we had the best beer we’ve had in ages!!
For dinner we splashed out and went to Varadero 60. A lovely place decorated with advertising signs, the prices were higher than we’d encountered so far but the food was much posher too. I had marlin with garlic and pesto and Tim had his with sesame and we shared both – wow they tasted delicious!! Served with rice, a bean mash and a single crisp, it was really delicious. The band were great too, though we were useless at thinking of songs when they asked if we had any requests.
To finish the evening we went for drinks and had the best daiquiris I’ve had to date at Varadero’s version of El Floridita, accompanied by another great band with an amazing singer.
I can see why people come here so much – we felt very relaxed!
Full day: beach, eat, repeat
We woke in our peaceful little chalet and went for breakfast on the patio at 9am. Yet another delicious Casa breakfast – pineapple and papaya, papaya juice, coffee, hot cake, toasted bread and an omelette – we were spoilt again! Fish swam in a little tank behind me, orchids bloomed on a tree behind Tim and we enjoyed the lovely crockery.
Today was definitely a beach day! We were already in our cozzies and we packed a small bag with just the essentials so we could spend a morning in the sea together.
We took a spot under an umbrella like yesterday and watched fascinated as a small bird with a large beak and sort of reddish eyes stalked along, then gobbled up a crab!
It felt a bit chillier than yesterday but still utterly glorious. We sat for a bit, lay watching the clouds, swam for a bit and stood air drying with our feet in the water. A guy arrived and started putting signs up and let us know it was 200CUP for the umbrella, which was fine.
Around midday we packed up and headed back briefly to the Casa to put some clothes on and head out for a walk around the town. We went up to Boulevard Varadero, a state run shopping area unlike anywhere we’d seen elsewhere in Cuba. There were lots of bars and snack places a rum and a cigar shop. We headed the other way, looking at souvenir things in El Mercado and Parque de Las 8000 Taquillas, an the underground shopping centre where we went to Cafeccino for chocolate frappuccinos and tasty pastries in air conditioned bliss.
We popped over to Parque Central and bumped into a couple who had been on the walking tour we did in Trinidad. It was good to chat to them but they seemed to have had a very different experience of Cuba than we did. I do think that having our travel and accommodation booked in advance helped make things easier for us.
We headed back to the beach again for more swimming, relaxing and walking.
After a quick refresh at the Casa and we headed out for the evening. We went a bit fancy again with dinner at Salsa Suarez. We were lucky we just had to wait a bit for a table, lots of people were turned away! The food was delicious and I had a lovely glass of wine, too. We shared creamy croquettes to start, Tim had a seafood plate and I had lobster and mussels pasta. The pasta was perfectly cooked and everything had great flavour!
We went for a final drink and to listen to the amazing band at El Floridita, which was really nice. There were quite a few escapees from the all inclusive resorts there and a fun atmosphere.
Final morning: last looks at the sea
A relaxed start with lovely breakfast at 9am on the patio. We packed our things and then headed out for a last walk around. We bought some water for the journey from a little cafe and went for a last look at that stunning sea, a bit sad we didn’t have another day here, though the heat today seemed particularly intense!
Leaving Varadero
We gathered our bags and said goodbye to lovely Aurora and Willy, then walked down to the bus station to catch the Viazul to Havana, passing all the waiting taxis (saying we had a ticket stopped their questions – I think a lot of people don’t book in advance and then have to get a taxi when it’s fully booked).
We were just over an hour early but there were quite a few already waiting, some trying to buy tickets for tomorrow and some just generally confused. We swapped our tickets, got our bags labelled and waited in the seating area. Eventually there was movement and we shot up to get our bags in – they asked which stop we wanted and we had no idea so just went for Centro and hoped (that turned out to be right). The seat numbers sort of were in use here though our seats didn’t actually exist as they were beyond the back row, but we were sat together and no one asked us to move so that’s a win.
We had a lovely time in Varadero, it was a great way to relax at the end of our trip. It’s definitely very different to everywhere else in Cuba, so I wouldn’t just go there and nowhere else, but I definitely think it’s worth including in your trip if you’d like a bit of sea, sun and relaxation!
Next stop: Back to Havana
If you’d like to have a look through my photos without all the notes I’ve made a gallery of the photographs in this post here.
Notes on Travel is a blog by photographer Jayne Lloyd, noting the things I found useful to know when I was visiting Varadero in Cuba as part of a 3 week trip around Cuba. I’ve tried to be accurate but please do check for up-to-date information before going as things are always changing! I apologise for any mistakes, please do let me know if you have more recent info.
* This post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!