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Published: September 12th 2013
Havana-Cienfuegos-Playa Ancon-Camaguey-Santiago-Banes-Cayo Coco-Cayo Santa María-Santa Clara-Varadero-Havana
Rental Cars in Cuba:
Last time we went to Cuba we also rented a car (I believe with Cubacar) and didn't have a single problem. We had a new although tiny car and it worked. This time we chose the cheapest company VIA Car and did not have the same luck. On the first day we had to wait 1,5h for the car. Then after 2 days the gas started to leak. We filled at the gas station and it came out again on the bottom...although Via Cars should have two offices in Camaguey where it happened both were closed. Luckily we found a mechanic on the side of the street who drove a VIA truck and basically forced him (he told us he was busy and the town office was closed but we should go to the airport, which we did afterwards but which also turned out to be closed) to fix it. Luckily he did and I spoke Spanish otherwise we would still be waiting in Camaguey. Arriving in Santiago where the next VIA office should be and where we called our German rental firm to make things right and demand a new car, VIA sent us a mechanic to revise the car. Having a quick look he said that the other mechanic had already fixed the problem, that another car wouldnt be better and that also against our other problem the broken fuel gauge he couldn't do anything (in the end we always had to calculate how many km we drove and how much new gas we would need for the next trip). Left with the same old, meagerly repaired car we drove on. Then the entire electrics in the car died down and it couldn't even be started anymore. Luckily my dad knows a thing or two about cars and suspected a problem with the battery. Indeed a cable had loosened itself due to the bumpy roads and he could still repair it (after that the lever to open the bonnet broke and would it have happened again could not have fixed it anymore). Upon returning the car we had to completely fill up the tank because otherwise the fuel gauge wouldn't go up (although we only had to it give it back with 12 litres) and the lady refused to take it back with the gauge down, not believing us that we filled up more than 25 litres. So in the end we paid 3/4 of a tank for them. When we told the lady that we asked the company's mechanic to repair the fuel gauge and he said he couldnt do anything about it she said that it was our own fault we should have never accepted a car like that. HAHA! if we waited until we got a new one we would still be sitting in Santiago.....Moreover it is worthy to say that VIA car only had "offices" in the main cities while we saw that Cubacar or HavanaCar had !open! offices in every little town and place we passed. STAY CLEAR of VIA and rather pay the extra couple of CUCs.
Havana Accomodation:
In 2009 we stayed at the Hotel Vedado. This was quite disappointing and definitely the worst place we ever stayed in in Cuba. Dirty, moldy, dusty, unfriendly personnel. This time we wanted to avoid such an experience and I googled and googled all halfway economic hotels. Even in the ones for 60 Euros a night, reviews were quite horrible including bed bugs, mold, etc. So I chose the one with the least bad reviews and prayed. The Hotel Victoria, however, was quite pleasant for Cuban standards. Rather clean, rather good location, breakfast as meagre as in any other state run hotel. All in all recommendable although I prefer the logding we took upon our departure. A casa particular called Carlos Valderrama in Centro Habana. He's a (probably) divorced man, who speaks English and he is very helpful and nice. Since theres not woman in the house, no dinner is offered but the house is located so centrally that good restaurants and paladares are within walking distance. Habana Vieja and all the sights can be reached by foot in 7-10 minutes. Since most of the more economic hotels are dirty and located in Vedado where nothing interesting happens I would definitely recommend taking a casa particular even in Havana. Since only then (at least I) you go and see the places where real habaneros live. If I hadn't lived there nothing would have ever brought me to centro Habana and I would have only seen the touristy old town and hotely Vedado.
Cienfuegos:
Whether Cienfuegos is really worth the visit or not I haven't quite decided yet. It's pretty but not spectacular, its small and although at the seaside its far far away from caribbean. more atlantic ocean like. The only really noteworthy thing is the punta gorda, a small land stretch that goes out into the sea and is plastered with cute and newly renovated little villas (most of the cases particulares). Its nice to stroll around and maybe take a drink on the roof of the arabesque villa valle but the town centre is quite ordinary and can't compete with Trinidad or Camaguey. Since our first choice the Villa Lagarto (highly praised in our travel guide) was fully booked they accommodated us with their neighbor and said we could use their facilities. The promised private beach was rocky, muddy and the water brown. Among the hundreds of Cubans that bathed within 10m2 we couldn't make out a single non Cuban face. Since we knew that other beaches were on the list we didn't mind and enjoyed the quite fancy and jungly all bamboo terrace. Im used to stuff like that from Thailand and Malaysia but definitely not Cuba. At dinner we found out why it could be so fancy. They charged 20 CUC (around 16Euros) for the dinner, more than double of the usual price, although it didn't differ all that much from other dinners. Yes, they had cloth napkins, nice european plates and sth that you could call an hors d'oeuvre, and the styles interior design, but nothing that justifies that price. At least in my opinion. Also we paid the most (35 CUCs) for the room on our entire trip although it was by far not the hottest location or the nicest room. However, dinner was good and the room perfectly clean. If Id go there again I might even stay with Villa Lagartos neighbor Jhenny again and simply dine outside (which would not have been a problem at all) or simple go to any of the dozen Casas on the punta gorda directly. However, since I traveled with slightly neurotic parents we only stayed in Casas with Email contact, so that we could make reservations in advance and didn't have to look for a room upon arrival. Thats probably also the reason why all our cases were rather expensive, they had internet access an absolute rarity in Cuba and sign of high social status (we were told that officially only academic researchers are granted internet access).
Playa Ancon- La Boca
Being promised the most beautiful beach in the caribbean (not only by the travel guides but also my former geography teacher) our next stop was Playa Ancon, but since we didn't want to stay in a hotel but a casa we booked our casa in Boca around 10 km from Ancon. Arriving in Boca a so called hidden gem (because of its untouristiness) we were overwhelmed by the masses of cubans on the streets and in the water. You could hardly move, if you had tripped you wouldn't have touched the floor but been caught by the crowds moving the street. We didn't take the message in our online reservation "confirm at least one day before arrival via telephone" too seriously since we would arrive in la Boca at 10 in the morning but when we got there our room in the casa "vista al mar" was gone and the casa owner brought us to another "beauty". An old lady without teeth greeted us friendly and showed us the room, dusty and slightly creepy (with curtains on the wall where no windows were). Since the town was obviously packed with people we took it anyway. The scenes that we could witness from the porch were unique. Again hundreds if not thousands of Cubans were standing in the brown, rocky water handing through bottles of rum. It was more like watching a bathing ritual at the Ganges in India than normal beach at a seaside town. So if you want to see real Cuban beach holidays, with Cubans vacationing and you don't mind a way below average beach without sand go to la Boca. Its the real experience. If you take it as a base for Playa Ancon (like we did) don't bother-not because of la Boca-but because of Playa Ancon. Its nice, no question, but its far from being pristine or postcard like. Its a quite long hotel beach with an especially hideous hotel block in the back, lots of deck chairs and an average blue water. So many better places in Cuba. Coming back from the beach at night the old lady served us an excellent meal on the terrace. Unfortunately while dining a frog jumped on my dads shoulder from the roof and a crab the size of my head ran into our room. Before i already removed two crabs the size of a hand from the bedroom walls. The night was quite the adventure but the old couple really made an effort and sensing how uncomfortable we felt gave their very best to make everything ok. I think they were called maria and manuel duran and their house front served as something like a cd shop which their son ran.
Camaguey:
Beautiful city centre- definitely worth the trip but one day is absolutely enough. We stayed at Casa Delfin (booked via Email) which is currently run by Delfins daughter since he is said to be in Teneriffa with his son looking for work. The house was very clean, very centrally located, and the food was very good. The landlady was very nice, she loves to talk, show off her English skills. She's slightly eccentric but fun to experience.
Bayamo:
We meant to split the long trip between Camaguey and Santiago and stay a night in Bayamo. However, when we saw the town, we decided not to waste any precious vacation time and immediately drive all the way to Santiago. It was dusty and didn't seem to have any truistic appeal. However, the Casa we were meant to stay in Villa Alina was very nice and clean. So if you go to Bayamo Villa Alina is certainly recommendable.
Santiago:
Santiago is a city with soul. Its beautiful and vibrating, although cars and motorbike pollute the air so much that sometimes you can't even see YOUR HAND in front of your face. Definitely worth a couple of days. However, don't fall for one of those bici taxi tours. They tell you 5CUCs for 1,5 h then they simply don't bring you back for over 2h and charge you 10. In Santiago we stayed in Casa Maruchi a colonial house. This was more like a small hotel than a casa. The landlady and her family only give orders to their "help" of 5-6 people while they surf on the internet or watch tv on their flat screen. Maruchi is a real Patrona, self absorbed and condensing yet very polite. It's quite expensive with 30 CUCs (for 3 people) but their patio is incredibly beautiful, the location is very central and the food is delicious. Also she tried to charge me 3 dinners, 3 nights but 4 breakfast but when I told her she immediately admitted her error. However, I would definitely go there again. Its the perfect oasis for the loud and vibrating city. From Santiago we also made two day trips to the pilgrim church "el cobre" and to "gran Piedra". El Cobre was said to be a mixture of santeria sacrifice cult and catholicism, so I expected something similar to San Juan Chamula in Mexico where people pray on all fours, basically in a tantrum and sacrifice chicken and sodas. El Cobre was nothing like that. It was a typical catholic pilgrim church, clean and without any mystical or magic rituals. Even the virgin mary which was said to be black was white. so that was quite a disappointment.
Gran piedra: Nowhere in the travel guides was it mentioned how bad the street up to Gran Piedra is. Its incredibly steep, partly without asphalt, full of meter deep potholes and since you can only go a max. of 20km/h it takes you more than an h to go up. If you're not a perfect driver with nerves of steel, or have a four wheel rental I would consider taking a taxi. But if you're aware of what you're getting into/ how long it will take you to go up its half as bad. Once you've arrived the 426 steps seem scary but its really not bad at all its a 10 min hike up the stairs and on the top you have a gorgeous view of the mountains and the sea. Also if you're considering visiting the coffee plantation isabelica you best mount gran piedra and walk down on the other said and you're basically there, then you can have a look around (its really cute although its only a museum and not an actual plantation as we thought) and then walk back on the road to the parking of gran piedra (because no car can/should) go to isabelica. even the 4 wheel taxis wait for the people at gran piedra. since we only found out that you could go to isabelica right from the peak after coming down we walked on the road (around 20-25 min) and that wasn't a problem either. Isabelica is really worth the visit once you have arrived. try their coffee and ask the guide to show you a coffee seed!
Banes:
Caution on your way to Banes!!! Two roads go to Banes and on the roadmaps both are marked as equally good or bad. Nobody tells you that the more direct one (421 on googlemaps) via Antilla is 40 km of hell. No asphalt, meter deep potholes, sharp rocks sticking out and laying around. It took us 4h, we didn’t meet a single car (though 2 tractors) and there was not a single town or even hamlet during those 40km just a couple of lone cattle ranches. Had we had a flat tire from the bumpy road and sharp rocks we wouldn’t have been able to do a thing thanks to the lack of cell reception in that deserted area. The other road is supposed to be far better. Public buses also take that route. Arriving in Banes we stayed at a charming place casa Evelyn, the only one on the trip I couldn’t reserve via email, so I called 3 weeks in advance and that perfectly worked out. Evelyn was friendly, very clean, cheap and the food was amzing. Also Banes really is the perfect location to go to Guardalavaca, Playa Esmeralda, Playa Pesquera, etc. the most beautiful beaches on this trip. Picturesque, post card idyllic. The beaches are generally all resort beaches but they all have little trails where Cubans (and non all inclusive tourists) can enter since beaches must be publicly accessible. The only problem is the parking, other than the hotel parking space (which are closely supervised), there usually aren’t many options. Cubans usually go to the beach with large trucks that take them there in the morning and bring them home at night. What we ended up doing is pretend to be hotel guests and park on the hotel parking space, sometimes the guards weren’t paying attention, sometimes they sent us away, sometimes they just wanted money. It’s a hassle but the beaches are worth it!
Gibara:
Praised in our guide to be a hidden gem, off touristy routes and resembling Baracoa we went to Gibara “the white pearl of the North”. It was very…lets say…rustic… there’s a reason why its off the touristy routes. If youre on the route and you would only go there to see the town I doubt that the extra hour that it takes you to get there fom Holguin are worth it. The casa we stayed in was very simple. The rooms were clean, the location was nice, price was ok and the food was average. No reason not to go there, no reason to especially go there. Casa Hostal Sol y Mar
Cayo Coco & Cayo Santa Maria
Ive seen the pictures and Ive heard the stories, they were all breathtaking and amazing. However, nobody told me that on the Cayos unlike the on mainland beaches you cant access the beaches at all if youre not a hotel guest. There might be one beach, but its not as nice and usually badly accessible. So unfortunately we spent most of our beach time cruising around on they keys looking for loopholes, looking for some way to get to the beach and not actually on the beach. This was incredibly frustrating. Why did we make the same mistake twice? Honestly, I thought Cayo Coco was an exception because it was soo big and Varadero like, Santa Maria is smaller and I thought “yeah they have 3-4 hotels but the rest is plain nature”. This was wrong and had I known it I would have spent the extra couple of Euros, booked a hotel on the keys and actually enjoyed them. What we did is we stayed in Morón for Cayo Coco. We stayed in casa Maite which similar to Maruchi was more like a hotel than a casa. They had at least 5 or six rooms, a garage, night guard and an actual restaurant. The food was delicious and not too expensive, the rooms were clean but not too cheap, but the atmosphere was not as cosy or welcoming as in a normal casa since the place was always very busy and full of all kinds of people. Morón itself is quite hopeless, its rundown, dirty and when we were there everything was closed due to the Cholera epidemic.
Snorkeling Tour reef in front of Playa Pilar:
For 25 CUC/PP it’s a complete rip off if you’ve done some snorkeling or even diving before. If you’ve never been under water it might be nice but still way way overpriced! You don’t see anything you wont see immediately if you put your head underwater in Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico or even Greece. A couple of fish lured with bread and lots of dead coral. Nothing like the appraisal in LP where they claim this to be the best reef in the Caribbean and compare it to the Great Barrier Reef. All in all Snorkeingling in Cuba was quite a disappointment, everywhere Ive been the underwater world was dead. Nothing like promised in the travel guides. The only halfway good snorkeling I did was in the Bay of Pigs in 2009 and in the Cenote in the Pay of Pigs. Some people have told me that diving in Playa Santa Lucía was also pretty good but that I cant judge.
Caibarién:
As a base to go to Cayo Santa María we chose Cairbaríen and stayed in Villa Virginia, Concerning Caibarién the same holds as for Morón. Regarding “Villa Virginia” this was definitely the worst place of our trip. The house was dirty, we had herds of ants in our beds, on the dining table, in the food, there was animal hair all over the furniture, the food was plenty but not good and then she tried to charge double from what she had said in the email for the room and we have never had such expensive chicken on our entire trip. Virginia is a total rop off- I’d steer clear. As for Cayo Santa María, after roaming around for hours looking for the other one public beach (since allegedly Playa Perlas Blancas has been closed down) we went to playa las brujas, which was nice but not spectacular.
Santa Clara:
City of Che. Beautiful city centre, impressive historic monuments. Definitely worth the visit, although one day is more than enough-it’s a small town. We stayed in “Casa Mercy”- a beautiful casa in the very city centre (perfect location). Its not cheap and the food was quite expensive but since it was soo good it was definitely worth it, also the Mojito was amazing. The landlords are very nice, forthcoming and well educated people. Their children are Uni professors and have travelled to Europe.
Varadero:
After almost 3000km is a shabby rental car we deserved a luxurious break- or so we thought. Arriving at the Allegro Occidental in Varadero I felt taken back to 1980 Yugoslavia holidays. Since my parents had been in the same hotel in 2009 (when it was still called Oasis 1920) and very much liked it we booked the hotel again. However, it has changed A LOT. Although in 2009 the hotel was buzzing with British and Canadian tourists we were the only European or Western tourists. Obviously no European agency could dare to offer it. The first 2 nights the hotel was empty anyhow… a couple of South and Central American families and a handful of Cubans. The room was run down but mosly clean, most of the bars on the huge areal were closed and the food was….perfect to start a diet… on the weekend the hotel filled and obese latinos fought over the food and free drinks…fortunately it was our last night…but all in all it was a nice experience…vacationing like the “locals” do, not solely being surrounded by other Europeans, stewing in one’s own juice but actually mingling. Moreover the staff was very helpful and endeavored and since the latinos preferred the pool we basically had the entire beach to ourselves and could go on a Catamaran ride whenever we wanted. Yet I would not do any snorkeling excursion since you only see bread fed fish but no coral or other under water phenomena.
Travelling Season:
We travelled in August. This was certainly not ideal, but since I’ve travelled out of season (monsoon time, hurricane season, etc.) many times before and never had a problem I didn’t worry. Unfortuntely ,however, we kept our beach days for mid August and usually around 2pm thunderstorms drew up and we couldn’t fully enjoy the beach. After all the turquoise and blue water is only turquoise and blue if the sky is clear. Once its cloudy its all gray and the most pristine beaches only seem average. So if youre bound to school holidays July is definitely the month to go!
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