Should you really avoid Varadero?

Varadero is a small peninsular town in Cuba, couple of hours drive away from the capital city of Havana. It has more than 20 km long stretch of white sand beaches along the turquoise waters of the Atlantic Ocean. But search the internet for Varadero. Many travel forums and travel blogs suggest that Varadero is the one place to skip for your Cuba holiday. Reading all these gloomy observations about Varadero, we almost eliminated this place from our itinerary in the beginning. But I am so glad that finally we did not. So, should you really avoid Varadero?

Let the answer begin with some visuals!

After coming back, we can assert with confidence that we would not only NOT avoid Varadero, but we could spend days at a stretch in this beach town!

If you are smitten by clear water and white sand beaches in the Caribbean, you can considers other destinations like Aruba and Curacao.

All-inclusive Resort Vs. Casa Particulares

Most of the reviewers who dismiss Varadero speak from their experiences of mediocre stays at expensive all-inclusive resorts. Taking a cue from this pattern, we chose to stay at a ‘Casa Particular‘ instead of an all-inclusive resort. I believe that is what made the difference.

What is an all-inclusive resort in Cuba?

Well, it is literally what the name says. The resort room tariff will include everything else in the price – all-inclusive price! Everything as in accommodation, use of all property facilities, daily events, all meals (usually unlimited buffet), open bar and in some cases certain activities as well. Many of these are run by big chains in the hospitality industry. Of course, the tariff is higher, often starting from 5X the price of a Casa Particular accommodation.

What is a Casa Particular in Cuba?

Casa Particular in Cuba is a local equivalent of a ‘homestay’ or an ‘AirBnB’ where you get to stay at a local family’s house. The accommodation is sometimes private and sometimes shared, shared with the host family and/or other guests. This is an excellent way to sneak an up-close look into the life of the local people. You may not expect five-star like service or facilities. But what you will experience is a warm personalized hospitality and a share of a piece of the local’s life. Example, the host will prepare breakfast for you which you will relish while chatting up with the host family in their kitchen/ dining area. Accommodations in Casa Particulares are super easy on your pocket, compared to the tariff of the all-inclusive resorts. And also in turn, you can boost the economy of the local people.

We stayed in this Casa Particular in Varadero: Casa Torres. Tariff: 40 CUC (~40 USD) + Breakfast: 5CUC (~5 USD) per person.

We had booked all our Casa Particulares accommodations in Cuba through this site. [Note: The booking isn’t really one-click, it required several email correspondences to finalize all our stays.]

What we think worked better for us

Note: In this section, we are going to draw a lot of comparisons against different benchmarks in Cuba. So, to get yourself acquainted with those benchmarks, you can read here about what to expect from your Cuba travel.

Beach

Varadero is a small town in Cuba with a land area of 48 sq.km. So you are never really far away from the beach. But I suppose the beach areas adjacent to the all-inclusive resorts will be more crowded purely because of the large number of guests each resort houses. But for the rest of the areas, you won’t at all find the beach crowded. Most likely you can access the beach by a short walk from the casa, as (remember?) Varadero is small with a continuously running Atlantic beach to its north.

In our case, the beach was a 2-min walk from where we were staying. And on most occasions, we had large stretches of the beach all to ourselves.

Food

Sadly, food in Cuba is generally not that great, at least nothing to write home about. [Sorry, we are really picky when it comes to food.] Staying at a Casa Particular versus an AI resort, we liked the flexibility of choosing our own food instead of what a resort decides to put on their menu on a given day. And very often, the resort patrons do not even like the food that the resort serves. Varadero town had quite a few chic looking restaurants and bars which worked fine for us. True, not all we ate at the different restaurants were great, in fact, were average at best. But also true that Varadero is where we had one of our most noteworthy meals while in Cuba. It was at an international gourmet restaurant called Salsa Suarez Restaurant y Bar.

Accommodation & Service

Service is neither so superior in Cuba. So, we were not quite convinced to pay a $200+/per night resort tariff for a service which we might not have been satisfied with. So, although we stayed at a Casa Particular, we had nothing to complain about. Starting with beach towels and navigation map leaflets with handwritten notes, we had everything we needed even before we asked for it. We had a nice private suite with a separate entrance in the same house where the host family lives. The private suite had a living room, a tiny balcony, a kitchen with a fully-stocked minibar and a bedroom with private bathroom. Air-conditioning and WiFi router (you need the card) were also provided. Add to this, the warm hospitality and personal interaction I talked about earlier. At 40 CUC, this stay and service was fantastic value for money for us.

I cannot close this section without talking about the excellent breakfast that you can buy here for just 5 CUC per person. The menu included:

• Fruits platter
• Natural fruit juice (you will get a choice of selections)
• Homemade pancakes with strawberry syrup/ honey/ vanilla [As I recollect the experience of my taste buds while writing this, I am drooling!]
• Bread and butter, jam
• Omelette filled with onion, tomato, pepper, ham, cheese [This was my favorite part. I like my eggs done exactly in that way, filled with all the yummy ingredients. But this is the ONLY place in Cuba where the eggs at breakfast were served to my liking. What? I already told you that we are picky with food. 😛 ]
• Coffee

Other details about Varadero

Varadero town vs. Old Havana

Old Havana looks strikingly beautiful. Not because of swanky buildings or posh neighborhoods – nah, you won’t find them in Old Havana. But instead, the worn-out yet standing-strong colorful architecture and classic cars of vibrant pastel colors lend a unique charm to Old Havana. Varadero, on the other hand, although much smaller, looks more well put together and more modern. The architecture is younger, the roads are well-paved tar ones and the general look of the town is glossier. It is hard to believe the appearance of Varadero, just 2 hours drive away from Old Havana. (Don’t worry, you still got the classic cars in Varadero. Yay!)

What else in Varadero, other than beach time?

Apart from hitting the beach, these are some other aspects of the town you can enjoy:

• Beatles Bar: A Beatles themed bar with an exuberant ambiance.
• Casa de la Música (The house of Music): A nice spot to hit at night for some music and dance.
• Cervecería (Beer factory): Umm, self explanatory 😛
• Souvenir Shopping: There are several small markets selling different goods. Whether a ‘Havana Club’ trademark beach bag or some paintings by local Cuban artists, you will find a lot of souvenir items to choose from.
• Parque Central: A central park, that is a well-curated garden and an adjacent water body.

How to Reach Varadero

Varadero has an international airport where you can directly fly into. If you fly in to Havana instead, you can opt for any of these for a transfer to Varadero:

• Cuba’s national bus network Via Azul [Cheapest]
• Collective shuttle (shared taxi) [Second cheapest]
• Private shuttle (private taxi)
• Private shuttle, in classic car [Most expensive]
• Yellow taxi
• Self-drive rental car

Varadero is just ~150 km away from Havana. So, many people from Havana, make a quick day trip also. However, we would suggest spending at least a couple of nights in Varadero.

We included Varadero in our itinerary sandwiched between Trinidad and Havana. This is how we chose our transfers:

• Trinidad > Varadero: Private shuttle (private taxi)
• Varadero > Havana: Yellow taxi

Add more value to your Varadero journey

As you can see, we had chosen private transfers on both legs of our journey to/from Varadero, although this was not the most budget option. This is because we wanted to add more value to our journey.

Cienfuegos

On the way from Trinidad to Varadero, we stopped at the town of Cienfuegos. Cienfuegos is a city that had gone through many turmoils in the past, and is a major seaport in Cuba, facilitating trade of sugar, tobacco etc. UNESCO declared this city a World Heritage Site in 2005. We wanted to get a quick tour of this city, on the way from Trinidad to Varadero, and hence the choice of transport.

Bacunayagua Bridge

On the way from Varadero to Havana, we made a halt at the Mirador de Bacunayagua. Considered a civil engineering marvel in Cuba, the bridge stands at an elevation of 110 meters from the valley floor over which it is built. We walked around various sections of the view point to get different sights of the bridge and the surrounding scenery – the green forests and the blue ocean. The view point also has a rest stop – for food, drinks and souvenirs. We grabbed a quick ice-cream and then continued with the rest of our journey.

Cueva de Saturno

Another popular stopover on the way from Havana to Varadero (or the other way round) is the Saturn Cave. It is a sinkhole formed by the collapse of limestone rocks. This kind of geological structure is known as cenote. One can enjoy a swim or even a dive in this sinkhole. However, we had to skip this place due to some unforeseen reasons although it was part of our original travel plan. So if you have been there, please do let us know in the comments section how was your experience.

Let us remind you again why you need not avoid Varadero!

Just choose a quiet little casa for your accommodation, stay away from the crowded resorts and you will be in paradise! 🙂

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