Varadero

What’s hitting everyone who arrives in Varadero is how different it seems from what you saw previously during your trip in Cuba. Varadero doesn’t have this soul, this history the Cuban people seems to share. Varadero is a sandbar where all is dedicated to tourism and tourism only. This is an anecdote, but you can see that the municipality enjoys a special legal status regarding tourism with the water flow in the bathrooms. Wherever we went in Cuba, the water flow was really poor – we sometimes waited for 5 or 10 minutes to get a tinny flow in Havana. In Varadero, the water flow is similar to Northern countries.  You don’t go to Varadero for the authentic Cuban lifestyle, as it shines by its absence. But you definitely go there for the beach!

The beach, in the strait of Miami, is the most beautiful one we had in Cuba.

It really worth to go to Varadero if you want to do snorkeling in Cuba and have a relatively low budget which doesn’t allow you to go to Playa Giron in the south. You can go to Playa Coral – by taxi, in 20 kilometers from Varadero. Despite its name, it’s not a beach though but only a snorkeling point with a simple access to the sea.

There is an organized tour of snorkeling, during approximately 45 minutes. A guide rents all the equipment on site, and leads you to the different corals spots in the area.

The snorkeling area is a fish zone as well.

There is a few activities to do in Varadero when there is not too much wind, as skydiving or sailboarding. We chose to do some mini-golf instead, in “El Golfito”, between Avenue 1 and calle 42, with a “Crystal” local beer.

RESTAURANT: La Bodeguita del Medio, between Avenue de la playa and Calle 41, a cool place where the grilled fish is good, and the tags on the walls an usual decoration