I am a participant in affiliate programs, so basically I earn a small commission if you use any of the affiliate links on this post - at no extra cost to you! Dope right?

Cuba is famous for a lot of things. Go ahead, name 3 things you think of when someone says Cuba. If cigars didn’t immediately pop into your head, then you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. The tobacco for those famous cigars comes from the city of Viñales, in the Pinar del Río Province of Cuba. A lot of people only stay in Havana, which is fine and all, but are you craving something more from Cuba? Allow me to introduce you to Viñales, the perfect country getaway.

I’ll tell you right now, if you’re looking for cigars – go to Viñales. If you’re looking for horseback riding, river boats, rave parties, great food, and #views…yeah, okay, still go to Viñales. AND FOR THE RECORD – I am not a country person. I still had a great time. Let me tell you how you can too!

**for ease of writing, all prices listed are in CUC unless otherwise specified.

Getting to Viñales

Viñales is a couple hours from Havana, making it a good day trip or even an easy second destination for travelers. You can get there a few different ways, but most people either take a taxi, the bus, or a shuttle. Taxis, or any sort of driving in a personal car, will probably take about 2.5 hours. That’s the method I went with because it is the fastest and also least likely for me to end up on the other side of the island by accident. A taxi will probably cost about $70 one way (for the car, not per person).

If you don’t have hookups to your own taxi, you can try to get a Taxi Collectivo, which is literally the SAME DEAL, but you’ll be riding with people you don’t know (so probably still ~$70ish for the car, maybe like $15-20 a person). One way to find them is to go into an Infotur office in Habana Vieja and ask where the pick up spot will be. Or just as your casa host. Or the hotel concierge I guess…but let’s be real, casas are cooler.

The second most common option, and budget friendly, is taking the bus. The travel time will almost double at ~4hours, but tickets run from about $12-$17 a person. The bus leaves twice a day to Viñales (at least the last time I checked).  There is also a shuttle company, Cubanacan Conectando, that will take about the same amount of time at a fraction of the price. But it only runs once a day. I have no experience using the bus or shuttle services though so *shrug emoji*

Activities

Okay, I’m not that good at making Header Titles, BUT YOU GET THE IDEA. You could easily spend a weekend (or even the whole vacation!) in Viñales, but honestly guys, I’m not a country person. I didn’t want to commit to a full four days or whatever and end up hating it. Spoiler, I didn’t hate it. So while this is will be a list of everything I did on a day trip to Viñales, I will also provide other options and activities to do if you want to spend more time in the countryside.

Arrival:

So first thing I did when I arrived in Viñales was stop at this viewpoint. I don’t even know what it was called, but it had a great view of the hills that the Valle de Viñales is famous for. I know, I’m a very useful blogger.

Those of you staying in Viñales longer, I would suggested heading to your casa paticular (I’ll leave a recommendation at the end) to drop off your stuff and settle in for the day. If you’ll be in Viñales the whole weekend, get to know your hosts, check out your neighborhood, maybe grab a bite to eat, and then start exploring. All of my day trippers – you’ll have to get moving right off the bat! There’s a lot of stuff to cover, but it can be done!

To make things easier for you, you can book a tour guide in the main square for the day. Ask if the tours include entrance fees. OR, ask if your taxi driver can take you around for the day, which is easier, but he might not have as in-depth info on Viñales. Or you could book something in advance. Whatever keeps your boat afloat. To be honest – I booked in advance with some rando company I found online andd…it wasn’t THAT GREAT. But it was still averagely good I guess.

First, we went to a cave. The Cueva del Indio. Our tour guide didn’t give us too much info on the cave (my heart cried), but he said that the cave was home to that aboriginal peoples of the region before the arrival of the Spanish. Cueva del Indio is actually the largest network of underground caves in all of Cuba – and all of Latin America too! So that’s pretty cool.

In the front, they had a setup of what life for the Guanajatabey (aboriginal) people might have looked like. Our guide also sometimes used Taino when talking about the indigenous people, but…mm I don’t know if they used those terms interchangeably. If anyone knows, please drop some insight in the comment section!

Yeah, so the actual cave it was pretty dark so none of my pictures looked great. BUT, it’s a decent cave experience. My tour included admission, but if you go solo I think it’s 5cuc (probably under). The coolest part of the cave is the underground river. This was our first stop, so we arrived around 9am on a Wednesday, before any of the tour buses had arrived! Woohoo! So we literally had like a 5 minute wait to get on the boat in the cave. Our guide said that around 11am and weekends, waits can be up to an hour!

The boat ride is pretty chill. Cool structures are pointed out and a few ancient legends are told, as well as a little more info about how long the rivers are and what happens during the wet season. They also pointed out VERY VAGUE formations in the rocks. I think there was a crocodile rock…and some that looked like tobacco leaves…and…yeah that might have been it. Then, you exit the cave out of this little hole, and that’s the end of the ride! It’s pretty short, like 10 minutes maybe. On the way out, you’ll pass some vendors and souvenir booths.

NEXT UP…we went to another cave. I know, there’s A LOT of caves. In fact, I think there’s like…17 REGISTERED caves in Cuba. There’s probably a ton of unnamed caves.  Anyways, yeah, we did another cave. BUT! This one actually turns into a discotheque on the weekends. It is called *drumroll* the Palenque de los Cimarrones! It’s like a museum (more of a living tribute though), to the African influence in Cuba and highlighting the slave resistance in Vueltabajo and Western Cuba.

Mm but like I said before, during the day the cave is more like a museum, but at night it turns into a crazy fun nightclub. But alas, I was there on a weekday morning. If you end up going to the rave in the cave though, let me know how it is!

I plopped down at a table. A waitress offered me a fertility drink, called “Oshún.” She explained that the drink was named after a deity of the Santeria religion. “What’s in it?” I asked, trying to calculate just how fertile this was about to make me.

She said a bunch of things, but my Spanish fruit vocabulary is very limited so I just nodded along like I knew what she said. I think there’s guava in it??? Lol idk man. It’s good though. My tour guide wasn’t drinking, so the waitress asked if I wanted to add some rum to my drink. Considering it was about…10 in the morning, I agreed. The waitress LITERALLY squealed “yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas” as she dumped in the rum. like. Half the bottle. When in Cuba, right?

Sufficiently tipsy, I made my way through the cave. It had a low ceiling, so if you’re a tall person, watch your head. Throughout the cave, there’s a few animal fossils and such – my guide kept joking that they weren’t real so…IDK if they are. But more interesting were statues depicting runaway slaves that would inhabit caves (like this one).

There was a short cultural dance at the end of the cave. I felt weird taking pictures, but there was fire and it was pretty cool. The outside opens to a restaurant inspired by the religion of Santeria. Each little eating area was a different color, representing different deities of Santeria. I didn’t eat there, so I can’t give feedback on the food.

Next on the itinerary was the famous mural thing. It was about 12pm at the time and the sun was basically a blowtorch. The Mural de la Prehistoria is one of the main tourist spots in Viñales. It’s massive. Spoiler: it isn’t actually prehistoric. AT ALL. Fidel commissioned the mural to bring more visitors to Western Cuba. Get this, artists repaint the mural EVERY year to keep its vibrancy.

Honestlyyyyyyyyyyy though, I mean, it’s just a wall. It’s cool I guess but it was hot and all I really wanted was shade. Which brings me to my NEXT POINT. The highlight of the wall was honestly the little pina colada hut right next to the restaurant (so NOT the actual restaurant). I kid you not, IT IS THE BEST PIÑA COLADA YOU WILL EVER HAVE IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFEEEE. 

However, I don’t have any pictures of it because I am a terrible blogger. I apologize for my faults.

Anyways, I’m about 4 rum shots in and I haven’t eaten anything yet. On our way out of the valley, we stopped for one last viewpoint.

Our guide took us to this famous hotel or something. I had literally never even heard or seen of it before, but again, I didn’t research any famous Cuban sights or anything before visiting. The Hotel Los Jazmines. The views at the hotel were pretty dope. Though, tbh I didn’t explore the hotel or pool because the path to the hotel wasn’t shaded. I comfortably stayed on the covered observation deck. There are also lots of shops and souvenir booths here as well.

FINALLY, it was time for lunch. We went to a place called El Paraiso. OKAY NOW THAT IVE DONE RESEARCH – this is NOT the Paraiso that is on everyone else’s travel itineraries. I think this one might be a knock-off or something. There is no amazing view like the other one – BUT IT WAS STILL ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. It’s a small little restaurant run by a family with only a handful of tables, but it was the tastiest ropa vieja that I had on the whole island.

I’m convinced that all the food in Viñales is probably amazing. However, Cuban food can be…interesting as well. If you wanna learn a little more about Cuban food, check out my good pal Cassandra’s post ALL ABOUT IT.

Or, I also have a list of all the best restaurants in Cuba, including Viñales!

And then, the big finale for the day – we took a horseback riding and tobacco farm tour! I’ll save you all the minuet details (for now), but in total the combo tour was 4 hours long. It started with the first leg of the horseback riding trail. If you’ve never rode a horse before, literally, it doesn’t even matter. The horses know the way. The trail will lead you to someone’s farm, where they’ll walk you through their fields, show you a bit about tobacco production. They might even show you about coffee and rum as well, depending what they farm. I’ll do a full blog post on the horseback riding and farm tour later! Then you finish the tour by riding back out. It’s definitely a must-do in Viñales. Another thing with the tobacco tours – if you want to buy cigars, get them in Viñales.

First of all, it’ll be cheaper.

Second, the farmers actually get a bigger cut of the profits. The government owns all the cigar shops in Havana. Plus, you get to practice rolling them! Fun fact : I am terrible at rolling cigars.

THIRD, you’re probably going to end up taking more shots of rum. If you’re lucky, the farmer you visit will be making his signature guava rum and want to down half a bottle with you. Or maybe that’s just me. Did you guys end up drinking your body weight in liquor on your Viñales trip??? Why haven’t I read anyone else getting midday plastered on their tour??

After a very sweaty day in the tobacco fields and riding a very rebellious horse, we went to a swimming hole to end the day. But as it turned out, the swimming hole was all dried up. ;(

So we headed back to Havana.

Staying in Viñales

If you want to stay longer in Viñales, maybe to check out the clubs or visit some of the beautiful cayos, you have a few options. There’s that hotel I mentioned earlier, but I heard it wasn’t too great. As always, I recommend staying in a casa.

You can also book excursions with the fam, so it’s perfect if you’re staying a bit longer! Even salsa lessons! Trust me, you’ll need it for the cave rave. Most of the casas are between 15-30 CUC a night.

Some other things to look into that I didn’t have time for :

• Casa de Caridad Botanical Gardens
• Hiking – bring like…a lot of water
• Ziplining
• Cayo Jutias
• Visit more caves
• Eat at the “real” (aka more known) Finca Agroecologica El Paraiso – there’s an amazing view

So yah – THERE YOU HAVE IT! Whether you just stay for a day, a weekend, or your entire Cuba holiday, I hope you have an amazing time. Do you have any other questions about scenic Viñales?  If you’ve already been, what was your favorite activity? Personally, I’m going back for that Piña Colada. Hollaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~

(psst – if you’re American and need help getting to Cuba in the first place, check out my guide here!). And of course, read up on my interview with a local Cuban where she debunks the most common myths and misconceptions about Cuba!

Sharing is caring!