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Cuba Varadero Hotels
Varadero Presentation and Overview
Varadero, the Blue Beach of Cuba, about 2 hours by road from Havana or a few minutes by air, is the undisputed tourist capital of Cuba and its most sought-after beach site, featuring almost 20 kilometers of surprising sands and a hotel industry in full development. Green, white and blue are the main components of its beautiful landscape. Internationally known for its transparent seas, where you can walk for meters and meters in soothing shallow waters, it features 23 world-renowned diving areas as well as numerous restaurants, cabarets and nightclubs, bars, facilities for water and land sports, golf courses, and hotels for every taste. Varadero also is the focal point for more than 10 virgin islets and marine floors offering over 40 types of coral, a wide variety of fish, lobsters, shrimp, crabs, sea-tortoises and more than 70 types of mollusks.
Varadero is divided into three distinct sections, though all are united by the same stretch of beach. The bridge from the mainland takes you into the main town area, where all the Cubans live and where nightlife, eating and entertainment are most densely concentrated. The streets here are in blocks, with calles numbering 1 to 65 running the width of the peninsula; dissecting them is Avenida Primera, the only street running the five-kilometre length of the whole town. The two-kilometre section of the peninsula west of the town, separated from the mainland by the Laguna de Paso Malo, is the Reparto Kawama, largely the exclusive domain of hotel guests. The majority of the all-inclusive luxury hotels lie east of the town on a part of the peninsula wholly dedicated to tourism.
Varadero is dominated by tourism and almost nowhere are you out of sight of a hotel. However, anyone hoping for a polished, Disney-style, resort will be disappointed. With hotels, shops and nightclubs spread out across the peninsula, there are areas where activity is more concentrated, but nowhere is there the buzz you might expect from the major holiday resort on the largest Caribbean island. None of this detracts from what most people come here for, namely the beach: a seemingly endless runway of blinding white sand. This is also the best place in Cuba for watersports, scuba diving, fishing and boat trips, with three marinas and two diving clubs offering a wide range of activities.
Varadero is low on sites of cultural or historic interest, and those that do exist are quickly exhausted. Central Varadero, specifically the area between calles 56 and 64, has the highest proportion of things to see, as well as the greatest concentration of shops and restaurants. Detailing the history of Varadero, with rooms on sport and wildlife thrown in for good measure, the Museo Municipal (daily 10am–5pm; US$1), at the beach end of Calle 57, contains exhibits of varying degrees of interest, including some eye-catching photographs of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and their colleague, Camilo Cienfuegos, living it up in Varadero's hotels during the 1960s. Over the road from the grounds of the Museo Municipal is the entrance to Parque Josone (daily noon–midnight; free), sometimes referred to as Retiro Josone, the most tranquil and picturesque spot in central Varadero. The design is simple, with no intricately designed gardens, just sweeping well-kept lawns dotted with trees, and a small lake with its own palm-tree-studded island. There are three restaurants and a cafeteria to help prolong what would otherwise be a short visit.
To the east, about 2km from Central Varadero, is the Dupont Mansion (daily noon–midnight), next door to the Meliá Las Americas hotel. Built in 1926 by the American millionaire Irenee Dupont at a cost of over US$ 700,000, it has hardly changed since Dupont and his family fled the island in 1959, and stands testament to the wealth and decadence of the pre-revolutionary years in Varadero. It was once open to the public as a museum, but these days to appreciate the splendidly furnished rooms you have to eat at the restaurant (see "Eating") or sip a cocktail in the dignified bar, from where there are fine views of the coastline.
At the eastern extreme of the peninsula, three square kilometres of land have avoided development and been declared the Varahicacos Ecological Reserve. Billed by its founders as "the other Varadero", it's the only part of the peninsula where you can experience relatively unspoilt landscapes, with a chance of viewing the flora and fauna up close. The reserve's visitor centre (daily 8am–5pm) is by the side of the road, about a kilometre past the Marina Chapelin. For individuals, the charge for being guided around any of the three set routes is US$2.50–3.50, but you can also arrange tailor-made excursions.
Of course, it's the beach which attracts most attention, a golden carpet of fine sand stretching from one end of Varadero to the other and bathed by placid, emerald-green waters. From the Dupont Mansion to the western tip of Varadero the beach is accessible to anyone, whether a hotel guest or not. There is actually very little to differentiate any one section of this ten-kilometre highway of sand from another, though there tends to be a livelier atmosphere on the stretch between calles 57 and 61, where the Albacora restaurant looks over the beach.
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