Cuba - Havana - Varadero ?

Cuba - Havana - Varadero ?

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AMDB9

Original Poster:

2,714 posts

206 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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Off with a few of the lads to Cuba next month - anyone been - can't decide where to spend more time - Havana or Varadero? Has anyone hired a classic and driven from Havana to Varadero? Any hints and tips and any other worthy destinations to drive to would be appreciated smile

Is it easy to hire a car out there or best to get one with a driver and let him do the driving?

What about nightlife - any recommendations for food also welcome smile

Thanks

Wolff

413 posts

214 months

Sunday 19th April 2015
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Depends what you are going for? Sit on a beach and feel like anywhere else in the world, and miss out on the real Cuba, go to Varadero. If you want to actually see Cuba, spend a few days in Havana and then go out to other places....

Places to go (Within a days travel of Havana):
Vinales (2 nights)
Santa Clara (1 night)
Trinidad (town is Unesco, very picturesque during the day and good fun at night, also a beach there with your typical all-inclusive hotels) (3 nights)

Can't help with car hire, sorry.

Nightlife? Go out to the bars, enjoy the music and dancing, try and meet locals, you might get invited to parties.... (or go to http://www.havananightlife.com/ and take your pick!)

AMDB9

Original Poster:

2,714 posts

206 months

Monday 20th April 2015
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Thanks - great advice...

Keep em coming smile

We are going there to get a feel of the culture, enjoy the atmosphere before the US relation thaw ruins what seems to be a great place for now.

ujio

311 posts

169 months

Monday 20th April 2015
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As said before. Keep away from Varadero.

Go and visit Vinales (pin cushion mountains), Trinidad and Maria La Gorda (which is well and truly off the beaten track)and indulge in some diving.

You can be shuttled around to these places on the cheap in a private minibus. Also, stay in Casa's for an authentic experience.

Of course, don't forget Hemmingway's bar in Havana.

Oh, and as restaurant you have to visit, make sure you go to San Cristobal Paladar!

Edited by ujio on Monday 20th April 16:54

AMDB9

Original Poster:

2,714 posts

206 months

Tuesday 21st April 2015
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Thanks - none of us are divers but looking on trip adviser that looks like a nice place to be!

celestequattro

78 posts

170 months

Tuesday 21st April 2015
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Anybody found a decent deal for a trip over there from the UK? Sadly kids holidays mean likely to go around 20 July....

AMDB9

Original Poster:

2,714 posts

206 months

Tuesday 21st April 2015
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celestequattro said:
Anybody found a decent deal for a trip over there from the UK? Sadly kids holidays mean likely to go around 20 July....
How old are your kids? Mine are 13 and 9 and I wouldn't think of taking them to Cuba smile

RDMcG

19,093 posts

206 months

Tuesday 21st April 2015
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I have been to Havana numerous times and find it fascinating.

Good hotels in the city centre are not cheap, The one I like best is the Saratoga, right opposite the Capitolio. Has a nice bar too:




If you want to stay a little way out, the Melia Cohiba is modern, clean, with lots of facilities and a massive pool,one of the biggest in Cuba. Very safe for kids with a kids' pool. On the water...get an ocean view. The breakfast buffet is simply awful though There is a free shuttle to downtown.

Not too far away is Vista del Mar..hard to find but right on the water, with super seafood: (book all of these in advance..they all have websites)







Right in Centro Havana are two of my favourite Paladares ( family-owned restos)


Casa Miglis has an eccentric decor and great food...owned by a Swedish film maker and his Cuban wife ( pics of the bar section below)







Just avoid the drinking the Tequila Inferno




Le Guerida is a famous ( an outstanding Paladar,at the top of a crumbling building. When you go in you will be sure you are in the wrong place. You go up three floors to reach it. Food is wonderful,booking essential. Above the restaurant, down a long corridor and up a spiral staircase is a lovely rooftop bar:







of course centro Havana in the other direction from the rooftop bar is like this:




In Old Havana. Sloppy Joes is a good bar,not crowded during the day and lots of history:


Best view of the city is at Morro Castle, (well worth a visit)







Only use licensed cigar stores, never buy from a friend of a friend who really works at Cohiba...all fakes:




Streets in Centro Havana are shabby, and lots of construction or disrepair, so watch your feet:






Architecture in the city is very varied fro, the 1700s through Art Deco:





Sadly the Partagas cigar factory has closed and will be a cigar museum. It had a wonderful tour of a Victorian workspace up to a few years ago:




The are endless music places of course:







Unless cabaret is your thing I would avoid the Tropicana...people crowded at tables, half bottle of rum included , and the meal ( if you choose it) was some of the worst food I have had anywhere.










The Cuban currency for tourists (CUC) is the only thing you can use and you can only get it when you arrive, so plenty of cash is good.It is par with the USD. Paladares do not take credit cards, major hotels do, but NO American Express. Make sure you have cleared health insurance
covering your travel. if you go to cheap places to eat ,avoid the ice. Beer, wine,rum, bottled water only. Big hotels are fine though in this regard.


I have a separate thread covering the classic cars of Havana here:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...


If you need the name and number of my driver there let me know. ( Not a classic car, just modern taxi,but he is very good in terms of local inexpensive places for breakfast etc, and knows Havana intimately)
















































Havana architecture is a reflection of a rich past, with buildings going into the 1700,s but lots of stuff through the Art Deco period













RDMcG

19,093 posts

206 months

Tuesday 21st April 2015
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Best get there soon I think. the New Yorker current cover has a lighthearted but not altogether inaccurate view of the future of Cuba…


acer12

956 posts

173 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2015
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Ronan, as always another insightful reply. Look forward to following some of your tips next month. Thanks

AMDB9

Original Poster:

2,714 posts

206 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2015
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Well thank you so much sir - wonderful pics and tips - very much appreciated! If you could send me the details of your driver that would be the icing on the cake smile

We have booked Iberostar in Havana but the rate allows us to pull out at anytime so once there we shall look around and if we like another hotel better we can move across.

Is it true that things are very backward there - hard to find bottled water on the streets and even hard to come by toilet role!? These are some of the things I have heard.

Lost soul

8,712 posts

181 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2015
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AMDB9 said:
Off with a few of the lads to Cuba next month - anyone been - can't decide where to spend more time - Havana or Varadero?
Don't go to Varadero ,I have stayed in Havana twice and loved it ,Havana is a great city with fantastic atmosphere , Varadero is a faked impression of what the great unwashed think Cuba is, we went there and stayed 1 night and could not wait to get out of the place , you could be anywhere in the package tour Caribbean

nice beach yes but that's all it has Havanna is buzzing and you have Marina Hemmingway a short taxi drive up the coast .

Lost soul

8,712 posts

181 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2015
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Oh and if you are into Scuba go to Maria La Gorda on the far west point of Cuba best diving I have ever done small hotel well it was , 32 rooms and empty sand beaches , book it before traveling from Havana

RDMcG

19,093 posts

206 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2015
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My driver is Jorge. He is in his sixties, very honest and reliable. His local number is 52821556. He was really helpful and did a lot of driving around Havana. At one stage I lost a screw from my sunglasses, which is irritating. He brought me to some little street and took my glasses, had the repaired when I waited ( five minutes), no charge. Little things like that matter. He had never been to Casa Miglis though, but he knows it now!.

If you want to try any of the above restaurants, book now.

Here is website for La Guarida:

http://www.laguarida.com/en/


for Casa Miglis
http://www.casamiglis.com/


Not sure if there is a website, but go to Trip Advisor and they have lots on it..try Paladar Vistalmar or Vista del Mar.

Let me know if there is anything else and I will try to fid out. Best guidebook is the Dorling Kindersley one I think.

Edited by RDMcG on Wednesday 22 April 13:21

RDMcG

19,093 posts

206 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2015
quotequote all
AMDB9 said:
Well thank you so much sir - wonderful pics and tips - very much appreciated! If you could send me the details of your driver that would be the icing on the cake smile

We have booked Iberostar in Havana but the rate allows us to pull out at anytime so once there we shall look around and if we like another hotel better we can move across.

Is it true that things are very backward there - hard to find bottled water on the streets and even hard to come by toilet role!? These are some of the things I have heard.
The hotels and restaurants are generally properly equipped, so I never had a problem. However, stores are very basic and there are famous shortages of all sorts of stuff. Every restaurant I visited had soap and toilet paper, except, oddly the cigar store at Partagassmile

Any kind of thing like razor blades, menstrual stuff for women, contact lens liquid etc can be very hard to get, and if you go to the country, impossible. Bottled waters general available and if you are with Jorge he will bring you somewhere cheap. I generally get some litre bottles for the room.

Hotel lobby stores can be a rip of things like suntan lotion so bring your own. If you drink Scotch bring some from the duty free, but rum is ubiquitous and varies from good to excellent.

AMDB9

Original Poster:

2,714 posts

206 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2015
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Many thanks bandit

jonny996

2,603 posts

216 months

Monday 27th April 2015
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AMDB9 said:
celestequattro said:
Anybody found a decent deal for a trip over there from the UK? Sadly kids holidays mean likely to go around 20 July....
How old are your kids? Mine are 13 and 9 and I wouldn't think of taking them to Cuba smile
Am I missing something here, why would you not take your kids to Cuba

Lost soul

8,712 posts

181 months

Monday 27th April 2015
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jonny996 said:
AMDB9 said:
celestequattro said:
Anybody found a decent deal for a trip over there from the UK? Sadly kids holidays mean likely to go around 20 July....
How old are your kids? Mine are 13 and 9 and I wouldn't think of taking them to Cuba smile
Am I missing something here, why would you not take your kids to Cuba
Probably one of the safest places I have visited and yes we did go way off the beaten path ?

AMDB9

Original Poster:

2,714 posts

206 months

Monday 27th April 2015
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They would get so bored!!

bakerstreet

4,755 posts

164 months

Tuesday 28th April 2015
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We did Cuba about 5 years ago and the OH rates it as one of the best holidays we have ever been on. We stayed in Varadero and we wet n a two day trip to Havana and that was excellent.

I wouldn't say that Varadero is the nicest beach location we have ever stayed at. Our hotel was good though. It had vines that stretched from the top floor all the way down to the ground floor lobby.

When we were there, there were lots of Canadians on Spring Break and that grew incredibly tiresome to the point where several holiday makers including myself complained. It didn't have much affect.

We did a Jeep Safari in Suzuki Jimneys and that was great fun. They didn't check drivers licenses or even get you to sign anything! The vehicles were knackered with a wide variety of warning lights n the dashboard, but I really enjoyed it.

We also went swimming in one of the caves (Same trip as the Havana trip) and that was amazing. I'll try and add some photos to this thread when I get home later tonight smile