Newsflash – Havana is not the only part of Cuba! Chances are that if you have made it to Havana, and didn’t go straight to a faceless beach resort (i.e. Varadero), then you are actually interested in all that Cuba has to offer- and there is plenty of it! Cuba is actually a deceptively large island, and we certainly didn’t manage to explore it all in two trips, but we now feel like we’ve been exploring western Cuba for long enough to know what not to miss.

Viñales

Reachable as a day trip from Havana, Viñales is to the west of the island in the Pinar del Rio province, famous for its tobacco plantations. Organised trips will take you to a tobacco farm to see the plants in the fields and the drying process and also to the magnificent Viñales valley with odd rock formations called mogotes.

There are also networks of caves in which the Taino Indians and runaway slaves used to hide. If you are lucky the good people of the plantation will roll up a fresh ‘puro’ for you for a small sum, but beware of people trying to sell you stashes of Cohiba for ridiculously cheap prices, chances are they are not original (don’t ask how we know!).

Trinidad

Trinidad, of the Sancti Spiritus province is probably the second most visited destination in Cuba after Havana, and it’s easy to see why. Having the best of both worlds, Trinidad boasts a beautifully preserved sleepy colonial town built during the sugar boom, the best southern beaches and the mountainous region and eco centre of Topes de Collantes. Trinidad is so well-preserved due to the decline in the sugar and slave trade, which meant that it became something of a backwater town and was never updated.

You could happily spend all of your time in Trinidad just wandering around the colourful streets, artisan markets (mostly hand embroidered fabrics and clothes and cedar wood products) and admiring the grand colonial architecture. Equally enthralling is a stroll at dusk to see people out in their wicker rocking chairs and the windows of the houses flung open to reveal worlds of antique furniture where time appears to have stood still.

We recommend climbing the clock tower of the Museo Nacional de la Lucha Contra Bandidos for an excellent view, but as this clock tower is so iconic, if you only climb one then go instead to the Museo de Arquitectura (an old sugar baron’s home and now museum) to climb their tower as it provides the classic vista of the clock tower and of the city, the mountains and the sea.

The restaurant scene in Trinidad is also fairly good, with most restaurants set in impressive colonial mansions. It is always worth eating at your casa particular though as often the food is much nicer and much cheaper and you can enjoy being in a real Cuban family environment.

For drinking we recommend heading to the Canchanchara which spawned a cocktail of the same name consisting of aguadiente, ice, lemon juice and honey. It is served in a small earthenware pot with a stirring stick so that you can get all the honey mixed in. There is plenty of live music at this venue but you probably won’t want too many of these very sweet cocktails!

The main place for drinking is at the Casa del La Musica on the steps next to the Church of the Holy Trinity on the main square. Here you can order cocktails and beers and watch live music. The first time we visited Trinidad in 2013 we were lucky enough to see the Easter parade which completely took over the centre of the town.

Around Trindad

To venture into the mountains you can take a horse riding trip to Topes de Collantes or visit the Valle de los Ingenios where there is a sugar mill museum, a watch tower to climb and a viewpoint over the valley where sugar cane was produced.

If it’s the beach that you are after then there is a nice stretch not far from Trinidad town called Playa Ancon. From here you can take trips to the nearby cayes or just relax on the beach. We recommend going to Grill-Caribe as here for 10 CUCs you can rent a parasol and two sun beds for the day and this part of the beach is much quieter. The restaurant has decent seafood, but only 3 menu options. And don’t forget your mask as the warm waters are excellent for snorkelling and admiring the local marine life.

Santa Clara

Santa Clara, in the province of Villa Clara is a fairly large town that is not noteworthy other than for its importance in the struggle of The Revolution. The Battle of Santa Clara is seen as the decisive battle of the struggle as Batista fled Cuba shortly afterwards. During the battle, Che Guevara and his forces derailed a train full of enemy soldiers by using a bulldozer to lift the train tracks. You can go to see this ‘Tren Blindado’ and also a large monument to Che himself just outside of town where there is a small museum and his remains are housed in a mausoleum alongside his comrades from the Bolivia campaign. This is understandably treated by the authorities as an almost religious place and you will have to leave you bags and cameras in lockers and be watched by the police and the staff all the way through.

Varadero

Varadero is the land of the all-inclusive resorts owned mostly by Canadian and Spanish hotel groups. In 2013 we decided to spend a couple of days in one as we thought that it would be fun to be pampered by the beach. Whilst we wouldn’t say that we regretted going there, it was certainly an experience which affirmed that all-inclusive are not our bag at all! The beaches and the pool were gorgeous and the Michael Jackson tribute performance most amusing, but we quickly found our attention span wearing thin. We definitely got the feeling that we could have been anywhere in the Caribbean and we missed the real Cuba that we had been enjoying up until that point. The all-inclusive lavish buffets were exciting for the first day, after which they started to seem quite opulent and slightly disgusting, especially when you consider that these developments have basically monopolised the beach and made it inaccessible for ordinary Cubans. Not to mention that ordinary Cubans can only dream of such luxury and abundance. We can only hope that the recent re-opening of relations with the US won’t turn all of Cuba’s best seaside in massive Cancun-style resorts.

Caibarien & Santa The Northern Cayes

We stopped in a town called Caibarien on the northern coast which was a very run down place with many large wooden warehouses and old residences of the sugar trade days. The town used to serve as a shipping point for sugar, tobacco and other goods. We stopped here because of the town’s proximity to the Northern Cayes which we wanted to visit without staying in a mega all-inclusive resort. We had learnt our lesson from visiting Varadero in 2013!

From Caibarien we visited an old sugar factory called Museo de Agroindustria Azucarera which has lots of steam-powered relics and a train graveyard.

Also close by is the small colourful town of Remedios which is really only worth visiting for a couple of hours, but it is an excellent example of slow-paced Cuban life and nicely preserved colonial architecture.

For us the Northern Cayes were a bit of a letdown, we could only really reach Cayo Santa Maria and of course most of it was taken up by mega-resorts. We drove to a long stretch of free beach called Las Gaviotas which is also a reserve, where the beach is very sandy and the water very shallow. There are not any facilities on this beach apart from some small shade huts. If you are up for it, you can walk onto the beach of the nearest resort, but it’s not really any different! Whilst it was a nice looking beach we didn’t find it very interesting and there was no opportunity to snorkel.

Sadly the man-made causeway to the cayes has caused some environmental damage due to the disruption is has caused to the flow of water (despite bridges being built into the design). We also spotted a dolphinarium and needless to say we don’t support animals held in captivity for human entertainment.

(Top tip – take your passport otherwise you won’t be let on to the causeway).

As usual, things in Cuba can be a bit hit and miss! Visiting the colonial towns is an obvious draw, but as soon as you get outside of Trinidad things start to look much shabbier and run down. That’s not to say that they aren’t full of Cuban history, spirit and life, so they are still worth visiting for a different perspective of the island.

Driving through and visiting the Cuban countryside is really something else as it looks nothing like the landscapes we experienced on the mainland of Latin America.

Cuba seems to consistently cause us trouble with its beaches! It’s such a shame that most of them have been gobbled up by the foreign resorts and that few options are left to visit independently, at least in the Northern caye that we visited and the Varadero area. That said, visiting the cayes and the beach near Trinidad were very nice experiences and we preferred them over our dalliances with resorts.

Needless to say there’s a lot more to see in Cuba than the western part, our aim this time was to travel all the way to Santisgo de Cuba but for logistical reasons we weren’t ale to do so. A real shame…but also a reason to go back again to this glorious and unique island. Our love story with Cuba has only just begun!