Varadero
Twenty Kilometres Of White Sand On The Hicacos Peninsula, Holding The Largest Concentration Of Resort Rooms In Cuba And One Of The Largest In The Caribbean · Varadero, Matanzas
Varadero is twenty kilometres of fine white sand on a peninsula pointing north east into the Florida Straits, and it holds the largest concentration of resort rooms in Cuba - somewhere around fifty hotels, most of them all-inclusive, most of their guests Canadian, Russian or European on package flights straight into the local airport. The beach genuinely is excellent: shallow, warm, clean and long enough that even in high season you can walk away from people. The honest part is what it is not. A toll road controls the entrance to the peninsula, the resort strip has little to do with the country around it, and a visitor who never leaves it will go home having seen a Caribbean beach holiday rather than Cuba. The town at the western end is where actual Cubans live and is worth the walk. The sand, at least, is genuinely among the best in the Caribbean and the beach is public along its whole length.
Peninsula de Hicacos, Varadero, Matanzas, Varadero, Matanzas, Cuba
The beach is public along its whole length and open at all hours, including in front of the resorts - Cuban law makes beaches public and this is worth knowing. Resorts run all year. Excursions, the marina and the caves keep daytime hours. Power cuts affect the town more than the large resorts, which generally have generators.