The best 4 day itinerary in Cuba
I had a pretty clear idea of how I wanted my Cuban experience to be like. That meant no prearrangements or prebookings, just travel with an idea of what I wanted to see and do.
While researching, I mostly found tips from full-time travelers that recommended several weeks in Cuba, but I didn’t have several weeks to spend in Cuba. I wanted to explore as much as possible in four days, ‘cause I wanted to visit a couple of more places on this trip. After a lot of researching, this is what I ended up doing.
Day 1
Havana:
It was such a funny feeling landing in Cuba. We had no arrangements, which meant that we didn’t even have an address for a place to stay. We got through to the arrival hall and though “What now?” This was totally new to me, I have never done this before but this was how I wanted to explore Cuba.
After withdrawing money at the airport, we decided to head outside to get a taxi. An easy start to our adventure, we didn’t bother to figure out the busses. While in the taxi we thought, “might as well ask our driver if he knows a place we can stay” and he did! He took his phone up and called a Casa Particular. While we were at it, we also asked if he wanted to be our driver the next day as well. Such a productive taxi ride, after 10 minutes we had a place to stay and a plan for the next day. One thing to keep in mind when traveling to Cuba: People don’t speak English. You don’t need to know a whole lot to get by, but be prepared to know some words. I traveled with a friend who didn’t know a word Spanish, but when you don’t know the language, you pick up on the body language so well! With her body language skills and my poor Spanish skills, we had no problems getting by.
The Casa Particular we ended up staying at was owned by the cutest woman ever, called Elsa. I really recommend this place. We found the location just perfect and it was a nice and clean Casa. We ended up paying 40 CUC for both of us, per night, included breakfast, which means I paid 20 US dollars for one night included a delicious breakfast. The room had a nice double bed, air condition, fridge, safe and a bathroom. Everything we needed to have a great stay.
For our first day we just wanted to get settled in and see Havana. We got our cameras out and started to wander the streets of Havana. It is such an amazing city!
Day 2
Bay of Pigs, Cienfuegos and Trinidad:
We left for Cienfuegos and Trinidad at 7 am. It’s early to get up at 6 AM when you’re on vacation but I was so excited to see more of Cuba, so I didn’t mind at all. It really is possible to see a lot in only four days, if you don’t mind getting up early a day or two. When it comes to what to see in the different areas, the taxi drivers know where to take the tourists. They might also take you to places you’re not that keen on visiting, haha. On our way to Bay of Pigs, our driver stopped by an alligator farm I didn’t have the need to see. My friend though it was fun, so we did it anyway, but if the driver suggest things or just stop different places you’re not that keen on visiting, just say politely “No thank you”. They’ll respect that, even though they will ask you several times just to make sure they understand. A stop I loved, was just a stop by the road to dip our toes in the Caribbean Sea. Look at that turquoise water!
Bay of Pigs was nice. This is the place where the U.S troops invaded Cuba, a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. It’s a nice area, with a museum, a hotel with a beach and some amazing nearby restaurants. The museum is only in Spanish and the entrance fee when we were there was 2 CUC.
Something I really did my best trying to avoid was eating at tourist restaurants. I wanted to eat real, authentic Cuban food but our driver took us to mostly tourist places. And when I’m hungry, I’m an easy component, so we basically lost every time, haha.
Since our driver wanted to show us everything, he also took us to a local beach after our visit to Trinidad. It truly was a Caribbean beach with crystal clear waters. The sun was about to set so it was a perfect place to end the day. The only place we stopped before going back to our Casa was an amazing restaurant to have dinner. We got some really good Cuban food and it was delicious. I was so skeptical about the Caribbean food with rice and beans, but Cuban food is amazing. The rice tastes so much better than “regular rice” and it’s a lot of amazing pulled meat, with delicious spices. You really need to get all the Cuban food possible while you’re there.
Btw, we paid our driver 150 CUC for the entire day, from 7 AM to 11 PM.
Day 3
Havana:
Since day 2 was a long day, we decided to see the rest of Havana on day 3. I’m not a fan when everything gets too touristified but I figured I did need pictures with an old vintage car before I left, so we paid a guy to let us take pictures with his car. We chose to do it outside Hotel Nacional de Cuba but just find a cool spot to take the pictures. They really do come out great. I always tried to get an old vintage car in my photo when I was taking pictures in Havana. They just make the pictures so much cooler!
After walking around and enjoying the beautiful city of Havana, we decided on enjoying the last hour of daylight on the steps of the Capitol. This is something we did our first day in Havana and it became a routine I absolutely loved! The steps are such a nice place to enjoy the atmosphere, observe the city and just relax. This is a must do, and a pro tip: Before sitting down, get some amazing deep fried dough filled with jam from across the street, and enjoy them at the steps.
Day 4
Vinales:
Before going, we wanted to see what the best price for this trip would be. Since it wouldn’t be as much driving as our day 2 and it wouldn’t be that many hours, we were not too satisfied when our regular taxi driver said it would be 150 CUC for that trip a well. I like to get a good price, so we polity said “No thank you” and started to roam the streets, asking several drivers what they would charge. Out of 5 guys, the lowest price was 110 CUC and the guy seemed nice so we wanted to go with him.
It was such a funny car ride. This driver was in his early 30s and a really social, outgoing type of guy. He talked so much even though I struggled to keep a conversation with him. Of course he didn’t mind, he wanted to get to know us and he wanted us to get to know him. It was a Sunday and he had a board wife at home, so we stopped by their place so she could go with us. She was in her early 20s, so when she understood that we didn’t speak that much Spanish and since they didn’t speak any English, she got out a translator program on her phone. It’s so funny meeting the younger generation in countries where there’s a problem with communication. They are really willing to help and find whatever tool they have in hand. There are so many ways to communicate these days! Unfortunately, this translation program wasn’t a great one, so it got back to a week conversation all the way there. It truly is a great way to learn a language, but it also makes you tired after days of trying to pick up the language.
Btw, we left at 9 AM and were back in the city at 7 PM.
