8 Day Cuba Tour: Trip Itinerary and Inclusions

Start your tour in lively Havana, one of the most intriguing and unique cities in the world! Enjoy the convenience of a pre-arranged arrival transfer to your accommodation for the first night. If you arrive early, you can explore Havana on your own or join a day tour before meeting your group in the evening.

Your accommodation will be in Old Havana, Central Havana or Vedado. The neighbourhoods of Old Havana and Central Havana are where you will experience Cuba at its most intense. Explore narrow streets lined with crumbling buildings, where residents of the city still live. Vedado is another interesting district with lots of restaurants, bars, majestic mansions and historic mafia-built hotels.

In these neighbourhoods, you will find people working, commuting to school, socialising and going about their daily lives. Simply wandering the streets offers new experiences and may raise questions about how Cuba functions as a country.

Top traveller tip: This tour package includes limited time in Havana. If you’d like to see more of Cuba’s capital, we recommend booking an extra night or two before or after the tour. Request the extra nights when you make your booking, or add them up to 30 days in advance of your tour departure date.

Suggested optional activities* in Havana:

• Havana day tours, pre-tour
• Havana short stay package, pre-tour
• Havana Fine Arts Museum
• Tropicana Cabaret
• Buena Vista Social Club

*Note that all Optional Activities incur an additional fee, paid in cash upon arrival in Cuba. All Tour Inclusions are included in this tour’s package price.

Start the day with breakfast at your casa particular guesthouse, and a trip to Havana’s historic centre for a two-hour guided walking tour. Afterwards, we’ll depart Havana and make our way to beautiful Viñales, about a four-hour drive south-west, stopping for lunch en route.

Surrounded by picturesque limestone mountains known as mogotes, the Viñales Valley has a small, culturally rich village at its heart, with a strong tradition of warm hospitality. A welcome escape from the hotter parts of the country, the region is famous for its tobacco and an abundance of seasonal fruit and vegetables such as avocados, mangoes, pineapples, papayas, guavas and several varieties of sweet potato.

Take in the views over the lush valley and sprawling tobacco fields as you walk through the hills with your local guide on a Viñales Valley walking tour. In your evening free time, join the locals at traditional live music and dance venues.

Suggested optional activities in Viñales:

• Tobacco farm visit
• Cooking lesson
• Dinner at an organic farm
• Dance lesson
• Horse riding
• Cave visit
• Hiking
• Cycling

Enjoy a delicious breakfast at your guesthouse, complete with fresh Viñales produce, before departing for the Bay of Pigs and Playa Larga. Our route takes us through the densely vegetated Peninsula de Zapata swamplands to Playa Larga, where you’ll learn about the Bay of Pigs Invasion and see where the counter-revolutionary exile militia landed in 1961. There is a museum here that recounts the events of the conflict that resulted in the first defeat of a US-backed takeover in Latin America.

Weather and time permitting, go swimming or speak with your tour leader about other optional activities.

Suggested optional activities in Playa Larga:

• Snorkelling
• Bay of Pigs Invasion Museum

Indulge in a scrumptious breakfast, then hit the road for Trinidad—one of Cuba’s standout favourite destinations! Along the way, we visit Guanaroca Lagoon, a natural reserve surrounded by mangroves. Rich in biodiversity, this area is a crucial habitat for many endemic and migratory bird species, including large flocks of majestic flamingos between November and April.

On the route to Trinidad, we’ll stop briefly in Cienfuegos so you can see this European colonial hub with a wide Parisian-style boulevard and elegant colonnades. It was here that Cuba’s most celebrated Son singer, Beny Moré, was inspired to write the lyrics ‘Cienfuegos is the city I like best’ in his song Cienfuegos.

Towards the end of the day, we arrive in the impeccably preserved colonial city of Trinidad. Brimming with character, culture and history, Trinidad is also home to intriguing Afro-Cuban religious traditions including Santería. Famous for its nightlife, Trinidad boasts live music venues in outdoor courtyards and within the walls of old colonial ruins, all within a short walk of one another.

Not far from the city is the Valley of Sugar Mills, a sugarcane region with rich, fertile soil and a history of incredible wealth during colonial times. When the weather permits, a 10-minute drive in the opposite direction takes us to the beautiful, calm Caribbean beach of Playa Ancón. Dinner along the coast with sunset views over the ocean is a highlight for travellers!

Suggested optional activities in Trinidad:

• Trinidad day tours
• Snorkelling
• Scuba diving
• Waterfall hike and freshwater swim
• Dance lessons
• Craft market
• Ancon Beach visit
• Visit music venues and bars

Have a tasty breakfast in Trinidad, then depart for your trip to Havana. Along the way we’ll stop in Santa Clara, a key city in the Cuban Revolution! As we drive in, you’ll see the huge statue of Ernesto Ché Guevara, commemorating his death and the revolutionaries who died alongside him in Bolivia. You will also see the mausoleum and museum in Santa Clara dedicated to his remarkable life.

After Santa Clara, we continue our journey back to the spirited streets of Havana and your accommodation. On the last night of the tour, it’s almost time to bid your fellow travellers farewell—an optional delicious group dinner and fun-filled night out awaits!