Varadero, Cuba’s Most Famous Resort

We take a bus to Varadero — a resort town stretched along a 10-kilometer strip of beach. For the first time on the trip, we arrive without having booked accommodation in advance.

At the bus station, we expect to be surrounded by locals offering rooms, as has happened elsewhere in Cuba. Instead, only one young woman approaches us. In polite English, she offers accommodation at a reasonable price. We follow her to take a look — and it turns out her family home is just near the bus station and perfectly comfortable.

She immediately tells us that Varadero is different from other Cuban towns. More expensive, certainly — but she says she wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

At the house, we are offered a crab dinner for 15 CUC (about 13 euros). However, right next door there happens to be a perfectly decent restaurant where a full meal costs just 2 CUC. We choose the cheaper option and then head down to the beach a few hundred meters away.

While sitting there, I notice a nearby group speaking English among themselves. One of the local guys climbs a palm tree by the beach and tosses coconuts down. They drill holes into them, pour rum inside, and start drinking.

Suddenly, one of the local girls from the group comes over and offers me the coconut-rum drink as well. I happily accept.

We start talking. It turns out the three foreign women in their group originally come from Turkey, Romania, and the United States — but all now work in Las Vegas as casino dealers. They’re here for a one-week vacation. With them are three locals from Havana. The locals are heading back to the capital that very evening to spend the final days there.

Before leaving, they give me their phone numbers and suggest I call when we return to Havana so we can go out together.

Later that evening, we ask a taxi driver to take us to the liveliest place in town. His suggestion: The Beatles Bar. We had seen a place with the same name earlier in Trinidad. These bars are popular in Cuba partly because The Beatles were once banned here.

Every night, a rock band performs there. But once we arrive, we quickly realize it’s not quite our scene — almost entirely tourists.

Fortunately, nearby we find Calle 62 Snack Bar, where live local music and dance performances are taking place. As is typical in Cuba, the music blends African and Latin influences.

The atmosphere is much more authentic. Both locals and tourists gather there. Many locals stand outside enjoying the free entertainment, and when the band starts playing, they casually step into dance.